I do want to quickly bring into the conversation
the Chief Medical Director of
a medical marijuana clinic, Dr. Bonni Goldstein.
You prescribed medical marijuana and
Dr. Ordon raised some really interesting points of
when might you be able to substitute a more dangerous
medication with one if appropriately prescribed,
marijuana could provide some benefits.
How often are you seeing this in your clinic?
So in my practice, I'm absolutely seeing patients
get off of prescription medications.
Opioids is the number one.
Other pain medications like non-steroidal
anti-inflammatories, anxiety medications,
sleeping pills, for sure.
Also, other things, for some patients they're on
multiple medications for certain conditions
and what's happening is that they're able to
at least, back down to maybe one or two
instead of three or four.
One of my patients even called cannabis the one stop shop
because she was on pain medicine, anxiety medication,
depression medication, and sleeping pills.
And she was able, at the age of 27, she was on all of those
medications and was able to get off.
Specifically in the elderly, I'm just curious,
are there more concerns about say, side effects,
do you have to think about the dosing differently,
if this is something a senior is truly considering?
We have to be very careful with dosing
and the general rule of thumb in the cannabis industry
is start low and go slow.
Start very low dose and titrate up.
But what I also recommend, which many people don't realize,
is that there's a lot of combination products out there that
have both CBD and THC and studies show
that they work better when they're together.
So not all of one or all of the other, and
what happened in California is we kind of went one way
toward the THC as medical cannabis moved on
and now CBD is being reintroduced.
Combination products allow the CBD to buffer a lot of the
unwanted side effects of THC but still help with the
underlying medical condition.
Should seniors who are already on other medications,
are there specific interactions they should be aware of?
Yes, there can be interactions and certainly,
things like blood pressure medication, if you take too much
cannabis on top of your blood pressure medication,
your blood pressure can go down and you are at a risk
of fall, especially if you're getting up out of bed
to use the restroom or something like that.
We also know that blood thinners can interact with
some of these medications and many elderly are on those.
So it's always good if you're on other medication to have a
physician who understands cannabis to at least go over
medications with you so that you can make sure you can
avoid those kinds of interactions.
Let me raise that red flag, because that is the one
concern I had watching this segment.
And my one concern, as I've seen the evolution of
the marijuana industry rapidly growing
over the last few years, it's that I do believe that
marijuana has a valid place in medical treatment.
We will only learn more and more about how to dose,
more doctors will specialize as you do,
but then there's this other side of it
where it's just one big party.
How do we bridge that gap where people, all of us, take
marijuana seriously as a medical treatment?
Well, I think for most people,
if you overdose on cannabis, it's very psychologically
uncomfortable, it's trippy what I call it,
and I tell people, once you do that,
you're never gonna go back there again.
Most people know how much is too much
and they usually figure it out.
But in general, I think that some of the new regulations
coming out are good regulations.
Edibles should not have 1,000 milligrams in them.
It should be limited to a smaller amount because
some people see a candy bar package,
and you even showed it up on your screen,
180 milligrams, that's many many doses for most people,
that is not, and most people see a candy bar and say
"Oh, I'll eat the whole thing,"
So, unfortunately without regulations, it got a little crazy
but I think the regulations are gonna help,
especially with the edibles.
In general, with the other types of compounds
that are out there like topicals, or inhaling,
most people are able to regulate it
and figure out what works best for them.
And I'm glad you said that, because--
Edibles with kids and adults too,
adults like their sweets.
Because you both seem concerned that they were
lowering the dosage amount, but 10 milligrams of THC
is a significant dose for someone who's naive to it.
I mean, I would argue that that's maybe too much,
that's a big dose.
So to me, that's a good development.
And I can tell you expressed some concerns from the elderly
that they were putting that requirement in place.
It sounds like the seniors you were discussing know
how to break it off and save it.
They do, and a lot of them told me
it was trial and error themselves.
So for our viewers, how do they find,
how do your patients find you?
Where do they go for resources on this,
so they can safely think about incorporating this,
if this is something they're open to?
Well most people are going online and looking to see
who might specialize in this.
There's just about a medical cannabis conference
almost every week somewhere in the United States
where you're gonna find doctors
that are learning about this.
It needs to be in the toolbox of every doctor now,
because if you're practicing family practice
and you're writing prescriptions
for all kinds of different medications,
this is just another tool in the toolbox to be able to
talk to your patients about, and again,
doctors are free to talk to their patients
about medical cannabis as long as
they don't misrepresent anything.
I think many doctors think they'll put their license
at risk if they talk to their patients about this,
but they will not.
We are free to speak about it with our patients.
I will say, Leslie, you've outdone yourself.
This is...
(audience applauds
It's fascinating, we all learned so much.
Of all the investigations you've done,
this was the highlight.
