Meds Cannabis vs Prescription Drugs

[Baron23]

@momofthegoons @CarolKing

In my state's fledgling MMJ program, the bud tenders are useless. Trust me, regularly attending members of this and "the other" board know way the hell more than the counter clerks I have run into and, to tell the truth, I'd rather that then for them to have pretensions of actual medical knowledge (again, they are basically counter help).

The quality of our MMJ is going up rapidly but its all still a bit on the dry side. Selection is expanding, trimming looks much better, and at least one vertically integrated grow/dispensary was open with me and told me that they cured for 4 weeks which is better than some of the stuff that first came out.

Now, it cost me $250 for my initial Dr visit to get certified, its only good for a year and renews are $150, I bought a MJ ID card which is good for two years (yeah, I know...certs only good for a year and card for two??) which the state charges $50 for (a**holes that they are) but its really not needed. I can just go to the state's cannabis program site and print out a copy of my approved cert. Once presented to a dispensary, from that point onward all you need to do is show a Govt ID (drivers license will do) as they have to look you up in the state's database each time anyway to ensure your cert is indeed current.

The price for certs is going down...."clinics", which I view as more cert mills, are popping up but the fee is still always going to be over $100...really $150 is probably the minimum you will find. But I like my Doc, she is very active at the political level in my state also on MJ issues, and I don't get the feeling that she's just popping out certs for bucks.

I do remember the long ago days when there were methadone clinics in Wash, DC. Junkies would be lined up down the block with cash in hand and these two "clinics" were just pumping out the Tang. Went on for years before they got shut down. While I'm a big rec legal now supporter, I really don't like to see fake "clinics" and certs issued for hangnails, if you get my meaning. I think it just undermines the medical aspect of our program...but I would never point to someone and say that they don't deserve their med rec. Who am I to do such a thing. But I suspect that if every swinging you-know-what starts getting med recs, I'm afraid the state may step in and tighten requirements.

Just speculating, however.

Cheers

 

[Vicki]

Trump said he wants to give the death penalty to drug dealers. Are these two at the top of his list?

**I have to pay a MMJ doctor $169 every 7 months, and $75 to the state yearly.

 

[momofthegoons]

Now, it cost me $250 for my initial Dr visit to get certified, its only good for a year and renews are $150,

Wow... that seems on the high end.

I neglected to mention that I am supposed to go in for a 're-visit' with the certification doctor a year after certification to 'see how the meds are helping me.' That costs an additional $100. So my fee's for a two year certification total $285.00.

Are these two at the top of his list?

 

[Shredder]

A medical mj certification costs us $150 up here, but a free follow up by snail mail. And like Mom said $60 to the state, and as a caregiver I pay the caregiver fee for my patients.

That I had permanate conditions but still need yearly visits for legal other than medical reasons is crazy. Just a hoop to jump nothing more.

I hear ya on the opiate thing Mom. I just had to find a new pc cause mine left the area. My new pc told me today that soon even more draconian rules are coming on their end, and he is planning to not prescribe opiates at all. When I asked about patients he said he will refer to pain clinics. Quite a system, eh?

 

[CarolKing]

I guess I should have phrased it better above. Don’t get me wrong I love the variety and the really great bud out there. I just feel the medical patient hasn’t been served well among the legal cannabis. The bud is $10-12 per gram and 1/8s are around $35-42 for top shelf. I think it’s a bit high for the medical patients, they use more cannabis usually.

 

[YaMon]

There isnt good advise coming from bud tenders regarding medical cannabis because they don’t know anything.

Sounds like the strip mall eye doctor I have to go see now that my insurance does not cover the guy I've been seeing for years. The profits are benefitting the corporate world and it could be argued benefitting you and your investments, but at what cost to the people? Fuck the fast food business model!

I dread the fact that I'm going to be needing opiates in the near future for surgery.

Oh man sorry to heat about the pending surgery. I've been fighting of a Lumbar Fusion, doc says I am just tearing fibers and that if I wait things will change. As the fusion has no guarantees except that I'll likely have problems down the road I am doing my best to medicate and wait, which makes my current t-break intolerable. Good luck @momofthegoons !

 

[ataxian]

Sounds like the strip mall eye doctor I have to go see now that my insurance does not cover the guy I've been seeing for years. The profits are benefitting the corporate world and it could be argued benefitting you and your investments, but at what cost to the people? Fuck the fast food business model!



