Blue Flower

The CDC Proposed a guideline for Opiate prescriptions for chronic pain and includes provisions for drug testing all pain patients.  You can comment on the proposed guidelines, the comments are open until January 13th.  The following link will bring you to the comment site http://www.regulations.gov/#!submitComment;D=CDC-2015-0112-0001.  Please note that many pain clinics already drug test and remove patients for using marihuana due to pressure from the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency).

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announces the opening of a docket to obtain public comment on the draft CDC Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain (Guideline). The Guideline provides recommendations regarding initiation or continuation of opioids for chronic pain; opioid selection, dosage, duration, follow-up, and discontinuation; and assessment of risk and addressing harms of opioid use. The Guideline is intended to be used by primary care providers (e.g., family physicians or internists) who are treating patients with chronic pain (i.e., pain lasting longer than 3 months or past the time of normal tissue healing) in outpatient settings. The draft Guideline is intended to apply to patients aged 18 years of age or older with chronic pain outside of palliative and end-of-life care. The Guideline is not intended to apply to patients in treatment for active cancer. The Guideline is not a federal regulation; adherence to the Guideline will be voluntary. See more at http://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/prescribing/guideline.html

You can also see the CDC's factsheet at http://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/pdf/guidelines_factsheet-a.pdf

My comment Tracking Number is  1k0-8n9r-i78v, OPN strongly suggest you to add your own comments and encourage CDC to acknowledge mariihuana's positive role in reducing or eliminating the need for opioids in effective pain control.

TEL AVIV, Israel (EuropaWire) In 1964 Professor Raphael Mechoulam was on a public bus carrying 5 kilos of premium Lebanese hashish in a plastic bag to his laboratory at the Weitzmann Institute in Rehovot. That noticeably fragrant bus ride turned out to be a fateful one, as Mechoulam used his haul to discover the psychoactive component in Cannabis, Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). It was a discovery that had eluded scientists for decades. Twenty years later, Mechoulam ascertained that THC interacts with the largest receptor system in the human body, the endocannabinoid system (ECS). He then found that the human brain produces its very own cannabis—a chemical that they named anandamide after the Sanskrit word ananda, “bliss.”   Please see remainder of this article on the CBD Project Website.

Below is an excellent hour long history video by Zack Klein of the work and discoveries concerning Dr. Mechoulam and the Endocannabinoid system.   "The Scientist" is a documentary that traces the story of Nobel price nominee Dr Mechoulam from his early days......as a child of the Holocaust in Bulgaria, through his immigration to Israel, and his career as the chief investigator into the chemistry and biology of the world's most misunderstood plant. Dr. Mechoulam ascertained that THC interacts with the largest receptor system in the human body, the endocannabinoid system (ECS).

Legislative suggestions Ohio Medical Marihuana

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:                                                                                                                       3/17/2016

Press Release Link for PDF copy

 

 

Ohio Patient Network (OPN) makes the following suggestions for potential legislation for the task force & Ohio legislators to consider.  Ohio legislators have a rich source of material to draw from in the LSC historical database.  OPN suggest HB214 from Ohio’s 129th legislative session as an acceptable starting point.

·        Patient self sufficiency

◦     Patients are enabled to grow for self-use, with restrictions from being engaged in commerce

▪     Enable caregiver assistance with reasonable state authorizations

◦     Legal protections for patients, caregiver, suppliers and medical professionals

 

·        Regulated commercial medical supply

◦     Includes quality, safety, testing & compliance mechanisms

◦     Taxes to provide funding for

▪     Commission members and activity

▪     Legal oversight of commerce activity

▪     Supporting Medical Research

 

·        State Commission with regulatory oversight

◦     Suggest appointments made by legal, medical & law enforcement & patient advocates’ organizations.

▪     (Patient, Nurse, Medical, Pharmacy, Law Enforcement, Civil Rights, etc, etc)

◦     Have Legislators & Governor appointed commission members

◦     Have no restrictions on commission memberships

▪     (i.e. political office holder, past felon, etc)

 

·        Establish political Blue Ribbon panel on future of cannabis laws

◦     Reports, studies and recommendation to legislators.

 

Ohio Patient Network contact is Rob Ryan, a three time cancer survivor.

