Cannabis and Late-Stage Dementia: Promising Research
A pioneering study, led by the University of Exeter, is trying to determine the potential benefits of cannabis-based medicine for people living with late-stage dementia.
It is a timely research since cases of dementia are rising exponentially across the globe, and it has more than 55 million victims globally. Late dementia has severe symptoms like aggression, agitation, and hallucinations that may upset both patients and their families.
These symptoms are currently treated with antipsychotic medication. However, these medications have serious side effects, including increasing the risk of falls, strokes, and even death in elderly patients. With this in mind, the Exeter study investigates if cannabis-based medicines, especially those containing cannabidiol (CBD), may be not only safer but also more effective.
This is a study design with a rigorous measurement of symptoms and quality of life in patients undergoing cannabis therapy.
The investigators will be looking for a change in agitation, sleeping, and stress on the caregiver and are hoping for proof that cannabis can help improve general patient welfare. This study will also look at how CBD impacts the brain of dementia patients.
This research is all the more important because it forms part of a broader movement in discovering kind, patient-centered ways of caring for individuals with dementia. By addressing late-stage symptoms, it is potentially opening the way to an entire new generation of treatments focused on quality of life.
If successful, the findings have the potential to support clinical guidelines and widen the application of cannabis-based medications in geriatric practice. With the world’s population continuing to age, projects like this have the real potential to ease some of the most difficult symptoms of dementia care.
Source: Leafie
Cannabis Legalization and Declining Teen Use
A new, in-depth report by the Marijuana Policy Project finds that states that have legalized cannabis for adult use are seeing significant declines in teen use rates.
The findings run counter to the decades-old fear that legalization would be followed by an increase in cannabis use among teens and suggest that regulated markets may have a suppressive effect.
These findings are according to surveys in legal cannabis states such as Colorado, Washington, and Oregon, where recreational cannabis has been available for a number of years. All of the surveys reached the same conclusion: teenage cannabis use has stayed the same or fallen after legalization.
In Colorado, for instance, where cannabis was legalized in 2014, high school students who said they used cannabis in the last month fell from 22% to 19% in recent years.
Researchers point to a number of regulated market-specific factors as accounting for this trend. Licensed dispensaries have to adhere to strict age restrictions that keep people underage from accessing cannabis products.
Legalization has also cut into the illicit markets that do not ask for identification and put fewer controls on product safety.
Despite these positive findings, critics argue that additional longitudinal studies are needed to confirm these trends and identify the long-term implications of legalization.
Critics of legalization have often raised concerns about the normalization of cannabis use because they think that it could inadvertently encourage experimentation among younger users.
To supporters, however, it represents vindication of the arguments in its favour: prohibition does not limit access nor avert harm, say supporters, and legalization at least allows for the hope of accountability and public health interventions.
And as more states and countries consider reforming their cannabis laws, the correlation of legalization to a decline in teen use is an interesting dynamic in the ongoing debate about the social ramifications of cannabis policy.
Source: MPP
Cannabis as an Alternative to Opioids
A study in Human Psychopharmacology looks at cannabis as a path toward overcoming opioid addiction-a public health crisis that has cost the world thousands of lives.
Scientists investigated whether cannabis may be prescribed as an adjunctive therapy, especially for patients with chronic pain who are susceptible to opioid addiction.
Evidence shows that cannabis plays a dual role in pain relief and harm reduction. Patients who had added cannabis into their regimen had reduced opioid cravings; hence, cannabis could become a way to detoxify people from addictive drugs.
The action of cannabis on the human body’s endocannabinoid system confers additional benefits not provided by opioids. Cannabis relieves pain and inflammation without exposing people to the dangers of respiratory depression, overdose, and high addiction potential related to opioids.
Of particular importance from the research is that the major psychoactive constituent of Cannabis sativa, THC, acts on opioid receptors in the brain, which similarly modulates pain perception with opioids without most of the adverse side effects. The second constituent of cannabis, CBD, is known not to be psychotropic, yet active in alleviating anxiety and withdrawal symptoms, further supporting its application in the recovery processes.
These findings reflect anecdotal reports by patients who have used cannabis to reduce opioid intake. Scientists do note, however, that cannabis is not some kind of silver bullet.
Dosage, strain, and people’s responses to cannabis all hold significant keys to its efficacy. In addition, regulatory hurdles and associated stigma continue to impede access to cannabis treatments across most of the world.
Given that opioid addiction remains a worldwide problem, the findings in this study add to an emerging body of evidence that cannabis is a less addictive, possibly safer alternative for analgesia.
As medical professionals and policymakers balance responses to the opioid crisis, they could increasingly turn to cannabis as part of an integrated response to the crisis while providing more sustainable pain-relieving options for patients.
Source: Wiley
Post-Surgical Pain Relief and Cannabis
Recently, the Journal of Surgical and Experimental Orthopaedics conducted detailed research on the utilization of cannabis for post-surgery pain management and thereby contributed to the mounting evidence of the suitability of cannabis as an alternative to opioids.
It details the results of the patients who have taken cannabis products after going through major surgeries with considerable reductions in pain and traditional painkiller usage.
The therapy involved patients with orthopedic surgeries, in which the pain after surgery is often acute and may be prolonged. According to the findings, the patients found that cannabis helped them reduce their pain, minimize swellings, and significantly ease the post-trauma recovery process. Compared to opioids, where there is also an aspect of addiction, cannabis had been less addictive or dangerous as medication to reduce pain.
One of the striking observations was the diversity of cannabis products used. Patients experimented with different types, including oils, edibles, and topicals that could be made to suit individual preferences for pain management. Such options are particularly desirable for patients seeking non-invasive modes of relief.
The research also looked into cannabis as a mood and sleep enhancer in recovery, these are some of the critical elements of recovery.
As cannabis allows patients sleep more by minimizing pain and anxiety it is likely to have led to shorter recovery periods.
The study recognised, however, that the shortcomings were product quality and dosing inconsistencies.
Standardised regimens on the use of cannabis in post-operative treatment have not yet been done, and more clinical trials are needed to determine the optimal regimens.
Source: The Journal of Southeast Asian Orthopaedics
Trump Pardons Silk Road Operator Ross Ulbricht
President Donald Trump has granted clemency in a contentious action to Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road, an infamous anonymous marketplace that heralded the beginning of the dark web as we know it.
The controversial sentence commutation was in one of Trump’s final waves of pardons and has sparked debate over drug policy and criminal justice reform.
Ross Ulbricht-a.k.a. “Dread Pirate Roberts”-the operator of the Silk Road, received two life sentences without parole in 2015 on charges of money laundering, computer hacking and conspiracy to traffic drugs. According to research, small quantities of cannabis were the most common items dealt on Silk Road.
Prosecutors argued that Ulbricht facilitated a huge network of drug transactions, one that was outside the law and morality.
Critics of his sentencing, however, said that it was too harsh, noting that Ulbricht himself did not sell drugs but simply made the site available for transactions.
Proponents view the pardon as a way to correct the disparities that have long characterized sentencing within the US criminal justice system.
They look at the sentence on Ulbricht as symbolic of overreach by the system where similar cases have received considerably lighter sentences.
Yet critics see the pardon as trivializing drug offenses and sending a mixed message on accountability.
Supporters have donated more than $270k towards Ross’s expenses.
Source: CoinTelegraph
