A CBD or Cannabidiol Diet
Many have written about the anorectic effect of CBD. i.e., just as THC increases our appetite, as in the munchies, CBD suppresses our appetite. Personally, I wanted to lose a few more pounds and started using either the rich cbd tinctures or oral cbd. Both effectively kill our appetite.
Now, there is one huge exception to this, but it is not a problem but another blessing. There are many patients out there who have difficulty eating due to a high anxiety state – head spinning. For these patients, when their anxiety and that vague sick feeling in their chest goes away with CBD administration, their appetite very soon increases and their anxiety pretty much vanishes.
So, it seems that THC is a better appetite stimulant in many of the Cancer and HIV patients, but we must ask in detail about the appetite issue as well as the patients emotional state before a physician can decide which approach to try first.
What A Mess, What Should The Pro-Cannabis Physician Do?
It really is a mess out there.
1.State law and Federal laws are different.
2.Laws are enforced differently inside California depending upon the usual rational bases such as:
-Skin color
-Skin Color
-Skin Color
-The local cop
-Every zip code is different
-Most cops don’t know or don’t care
-DA’s, assistant DA’s don’t know the law or just don’t care
-Every storefront gives the patient different advise and patients are generally just lost
-Doctors and corporations charging $30 for Recs is like going back to gas prices at a buck
-Patients have no idea of what is available or possible so the $30 is fine
-Doctors are mostly paid by corporations, not physicians, so the quality is corporate
We have patients without the ability to get any information and often times the information they receive is so wrong it hurts them. Anyone who has been a “stoner” for 40 years becomes an expert solely based upon how many years they have been getting stoned. So, who are the experts?
-Lawyers
-DA’s
-Growers
-Storefront employees are always a source of brilliant information as well. NOT!
What is really crazy, I mean totally nuts/gonzo, is that the system works best for the “folks” who just want to be able to legally and socially smoke weed. Period. As this represents probably 80% or more of total Physician and Collective visits, anything we say or do really does not truly matter much, as folks are getting their weed, going home and smoking it alone or with friends….i.e. social or recreational cannabis which is quite cool.
Of course I would much rather see these folks not needing to see any physician and just smoke if they want it. Nothing more and nothing less. The patients are quite happy. Their physician visit cost $30, took just 5 minutes and the patient can often just walk next door or upstairs. The only decision is how to smoke it and who to smoke it with. Pretty cool and very simple…..THIS IS SOCIAL OR RECREATIONAL CANNABIS AND IS AWESOME AND OF COURSE NEEDS TO BE FINALLY LEGALIZED.
So, just for arguments sake, let’s say that the other 20% or so are the “real” patients. We all know who these people are when we walk into a dispensary; we also can generally see who the less ill patients are. I KNOW THAT LOOKS CAN BE DECEIVING, but we all know most of the clubs are catering to young people.
On my birthday a couple of weeks ago, I went to Venice Beach and got two recommendations from two of the “kush doctor” places. It was of course pathetic, but quite fun to be “undercover”. The most important thing I experienced was that there were not just kids getting Recs; there were plenty of people in their 40′s to 60′s. These patients, at least to my quick glance, were “real” and seemed at a glance, REALLY SICK. They received NO information and of course just think smoking and maybe vaping is the answer. God forbid they get edibles, as one of the docs I saw, told me that edibles were harmless and that I didn’t need to worry…..I could eat to my hearts content. This doc also thought that a vaporizer is a steam pot 1/2 filled with water. You heat the water, drop in the cannabis and presto, place a towel over your head and you are there. UNBELIEVABLE!!
So, this brings me to the main point of my blog/article, what are Physicians to do with the REAL SICK PATIENTS??? Having docs who know nothing is dangerous. Without any help, an elderly person can easily get into deep trouble downing a full edible. The idea of DOSABLE CANNABIS MEDICINE, is not ever mentioned. Frankly, I am not certain anyone else even uses these words.
I hate to say it, but in my experience, there are only a handful of physicians in California who have even heard of CBD/Cannabidiol and if you brought up Terpenes, well you might as well just light a fatty, sit back and relax. Save your breath.
I know for a fact that very few physicians are aware of ANY of the science out there. I doubt more than a few ever read any scientific articles on cannabis.
