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Vol. 8, Number 10 October 2016 Contributors: cheryl riley, James Freire, Dr. David Bearman, Gradi Jordan, Ed Glick, Paul Armentano, Keith Stroup Sunil Aggarwal, Julie Godard Al Byrne, Amanda Reiman, Jim Greig, Chip Whitley, Sandee Burbank, Joan Bello Dr. Ethan Russo, Bryan Krumm Richard Miller, Arthur Livermore |
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Eleventh National Clinical Conference on Cannabis Therapeutics May 18-20, 2017 - Mary Lynn Mathre
On May 18-20, 2017, Patients Out of Time will hold The Eleventh National Clinical Conference on Cannabis Therapeutics in beautiful Berkeley, California! The theme for the conference will be, "Cannabis: Protecting Patients and Reducing Harm." At our 2017 conference, faculty from around the world and across the US will present on their state-of-the-art scientific and medical research findings and clinical experiences, as well as cutting edge legal strategies and organizing tactics. While intended for health care professionals, this conference will be of great benefit for patients, legal professionals, and the public who wish to educate themselves about this remarkable plant. Immediately prior to the main conference, on Thursday May 18th, Patients Out of Time will offer continuing education workshops. Over the years our pre-conference workshops have given us the opportunity to partner with other, specialized organizations working on medical cannabis, including Veterans for Medical Cannabis Access, the American Cannabis Nurses Association, and the Society of Cannabis Clinicians. These workshops are suited for people at all levels, from the novice to the most seasoned, and provide training for Physicians & Health Care Providers, Nurses, Attorneys, and Patients. This interdisciplinary event also offers excellent opportunities to network with colleagues, and to review new products, services, and information from our Exhibitors! If you're interested in exhibiting at The Eleventh National Clinical Conference, contact laramie@patientsoutoftime.org. We negotiated an excellent room rate at the DoubleTree by Hilton Berkeley Marina, and we expect rooms to go quickly. Making your reservation using our group discount is easy. Just click here to get started. If you call, the group name is for this conference is: Eleventh National Clinical Conference on Cannabis Therapeutics And our group code is: CAN That code is to be used when making reservations online as well as by phone. The hotel's phone number for reservations is: 800.559.4655 Patients Out of Time is a 501c3 and your contributions are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law, including donation of items for the auction and support for scholarship funds. If you are interested in donating any items for this year's auction, please contact laramie@patientsoutoftime.org. We have also set up a scholarship fund to which you can contribute via paypal. Your donations allow people who have a limited income – including patients, activists, and veterans – to reap the benefits of attending this world-class conference. Members of Patients Out of Time always get advance notice of our upcoming conferences and other events. And members are the first people we'll notify when registration opens up. It's easy to become a member and support the efforts of Patients Out of Time. Just click here. For more information and questions, visit our website or call (434)260-3779. We'll see you in Berkeley this May! Yours, Mary Lynn Mathre, RN, MSN, CARN
General use of cannabis for PTSD Symptoms - Raphael Mechoulam, Ph.D. Dr. Mechoulam is the Israeli scientist who identified THC as the psychoactive compound in marijuana, and decades later he discovered the brain's endocannabinoid system and the endogenous neurotransmitter anandamide. He is one of the most respected Israeli neuroscientists and has been a senior advisor to the Israeli government on marijuana policy and the ethics of research with human subjects. He discussed his experiments demonstrating the neuroprotective effects of the endocannabinoid system in mice that have had traumatic injuries to the brain. He believes the neuroprotective effects of marijuana may eventually have applications for other neurological and psychiatric conditions, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. Another fascinating discovery, one with implications for PTSD, is that the cannabinoid system is integrally related to memory, specifically to memory extinction. Memory extinction is the normal, healthy process of removing associations from stimuli. Dr. Mechoulam explained that an animal which has been administered an electric shock after a certain noise will eventually forget about the shock after the noise appears alone for a few days. Mice without cannabinoid systems simply never forget - they continue to cringe at the noise indefinitely. This has implications for patients with PTSD, who respond to stimuli that remind them of their initial trauma even when it is no longer appropriate. By aiding in memory extinction, marijuana could help patients reduce their association between stimuli (perhaps loud noises or stress) and the traumatic situations in their past. Working with Army psychiatrists, Dr. Mechoulam has obtained the necessary approvals for a study on PTSD in Israeli veterans, and hopes to begin the study soon. The Alternative Medical Journal: General use of cannabis for