Oh man sorry to heat about the pending surgery. I've been fighting of a Lumbar Fusion, doc says I am just tearing fibers and that if I wait things will change. As the fusion has no guarantees except that I'll likely have problems down the road I am doing my best to medicate and wait, which makes my current t-break intolerable. Good luck @momofthegoons !

I don't get it?
Why would youtake a T-Break?
I would die from one!

 

[YaMon]

@ataxian unfortunately I still have to work to pay the bills, support my VAS, GAS and afford some product. That said I'm interviewing on a new opportunity. The upside is vivid dreams and when I come back a reset of my tolerance.

 

[ataxian]

@ataxian unfortunately I still have to work to pay the bills, support my VAS, GAS and afford some product. That said I'm interviewing on a new opportunity. The upside is vivid dreams and when I come back a reset of my tolerance.

I love you like a Brother!

I'm a goof off! (I mean no harm)
I worked since I was 9 year's old and retired at 52.
Some start later and finish/retire later?

We have a disconnect GENERALLY however were from the same TRIBE!
Good LUCK/KARMA/WFYPT = Whatever FLOAT'S your pool toy? (TEXT STYLE)

 

[YaMon]

Perhaps if I cut out the regular stretches to Jamaica I could have retired at 52, but I am guessing I have at least another 8 yrs. If they ever drop Schedule I, I'll happily work with what I love.

 

[Shredder]

Perhaps if I cut out the regular stretches to Jamaica I could have retired at 52, but I am guessing I have at least another 8 yrs. If they ever drop Schedule I, I happily work with what I love.

Gotta tell ya, retirement is a good gig! Left gainful employment in 04, at 49 yr of age, so I've adjusted pretty well, lol.

 

[ataxian]

Perhaps if I cut out the regular stretches to Jamaica I could have retired at 52, but I am guessing I have at least another 8 yrs. If they ever drop Schedule I, I'll happily work with what I love.

I went to that part of the PLANET back in the MID 90's.

If I had to rate CANNABIS:

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA (BIAS)
HAWAII
SOUTH AFRICA
THAILAND
INDIA
AFGHANISTAN (before they were invaded)
TAHITI
CENTRAL AMERICA
MEXICO
JAMACIA
SOUTH AMERICA I can't rate (too busy)
That is my order of strain's I like!

In EUROPE the experience was not that great accept AMSTERDAM (HOLLAND) WHITE WIDOW very well grown.
In FRANCE I learned to drink wine instead. (mixing cig's & CANNABIS seemed gross?)

 

[YaMon]

There's plenty of brick weed in Jamaica and very little worth going for the herb alone, it's the whole package.. the herb, the food, the blue waters of the Caribbean sea and most of all the people. Music is a given, but unless you are going to Kingston the good music is traveling out of country to where the money is... If I could stay at a boutique hotel along the coast of Cali and have similar experiences I'd do so in a heart beat. Irie! -YaMon

Edit: Btw, there is no fucking Schedule I in Jamaica, while not legal, it is nothing you will get hassled about. I have four vaporizers there!

 

[ataxian]

There's plenty of brick weed in Jamaica and very little worth going for the herb alone, it's the whole package.. the herb, the food, the blue waters of the Caribbean sea and most of all the people. Music is a given, but unless you are going to Kingston the good music is traveling out of country to where the money is... If I could stay at a boutique hotel along the coast of Cali and have similar experiences I'd do so in a heart beat. Irie! -YaMon

Edit: Btw, there is no fucking Schedule I in Jamaica, while not legal, it is nothing you will get hassled about. I have four vaporizers there!

I was a grower back in the 70's & a SURFER (rode waves)
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA is the BEST 2 me.
DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE maybe?

MY EXPERIENCE is my EXPERIENCE.

The GIRL'S R tall in the CARIBBEAN. (that is true really)

 

[deep_meditation]

@momofthegoons @CarolKing

While I'm a big rec legal now supporter, I really don't like to see fake "clinics" and certs issued for hangnails, if you get my meaning. I think it just undermines the medical aspect of our program...but I would never point to someone and say that they don't deserve their med rec. Who am I to do such a thing. But I suspect that if every swinging you-know-what starts getting med recs, I'm afraid the state may step in and tighten requirements.

Just speculating, however.

Cheers

It's sort of that way where I live. Dispensaries and medical professionals or just "recommenders" were getting tangled up together.... not sure if that's still going on but it might be.