Don’t you want your doctor and not your pharmacy picking your blood pressure medication or antibiotics? At the same time, we accept that the collectives are in charge, that they always know best and to top it off, we are told as Physicians that we “can’t” educate our patients as that is federal “aiding and abetting”. If, as physicians, we are really frightened to “aid and abet”, why do we even give Recommendations; that has always been odd to me. Every doc that signs a Recommendation is clearly helping/aiding a person/patient obtain cannabis. Although the Recommendation is just a “suggestion”, it does empower the patient to obtain the evil weed. I don’t see the difference and frankly I think most physicians just use this excuse to cover up the fact that in truth, they have no good advise or information and this is where the problem gets tricky.
If we really get true legalization, the social cannabis use will remain social and not involve any physician. Don’t you agree, we can get stoned without a doctor’s note?
But what if the patient is really ill? What if one of these physicians received a referral from another open minded physician to try help out the patient using cannabis as everything else has failed. If this referring physician learns that his/her patient was not helped but just told to go smoke or vape and eat edibles carefully, we have a very significant professional disconnect.
However, what if the referring physician finds out that the cannabis doc was able to explain dosable cannabis medication and all the advantages of both dosing and CBD to his patient. And, what if, the patient, with the help of BOTH DOCTORS finds that Dosable Cannabis workING great and the patient is able to get off 75% of their narcotics in a few weeks? Well, then either the cannabis doc gets a bunch more referrals, or sometimes, the referring doc gets trained by the Cannabis Physician and begins doing the Recommendations on his/her own patients. The referring doc knows that if he/she gets “stuck” that the cannabis specialist is always there to help. Doesn’t this begin to sound like real medicine??? SO:
WHAT SHOULD CANNABIS PHYSICIANS DO ABOUT THIS GROUP OF REAL PATIENTS
We are now speaking to a much smaller group than we began with. 20% or less of the total cannabis patients are now looking for real help. Most of them do not want to smoke, at least in my experience. They have mood disorders, sleep disorders, pain syndromes, neurological disorders, cancer, HIV, etc etc. and are looking for something that they can use in a safe, predictable manner. They should be able to know precisely the effects of any cannabis medicine. The goals of cannabis medicine and traditional medicine must be identical; the physician must do what he feels is the correct/best choice for his patient – regardless of the law. Now, I am not talking about having any greedy doc who breaks the law and sells “medicine” that has no value and is not supported by any mainstream medical group. With dosable cannabis, it is nothing new. It is in six countries around the world and just about to land on our shores and come down from Canada.
PHARMACEUTICAL CANNABIS MEDICATIONS ARE HERE AND PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES WANT IT ALL. It has become undeniable when you consider the patents, re-scheduling, grow licenses, etc. So, a pro cannabis physician is clearly not on shaky grounds, such as with Laetrile or other hair brained treatments. Cannabis medication is real, it is ancient and it is currently pharmaceutical in six countries; it is no longer really cutting edge. Sativex, has been around and in clinical trials for 14 years!! Let’s wake up??
Although the patient’s cannabis visit may represent “free speech” on the part of the physician, our oath dictates that we help the patient to the best of our ability, and herein lies the rub. The cat is out of the bag…for well over a decade. Every physician writing recommendations and helping patients, should/must know about dosing and should/must support ALL PHYSICIANS DEMANDING DOSABLE MEDICATIONS. How can we do any less and even take ourselves seriously?
If a professional cannabis specialist sees a patient and the patient has anxiety or pain, giving the patient options and instructions as to what dose of which medication is good for them. It is just good medicine. Don’t we do this for all of our patients? Why should it be different here? Is there some reason for treating our mainstream vs cannabis patients differently? Who ever heard of something so crazy. Our hippocratic oath forbids this. Our Oath, in any version you read, clearly states the physician is to treat and heal the patient to the best of his ability and use all his knowledge and available resources. How did it happen that our Oath, respected by everyone, was handed over to the feds and corporations? Shouldn’t we as physicians fight this? Stop this? What do patients EXPECT? If a doc is familiar, as all should be by now, with the new era of dosable cannabis meds and does not help his patient, he has violated his oath. Not to be overly morose, but at the bottom line, all these physicians are echoing a tragic but familiar statement:
“I was just doing what I was supposed to do”.