PTSD Symptoms. Despite the anecdotal evidence to the contrary, most of the experimental studies that have been conducted so far indicate that by and large the administration of exogenous cannabinoids such as vaporizing therapeutic cannabis may not be the most reliable nor effective means of utilizing the eCB system to treat anxiety and aversive memories such as those formed in PTSD. For reliable and truly effective treatment of these conditions it appears that restricting eCB breakdown by way of FAAH inhibition is the best target discovered so far within the eCB system. (The other eCB targets include the two primary receptors CB1/CB2, vanilloid receptors, eCB reuptake, as well as eCB production.) To this end, Kadmus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has started to express serious interest in marketing a new FAAH inhibitor they have developed, currently code-named KDS-4103. KDS-4103 appears to have a lot of potential from a pharmacological perspective. Even though it produces analgesic, anxiolitic, and anti-depressant effects it otherwise does not produce a classic cannabis-like effect profile and animals easily discriminate between THC and KDS-4103. All this indicates that KDS-4103 does not produce a “high†like THC and other direct CB1 agonists. KDS-4103 is orally active in mammals and fails to elicit a systemic toxicity even at repeated dosages of 1,500mg/kg body mass. All other available evidence to date also suggests a very high therapeutic margin for KDS-4103. All in all, considering that the kinds of events which usually precipitate PTSD in most individuals often also involve pain, KDS-4103 seems like it may be just about the perfect medication. So what should all this mean to the individual? Anecdotal evidence says by and large the use of therapeutic cannabis provides a significant improvement in quality of life both for those suffering from this malady and for their family and friends. Whether or not this is taking the fullest advantage possible of the eCB system in the treatment of PTSD is yet to be seen. Mostly the use of cannabis and THC to treat PTSD in humans appears to provide symptomological relief at best. In and of itself, there is nothing wrong with symptomological relief. That's what taking aspirin for a headache, a diuretic for high blood pressure, opiates to control severe pain, or olanzapine for rapid-cycling mania is all about. We do have the potential, however, to do better than just treating symptoms of PTSD via activation of the cannabinoid receptors. With the right combination of extinction/habituation therapy and the judicious administration of a FAAH inhibitor like KDS-4103 we have the potential to actually cure many cases of PTSD. For the time being though, symptomological treatments are all we have for more generalized anxiety and depression disorders. If an individual were to want to get the most out of using therapeutic cannabis to improve a PTSD condition they should try to use low to moderate doses with as stable a blood level as possible for general anxiety and depression symptoms. Oral cannabis produces more stable blood levels. Since peak levels will produce the most soporific effect, administration of oral cannabis right before bed should produce the most benefits for improving sleep patterns. If the goal is to use cannabis to facilitate extinction of the response to PTSD triggers than small to moderate doses of cannabis vapors should be administered shortly before planned exposure to the trigger. A series of regular extinction sessions will produce better results than a single session. If cannabis appears to make aversion, fear, or aversive memories worse then the dosage should be lowered. If feelings of fear do not improve with lower dose then discontinue use of cannabis as fear-extinction aide. In light of all evidence currently available, it is striking that the FDA refuses to investigate cannabinoids for the treatment of anxiety disorders like PTSD yet they have approved studies of MDMA, the club drug Ecstasy, for the treatment of PTSD (Doblin, 2002). Even if you do not accept cannabis as the answer itself, it should be hard to accept that by and large we still have not found effective and reliable ways to utilize the eCB system in modern western medicine. After all, the most potent (meaning it takes the least amount to produce a threshold effect) substance know to humans is not LSD as many still assume but is instead a derivative of fentanyl, know as Carfentanil. The threshold dosages for LSD and Carfentanil are 20-30µg (micrograms) and 1µg, respectively (Wikipedia, 2 & 3). This makes Carfentanil 10,000 times more potent than morphine, 100 times more potent than fentanyl, and 20-30 times more potent than LSD. At least up until 2005 and unlike LSD, Carfentanil was(is?) regulated as a Schedule II substance in the US (Erowid). For those that do not know, this means that despite perceived extreme dangers from use or abuse of this drug it is still assumed to have medical value. With the lives and well being of so many veterans AND private citizens at stake, those in the scientific community and police makers alike cannot afford to miss the wake up call. Even a child should be able to see the hypocrisy evident in the relative policies concerning cannabinoids and opiates. It is time to fix this appalling imbalance in our policies concerning the pharmacopia or else be the laughing stock of future generations.
