The central issue of what should be the concentration or the total amount of delta-9 THC and other medical phytocannabinoids for medicinal uses has been examined by many. The correct way to answer this question is based on published case studies, existing cannabis medications, and peer-reviewed scientific and clinical sources (Cannabinoid Pharmaceuticals). At the same time, thousands of years of medicinal cannabis use and millions of practice-based evidence/cases cannot be ignored, or brushed under the rug as inconsequential. For this we need to educate each other and get well informed about the potential benefits and harms of cannabis and cannabinoids.
In a common scenario, when we find ourselves at the doctor’s office, we often take their drug prescriptions and recommendations for granted. We rarely ask about long-term effects of these drugs or question the prescribed concentration. In majority of the cases, drug prescriptions are targeting the symptoms and, in more complicated problems and hard-to-treat diseases, are prescribed on a trial-and-error basis. When a physician sees a positive response without significant side effects, the dose maybe increased to achieve the most effective treatment. However, if significant side effects are noted, the drug concentration is either being reduced, or the physician seeks an alternative drug. For untreatable disorders for example, failures of conventional drugs to control given syndromes can lead to prescriptions of cocktails of drugs, or invasive treatments, like chemo, radiation therapy, electrode implants, and/or surgery; and, of course, alternative and natural treatments. As such, when recommending percentage of medicinal THC, the doctor-patient treatment paradigm should not be any different.
“To achieve significant medicinal effects by cannabis, it should be cannabinoid-educated physicians that determine the amount, regime, and intake method of THC and other cannabinoids…”
Just like pharmaceutical preparations, the chemical composition and purity of cannabis preparations should be available to physicians and patients. Medicinal cannabis treatment and dose/response assessment can be viewed as a cooperative project between physician and patient. Intra-individual and inter-individual differences are inevitable in patients’ responses to cannabis treatments and will be tracked by the recommending physicians. To achieve significant medicinal effects by cannabis, it should be cannabinoid-educated physicians that determine the amount, regime, and intake method of THC and other cannabinoids; with patients’ informed consent and possible side effect disclosures.
Most physicians are advised to recommend lower doses of any drug, including medical THC(A) and other phytocannabinoids. Depending on the results with a given patient, the doctor can then determine the safest and most effective preparation, dosage and way of intake (vaporization, oil, suppository, etc.). Cannabis treatments should be done on an individualized basis - patient by patient and syndrome by syndrome. Some humans have high endocannabinoid system tones and higher tolerance for psychotropic molecules (The Endocannabinoid System). On the other hand, tolerance can develop quickly, requiring increases in level of THC to maintain its medicinal effectiveness. If patients taking higher levels of THC experience unwanted psychotropic side effects, this could be corrected by the recommending physicians having specific knowledge of the cannabinoid molecules and their interactions. Most importantly, when considering harm versus benefit, or harm reduction, we should remember that there are no reported deaths from cannabis overdoses, presenting significantly less risk to patients over some of the existing pharmaceutical drugs (ex. - opioids).
What is your confidence level at accepting certain dosages of THC and CBD from a cannabis physician? Would you still view it differently from the other drugs that you may pick up at the pharmacy? What is your threshold for accepting medicine as cannabis (CannaMedicine Threshold)?
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