Both my parents are concentration camp survivors. They personally saw physicians torturing and experimenting on other “patients”. Why? Of course because their government said that was the correct thing to do. I admit this is extreme, but in fact, they are not so different. If physicians continue to jump and bark at the behest of the government, then we should stop using the Hippocratic oath at Medical School Graduation; it has become useless and physicians are allowing it. So, again, what should pro cannabis do.
The Cannabis Physician should:
1. Become knowledgeable (the docs in the “know” should help these other docs pull their act
together. At the very least for the Venice Beach types, LETS GIVE THEM FREE EDUCATION AND
spiff up their ability to help patients.
2. I don’t think we can achieve success by forcing these folks to do CME, but we can
in many simple ways, make their patients’ experiences much improved.
3. In addition to educating our own patients as well as helping other docs, we need to reach out
to the mainstream physician community. This is only possible when the cannabis physician
knows more than the other docs and is able to explain dosable medication to these physicians.
Cannabis Physicians need to:
-learn about cannabis medicine – read, take classes, go to meetings.
-learn about dosable products and non-smoking alternatives other than vaping
-know the law inside and out and help guide the patient in this area when necessary
-The cannabis physician should contact the patient in a few days after the visit to review
what is going on with the patient and adjust the dosable medicine as required.
Cannabis Physicians as a group need to:
1. Know about which dosable options are out there
2. Cannabis Physicians should attempt to work together with the goals of:
a. certifying laboratories
b. certifying growers and growing
c. certifying quality dosable cannabis medications
d. continue AS A GROUP, to define the rules and how they should be followed
e. making certain their patients can obtain CBD rich cannabis medications
f. HELPING CHANGE THE RULES TO WHERE THE PHYSICIANS BOTH KNOW WHICH MEDS ARE BEST
AND WHEN THEY SPEAK WITH COLLECTIVES THE PHYSICIANS DECIDE WHAT IS
AVAILABLE. PHYSICIANS AND NOT STOREFRONTS SHOULD DECIDE THE MEDICINE. RIGHT?
So, in closing, once the 80% or so of “non-patients” leave the system, any cannabis physician remaining, will survive and thrive if they really know what is possible today and what might be possible tomorrow.
Great CBD Effects Without Tinctures or Dosing
As much as I am always speaking about dosing, I have recently come upon a situation where perhaps dosing is not as critical. I still always prefer to know precisely what is being given or taken, but here is what happened this AM.
I woke up and was considering whether to medicate or not. I have a number of options, so it is always fun to wake up and reflect upon what to do next. Last night, I obtained some CBD Rich flowers. Most will be turned into Dosable Tinctures and capsules, but this time when I took a sample for lab testing at The WercShop, I took a bit a smoked it; yes, I know vaping is cleaner and I suggest using one. Anyway, it is three hours later and I still have the typical CBD effect I generally obtain strictly from dosed tinctures.
Perhaps as dosable CBD becomes more and more available, this will not be an issue, but for now and for a time to come, we should all consider having some CBD rich flowers in our cannabis medicine chest. Lasts longer and no psycho-activity. Working great for my knee and back pain. Ask your local store for CBD flowers until they have the dosable tinctures.
UK Patient Can’t Afford Sativex
Here is a recent email I received from a patient in England with Multiple Sclerosis who can’t get Sativex
Here is a comment from a guy in England:
Dear Dr. Frankle,
I live in the UK and have MS. I am aware of Sativex and how it might help me, but the cost here in England is 150 pounds or around $300 every two weeks. This is $600/month!!!! I don’t know how anyone with MS or any other serious disease can pay for this – AND it is not covered by our our National Health Plan, which is generally the best.
So, only the few rich patients with MS can be treated here. Does not feel like National Health!!??!!
I am getting desperate and have been following your blog and work with Cannabidiol. I, myself, am a chemist professionally, so I am even more frustrated.
Is there any way for me to obtain any of the CBD Rich extractions you are familiar with in California? Can I order them online? Do you have a phone number or website?
I hope you can help me, as my muscle spasms and burning pain are bringing me to the edge and I am scared.