Alabama: Considering a medical marijuana law.
Arkansas: Considering a medical marijuana law. Florida: Medical marijuana did not pass with 58% support Georgia: Medical marijuana is now partly legal in Georgia Idaho: Considering a medical marijuana law. Indiana: Considering a medical marijuana law. Iowa: Considering a medical marijuana law.
Kansas: Medical marijuana petition drive underway.
Missouri: Considering a medical marijuana law.
North Carolina: Considering a medical marijuana law.
South Carolina: Considering a medical marijuana law. South Dakota: Medical marijuana petition drive underway. Tennessee: Considering a medical marijuana law. Texas: Considering a medical marijuana law.
Wisconsin: Considering a medical marijuana law.
Featured Recipe - Basic Bud Brownies by Jay R. Cavanaugh, PhD
The brownie has to go down in history as the classic Cannabis yummy. Anyone remember "I Love You Alice B. Toklas"? Yikes, we’re showing our age again. During my student days at Berkeley in the 60’s, I was introduced to brownies and chocolate chip cookies that frankly were dreadful. These were the days when one simply dropped half a bag of the local leaf into the brownie mix. Ugh! I know some readers like the taste of Cannabis and while there are some strains that are a bit tasty most Cannabis tastes pretty rotten in an unprocessed state. Patients who require Cannabis food products are often already having a tough time keeping things down so the food should be appetizing, tasty, and go easy on the stomach. Here’s a powerful basic brownie recipe where you won’t be picking stems from your teeth. Proceed with caution. Diabetics beware! Ingredients: Directions: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter and lightly flour dust an eight-inch baking pan. Melt the chocolate and butters together in a saucepan using low heat and constant stirring. Once smooth set the chocolate aside to completely cool. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt into a mixing bowl. In a separate bowl beat the eggs with a mixer while slowly adding the sugar. Mix until clear and pale in color. Pour in the chocolate/butter and vanilla with constant stirring. Slowly blend in the flour and the liquor. Last, but not least, add the nuts. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes (less time is chewier and more time is drier). Heck, some of us just eat the mix. After baking, cool the brownies and cut into 12-16 squares (personally, I like triangles). Each brownie is going to contain approximately 1\4 to 1\3 tablespoon of better bud butter. This is potent. It’s also very delicious. Do not operate heavy machinery or drive. Recommended beverage: Morning time tea or coffee is a great accompaniment. I prefer Earl Grey tea or Guatemalan Antigua coffee. If the brownies are served after dinner, then once again coffee can be served or a desert wine like a good tawny Port. Be careful mixing alcohol with these potent brownies though, it can make ones stomach a bit upset. From this basic recipe you can create literally hundreds of variations. Try glazing the brownies or sprinkling powdered sugar and raspberries on top. |
May 18-20, 2017 Berkeley, California USA
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