 Office 513-442-4495                                                                     email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

Ohio Medical Marihuana Legislation Suggestions

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:                                                                                                                       3/31/2016

Press Release Link for PDF copy

 

Ohio Patient Network (OPN) makes the following additional legislation for the task force & Ohio legislators to consider.  Previously OPN issued recommendation on 3-17-2016.  The following are more detailed suggestions, OPN still suggest HB214 from Ohio’s 129th legislative session as a starting point.

 

  • Patient self sufficiency

◦     Patients enabled to grow limited amounts for self-use

▪     Restrictions from being engaged in commerce with home grown marihuana

▪     Enable caregiver assistance with reasonable state control & authorization

▪     Patients to have a bone fide relationship with a recommending medical professional

◦     Enable legal protections for patients, caregiver, suppliers and medical professionals

 

  • Regulated commercial medical supply

◦     Include quality, safety, testing & compliance mechanisms

◦     Tax based upon THC percentage to provide funding for

▪     Commission members and activity

▪     Legal oversight of commercial supply chain

▪     Supporting Medical Research

 

  • State Commission with regulatory oversight

◦     Suggest appointments made by legal, medical & law enforcement & patient advocates’ organizations.

▪     (Patient, Nurse, Medical, Pharmacy, Law Enforcement, Civil Rights, etc, etc)

◦     Have Legislators & Governor appointed commission members

◦     Have no restrictions on commission memberships

▪     (i.e. political office holder, past felon, etc)

 

 

  • Remove marihuana from schedule one in Ohio’ controlled substance/drug schedule
  • Enable Ohio medical research organizations to use Ohio grown marijuana
  • Encourage/Utilize banking similar in manner as the State of Vermont has done.
  • Delay infused edibles products for the next General Assembly to detail regulation & laws
  • Establish a political Blue Ribbon panel to look at the future of marihuana/cannabis laws on a variety of potential topics such as hemp, industrial, farming, medical, and driving.

 

Ohio Patient Network contact is Rob Ryan, a three time cancer survivor.

 Office 513-442-4495                                                                     email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

Jerusalem, Israel: The daily, long-term use of cannabis is associated with improved analgesia and reduced opioid use in patients with treatment-resistant chronic pain conditions, according to clinical trial data reported online ahead of print in The Clinical Journal of Pain.

Investigators with Hebrew University in Israel evaluated the use of cannabis on pain in a cohort of 176 patients, each of whom had been previously unresponsive to all conventional pain medications. Subjects inhaled THC-dominant cannabis daily (up to 20 grams per month) for a period of at least six months.

A majority of participants (66 percent) experienced improvement in their pain symptom scores after cannabis therapy, and most reported "robust" improvements in their quality of life. Subjects' overall consumption of opioid drugs declined 44 percent by the end of the trial, and a significant percentage of participants discontinued opioid therapy altogether over the course of the study.

Authors concluded, "In summary, this long-term prospective cohort suggests that cannabis treatment in a mixed group of patients with treatment-resistant chronic pain may result in improved pain, sleep and quality of life outcomes, as well as reduced opioid use."

The Israeli results are similar to those reported in a 2015 Canadian trial which concluded that chronic pain patients who use herbal cannabis daily for one-year experienced reduced discomfort and increased quality of life compared to controls, and did not possess an increased risk of serious side effects.

Separate data published in 2014 in The Journal of the American Medical Association determined that states with medical marijuana laws experience far fewer opiate-related deaths than do states that prohibit the plant. Investigators from the RAND Corporation reported similar findings in 2015, concluding, "States permitting medical marijuana dispensaries experience a relative decrease in both opioid addictions and opioid overdose deaths compared to states that do not." Clinical data published in 2011 in the journal Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics previously reported that the administration of vaporized cannabis "safely augments the analgesic effect of opioids."

A scientific review published earlier this year assessing the clinical use of cannabinoids for pain in over 1,300 subjects concluded, "Overall, the recent literature supports the idea that currently available cannabinoids are modestly effective analgesics that provide a safe, reasonable therapeutic option for managing chronic non-cancer-related pain and possibly cancer-related pain."

Full text of the study, "The effect of medicinal cannabis on pain and quality of life outcomes in chronic pain: A prospective open-label study," appears in The Clinical Journal of Pain.  See the United States Government's  National Center for Biotechnology Information website for the abstract

  1. Marijuana For Chronic Pain Is Safe, Effective
  2. Marijuana Relieves Chronic Pain, Research Shows
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