BT
What Cannabis Medications Should Be In Dispensaries?
When you go to your primary care physician, he/she may give you a prescription for a specific medicine or two. This is either communicated to the pharmacy by phone, fax, paper or electronically. However, in every case, it is the physician, not the pharmacist, who must decide what medication is best for the patient.
The pharmacies work with the pharmaceuticals to help teach physicians about their own products. I am certain many docs are swayed by attractive drug reps, but regardless, it is, in the end, the physician who decides what the patient should have. Once the physician is writing orders for this new medication or any other medication, the local pharmacy stores are certain to have it in stock to sell to the physicians’ patients. If one pharmacy store does not carry the medicine, the patient goes to a different store; they don’t generally just get some substitute.
In the cannabis world, everything is backwards and physicians are in fact discouraged to help to their patients find the best medicine for them. This is ridiculous. Nearly every patient wants and is entitled to guidance by their physician. I won’t tell a patient where to get some “great OG Kush”, because that is not my business. However, when it comes to dosable medicines and there are just a small number of stores carrying the medicine, I will give patients a list of a number of stores.
Very soon this will no longer be necessary, as the Projectcbd.org site is listing providers of CBD Rich Medicines. So, we are now beginning to tell patients to go to http://projectcbd.org and look through the “Provider” section to find a store near you.
The medicine you use should, in my opinion, be certified to actually be organic and to contain the stated amount of cannabis medicine. If it does on a consistant basis, we will be sure they are listed on projectcbd.org as well. The other caveat is that a product that is > 60% alcohol, will not be certified by the current scientific team.
How Did I Get Into This Crazy Business
I have practiced Internal Medicine in the Santa Monica area for 33 years. I was trained at UCLA and remained on their clinical faculty for 17 years until politics intervened.
Despite being raised in the 60’s in Northern California, I never actually tried cannabis personally until I became ill 10 years ago with a cardiomyopathy. My own patients for whom I had written some of the very early cannabis “prescriptions” came to my home and performed a “reverse intervention”. They stayed with me for some weeks, threw away some of my “heart meds” and started me on cannabis at very high doses.
I continued to see my physicians, but of course never said I had altered my meds nor that I had started using a “lot of pot”; although I think they knew. :)
Anyway, one year after being told I would need a heart transplant, I was feeling pretty much back to normal. Soon thereafter, I healed completely and my heart function is normal today. I am not saying the cannabis did this. I know it certainly didn’t hurt and it may very well have played a role in many ways; that is why we need to study it more.
While healing, I designed and built a software system, called ChartScape, that ran the UCLA Bowyer clinic chemotherapy ordering for 9 years. It was just replaced by EPOCH. Sixteen years ago, I designed E-‐Script, the e-‐prescription software that was used by many Kaiser hospitals and recently also replaced by EPOCH.
Back to Medical Cannabis: In mid 2005, I started reading about CBD/Cannabidiol, and that the Feds had patented it in 2003. I began attending conferences and reading what was available with regard to CBD. In 2006, I began working as an Internist who was very active in cannabis research and patient care. It was a 6 year process to come to the place where we are able to reasonably control CBD strains of cannabis and have been improving a CO2 extracted CBD rich Tincture and oral preparation.
These dosable cannabis medications are critical if cannabis is to be seriously considered by the mainstream healthcare system. Smoking and edibles are just a mess and inefficient and certainly not dosable nor particularly healthy. Vaporizing does clean up the tars, but is of no help with dosing and is very short lived.
Beginning 3 years ago, with the launch of http://projectcbd.org, the hunt for CBD genetics began in earnest. I have been involved since the start and have worked with the folks at “Project CBD” and continue to work with them on a daily basis.
My primary goal from 30,000 feet is for medical cannabis, in dosable forms, to be recommended by mainstream physicians. To this end, I have been very involved with a very small group of physicians approved to give physcian CME credits.
I have been a lecturing physician to other healthcare professionals teaching them that in fact dosable and CBD based cannabis medicines are available in the community. I support their giving out the paper “recommendations” and helping their patients obtain dosable medications. Without the dosed meds, the mainstream physicians will never come onboard. With CBD being so huge, this should/could happen sooner.
As the impetus intensified for http://statewidecollective.org, a group of us launched http://certifiedcannabismedicine.com. This site is a statement as to what the medicine is all about. It lays out the framework for what in fact medication certification should be. I talk a lot about these and other issues at http://greenbridgemed.com and while you are at it, check out http://cbd4me.com.
I am not certain that any of the current storefront dispensaries actually operate anything close to what the Compassionate Use Act intended. I am yet to see a collective who only distributes to it’s members’ cannabis products grown, transported and tested all within the collective. The storefronts are scary to many and rarely offer dosable cannabis medications.
So, to enable the legal purification of the cannabis products as well as making them all dosable, setting up a collective was mandatory. There are no “business to business” operations allowed in the Medical Cannabis world. We all elected to setup http://statewidecollectiv.org, as the nonprofit, mutual benefits corporate collective. In addition, we are wrapping a StateWide Community around the collective, which will allow membership, group health insurance, super pac, cannabis cruise lines, etc etc.

All growers inside SWC grow only for patients inside SWC. Period. There are some collectives, mid-‐teens, that are now joining SWC to enable the legal “barter” of excess tincture beyond what SWC requires for it’s own members.
I envision mainstream physicians coming onboard. In fact this is rapidly happening. Three such physicians are Dr. Christine Paoletti, my office associate, Dr. Sheldon Jordan, a nationally renown neurologist, Dr. Robert Gerner, an internationally reknown psycho-pharmacologist and many others. They all are happy to use their names openly and send me patients for trials on CBD.
I am expanding GreenBridge Medical to incorporate other offices in the state. We just completed this with four offices with more on the way. My main interest in this is to really help SWC expand and become both the protection and the provider that we all need now and may need a LOT MORE in the near future.
I see our certified site, clinical medical site, collective site and medicine site, all coming together to allow hundreds of thousands of California patients grow, share and process cannabis medicines in a professional and compassionate manner.
Read the rest of this entry »
CBD and AA
I have been posting on AA and cannabis for a couple of years. The goal was to get a weekly group together where cannabis patients could openly speak about their using cannabis in a harm reduction manner, but as we all know, have to lie at their meetings. Personally, I believe this is not fair, but I just had a thought; perhaps a “compromise”.
The issue, I believe, that AA has with cannabis, is that the AA member using cannabis will have a mind altering state. There is merit in that argument.
So, how about a rich CBD medicine for these patients? There is no psycho-activity and will only benefit those with real anxiety/pain/etc.
CBD Rich Medicines for Alcoholics Anonymous. Hmmm.
Simpson Oil. Cancer Cure??
I just received this email from a patient, responded to her and decided to post my feelings on the “Simpson Oil”. I know this may not be popular, but here is the patient question and my response:
PATIENT:
Dr. Frankel, I was wondering if you did any research on rick simpson’s hemp oil . I read so much good things but never from local doctors around here. Thank you
My Response:
I have had a number of contacts with this product and have sadly watched nearly a dozen patients die while using the oil. I am not saying the oil hurt them in any way, but it certainly didn’t help them. I can’t even say they felt better and there were a few patients who sacrificed the cannabis they loved and had felt better with.
I am saying that it has frankly never made sense to me that this should be a “cure for cancer”. The majority of people making this form of hash, which is all that it is, somehow believe they are creating an anti cancer product and are now even making claims – at times – that it is the CBD, or cannabidiol, in the oil that is helping the cancer.
I have had it tested a number of times to confirm, but there is no CBD in any production oil I have tested. The products I have seen are so rough that testing and even using the very gooey stuff is impossible.
For this reason, I would rather see a patient take a lot of CBD directly through a tincture, spend the same money perhaps, but end up with at least a product that is being supported in part by the National Cancer Institute.
I do not like to see the “Simpson” oil climb on the back of CBD, as ultimately, at least in my opinion, the Simpson Oil Will be shown not be very helpful. Of course I could be wrong, but for now, this is my position. Again, I am a huge fan of CBD and have encouraged some patients to use larger mg of CBD for their cancer; here I still feel on shaky grounds, but at least am following the mainstream science.
So, there. That is a whole lot more than I thought I would write. I think I will just go ahead and turn this into a blog.
What About A Sustained Release CBD Preparation?
I have been discussing a new potential CBD delivery method with members of our science team, YES, we actually have a science team. Did you really think I had done all this myself? Anyway, We will be announcing the team in the very near future.
Although I love tinctures and dosable cannabis medicine, I have been working with a couple of our chemists on a method to place some fixed dose of CBD/THC/Terpenes into a capsule that is stable.
We have experimented with all sorts of capsules but when you have terpenes and true whole plant present, the caps always ultimately melt. Yes, we have tried Bovine.
Working with the team, we have devised a method by which to desiccate the extract and place it into the capsules as a slightly moist powder.
So, consider the following:
1. A caplet that contains perhaps 10 mg of CBD and 5 mg THC in an oral preparation
2. As we are well aware, CBD delays the excretion of THC by 4-5X and CBD has a long duration of
action to begin with
3. In an oral form, the first pass through the liver will hydroxylate the CBD and the THC which
then increases the duration by another 4 fold.
So, would a once a day capsule work? Once every two days for pain/anxiety?
Extended Release Capsules where our bodies perform all the magic without the help of plastic, etc
Don’t you love it?
Some CBD Patient Testimonials
Good, Dr. Frankel–yesterday afternoon I had a bit of euphoria and sleepiness, but I noticed a reduction in my visceral sensitivity almost immediately, was able to eat two meals without nausea or vomiting; also my sense of taste seems less finicky. I’m pleased and excited and so is Kate (my wife). HG
Hey sorry I didn’t send this yesterday, but here is a followup about my experience with the tincture
4pm – I took the tincture and felt effects during our consultation. The sensory pain I feel on my skin was completely gone and the muscle pain/tightness in my forearm muscles was greatly reduced. I noticed this especially during my usual stretch routine.
4:45pm – drive home went fine. Still feeling great!
8:30pm – sustained relief through the afternoon and I did not medicate again. I started lifting weights and the pain returned (normal even when medicating)
thanks again! CH
I’m just getting over being sick for 3 weeks (I ran out and wasn’t able to go out for more) but can finally pick some up tomorrow. I definitely missed it.
The CBD was great. I still had pain but it was just sort of there – I almost went without taking any norco the few days I used it.
It really helped my stress reaction and I even managed to fall asleep without pills one night (I did wake up a few hours later in pain). I had to take a higher dose, but I feel like it has huge potential to help me cut down on the many medications I’ve been taking (Ambien, Adderral, Klonopin, Norco among others).
Anyway, Thanks so much for seeing me and I’d love to keep in touch about this. It’s difficult for me to type much but I live in the neighborhood, so I’m happy to come by and discuss sometime. With all the stuff I have going on, my body has become like my personal research project :) NG
Dr. Frankel,
Thank you, after one day the CBD has not only alleviated my anxiety, but also has relieved my joint pain/inflammation. My knees are now safe from threat of pain, inflammation, and you (since I emailed you like you asked)
I will send an update on how my treatment is going next week. Thanks again, hope all is well. JT
I acquired a small bottle of CBD from a dispensary and have been using a half dropper dose on a daily regimen. Administering just around dinner time.
I’m finding this to be a much more effective way to dose the medication as the dips and valleys of administering the medication have all but disappeared. There is a steady through line which I noticed on my first day which lasted well past 6 hours.
Being one who primarily seeks relief for sleep, I will have to report back once I’ve had a week or so under my belt to see just how this treatment affects my ability to quickly drop off to sleep.
Thus far I am very impressed with the CBD Tincture as it is very calming and doesn’t have the side affect of nervousness or anxious thoughts which smoking can some times result in. OS
Hey Allen,
I don’t believe I spelled tinkture correctly, but interesting feedback.
It helped me not crave a cigarette for a long time, in fact I lit a
cigarette and threw it away 1/2 done when I got home from your office.
Not sure if there is a correlation there, but found it very
interesting.
Thanks!
Hi Dr. Frankel,
Sorry it’s taken so long to respond – I try to avoid the computer with all my joint stuff but I’m happy to discuss or even come by sometime – I live closeby : )
The CBD was great. I still had pain but it was just sort of there – I almost went without taking any norco the few days I used it. It really helped my stress reaction and I even managed to fall asleep without pills one night (I did wake up a few hours later in pain) and I did feel like I needed to up the dose or play around with complementary herbs. It did upset my stomach a bit (Mark said the same thing), but for me it was worth it.
Now if I can just find some more in stock! I’m curious if the benefits will increase with continued use. Anyway, Thanks so much for seeing me and I’d love to keep in touch about this. With all the stuff I have going on, my body has become like my personal research project :)
take care. NG
Hello! HE has been good all day!!! I just gave him his nighttime dose. I am hoping we have another night of sleep.
THANK YOU SO MUCH!
Best, GG
Hi. He slept!!! Thank you SO much!!!
Throughout the day had an amazing meal, didn’t worry about my ankle at all. There was no pain: when I went to class I watched the little mermaid and still didn’t have any pain. My body had the symptoms of being high without the head trip and they visual qualities of being high. I like this stuff.
P.S.
Told you I’d email.
MANY MORE TO COME, Allan
Best,
What Dose Tylenol or Advil Did You Just Take?
I am certain that when all of you take a pill, whether by prescription or OTC, you know what dose it is. You know that a 500 mg Tylenol is different than one at 325 mg. You know what dose your thyroid is and you know that if you take too little or too much, things don’t work quite as well. Your dose of Insulin can be life saving or threatening. Cardiac meds? Blood Pressure meds? On and on.
We have come to count on dosing and dosing schedules. How much and how often to medicate? Will two puffs every 3 hours work? What’s the strain? Are you sure? Indoor or outdoor? Organic? Every puff is different. Do you use matches or a lighter?
The same goes for vaporizing; although you avoid the tar, your dosing is no different.
So, we need dosable cannabis medications. Right? We need to know how much of what cannabinoids and ultimately terpenes we need for our specific problem and how often to take them. So, what do we need to be able to accomplish this:
1. organic and measured cannabis plants
2. organic and predictable extraction methods
3. creating a dosable tincture, or drops under the tongue
So, when we smoke, vape or use edibles, we rarely, if ever, know what we are medicating with. Not a bad thing necessarily with social or recreational cannabis, but for medical cannabis, that is the name of the game: DOSABLE CANNABIS MEDICATIONS
Cannabis Appears To Cause The “Placebo Effect”
We all have experienced the “placebo effect”. It has been very clear to me practicing as a physician for over 33 years that the placebo effect is something we all count on. In the past, and still to some who live in the past, this placebo effect meant that the patient did not have anything real; i.e. if they respond to the sugar pill, they are faking it. Well, this has been shown to be false for years, but we still have not had much of a clear idea as to how the placebo effect worked.
Well, in a recent report, it seems that at least in a number of situations, it is the endocannabinoid system that responds and releases Anandamide and other internal “cannabis” molecules that we ourselves make.
So, “POT” is always making us feel better. I KNEW IT!! :)
Alcohol Extraction of Cannabis
I have been asked a number of times about the issue with using alcohol as an extracting compound.
There is no marijuana-specific law re: alcohol, but instead a general Penal Code statute that criminalizes the use of “chemical processes” (the wording may vary slightly) in the production/manufacture of any illegal drug. When the California Legislature created the medical marijuana exceptions to other drug-related statutes (e.g. cultivation, possession), it did not include an exception to this statute. As a result, any extraction process with a solvent other than water is technically a problem.”
In many/most herbal medications, using alcohol is not an issue as they are “legal”, while cannabis is not considered legal.
I am, in fact, additionally concerned about using alcohol from a “judicial” perspective when/if any of us are called to the mat by authorities for “manufacturing” medicines. If we are using the same standards as the pharmaceutical industry, i.e. co2 extraction, we can argue a much, much better case than using alcohol.
The entire issue with “manufacturing” which IS BEING PROSECUTED, is going to be a much tougher sell with alcohol; it just will be.
Finally, 70% alcohol should just not be a part of any medicine. With a tincture that is nearly 60-70% alcohol, a dropper-full taken under the tongue, or sublingually, will give you a feeling of being slightly intoxicated from ALCOHOL. Also, your breath smells like alcohol.
Finally, although in theory a fine extracting solution, I have yet to see a CBD tincture that truly measures out to be 10 mg/cc. I have purchased many and tested them all……still waiting