 

[YaMon]

MY EXPERIENCE is my EXPERIENCE.

I was not attempting to minimize, refute or otherwise your experience. I'm no troll. What I was trying to share is why we go and our experience. I've met a lot of people who have a very negative view of the island. Definitely not a place to go surfing., there is no surf.

 

[ataxian]

I was not attempting to minimize, refute or otherwise your experience. I'm no troll. What I was trying to share is why we go and our experience. I've met a lot of people who have a very negative view of the island. Definitely not a place to go surfing., there is no surf.

It's all good = IAG

I'm more a PACIFIC OCEAN DUDE = POD

Whatever SEA is your HOME = WSIYH

CANNABIS GROW's EVERYWHERE= CGE
Grow GRAPE'S for WINE or CANNABIS in a PLACE U call HOME.


Sorry I am a HYPOCRITE like most of us on da PALE BLUE DOT in a FAR CORNER of the UNIVERSE!

All we need is LOVE = AWNIL

 

[momofthegoons]

This is going to be aired this weekend..... for those who might be interested.

CNN Special Reports

April 18th, 2018
A CNN SPECIAL REPORT: Dr. Sanjay Gupta WEED 4: Pot Vs Pills
(April 18, 2018) Politicians promise to lead the country out of the worst drug crisis in its history, but opioid abuse continues to kill Americans in record numbers. Are our leaders ignoring a lifesaving solution? Over 115 Americans die every day from opioid overdoses, more than those killed in car accidents, from breast cancer or even guns. Nearly 2.5 million Americans struggle with opioid addiction, and though controversial, some people believe a potentially lifesaving solution may lie in medical marijuana. In the fourth installment of his groundbreaking series, CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta takes an in-depth look at marijuana’s potential as both an alternative to opioids in treating pain and in ending opioid addiction. WEED 4: POT VERSUS PILLS will air on CNN, Sunday, April 29th at 8pm ET.

In the special, Gupta meets pioneers in the field of pain management as well as addiction research who believe that marijuana is the next best hope for treating both. He also speaks with those who have struggled with addiction including an exclusive interview with NFL running back Mike James. In 2013 James suffered a devastating leg injury during a Monday night football game. He was given opioids after surgery to treat his pain, and months later he found himself addicted. Scared and worried, his wife suggested he try marijuana, a drug that is banned by the NFL and could cost any player their careers. Today, James is making history as the first player to file for a therapeutic use exemption for cannabis with the NFL.

Many states have begun to take steps toward cannabis as a possible alternative in stopping the opioid crisis that has crippled their areas. Gupta visits Maine where lawmakers and residents are committed to cannabis as a way to get people off opioids. He speaks with a woman who is opening a rehab center where she will use cannabis to wean patients off of opioids. He also talks with several state legislators who are working to change the laws and allow those addicted to have access to medical marijuana.

As the state of Maine looks to cannabis as a possible solution, many lawmakers, as well as Attorney General Jeff Sessions, continue to fight changing the scheduling of marijuana, which would allow for further access and research. Gupta delves into the history of how marijuana became a Schedule I drug, considered equal to heroin, LSD and ecstasy, while cocaine, methamphetamines, and many opioids including OxyContin, fentanyl, Dilaudid and Vicodin are Schedule II drugs. He talks to several advocates and critics about research behind their positions.

WEED 4: POT VS PILLS will stream live for subscribers on Sunday April 29th via CNNgo (at CNN.com/go and via CNNgo apps for Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire, Samsung Smart TV and Android TV) and on the CNN mobile apps for iOS and Android. The documentary will also be available the day after the broadcast premiere on demand via cable/satellite systems, CNNgo platforms and CNN mobile apps. Weed 1-3 is now also available for subscribers via CNNgo (at CNN.com/go and via CNNgo apps for Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire, Samsung Smart TV and Android TV) and on the CNN mobile apps for iOS and Android.

 

[momofthegoons]

While this article is not about cannabis, with the new findings on how cannabis can destroy cancer cells, it does show the stark contrast between pharma drugs and cannabis as a treatment.

Opiate Painkillers May Encourage Spread Of Cancer

New research from the US adds weight to the growing body of evidence that opiate-based painkillers like morphine, which has been used to treat postoperative and chronic cancer pain for two hundred years, encourage cancer cells to grow and spread. If confirmed with clinical studies, these findings could change the type of anasthetics given to cancer patients during surgery and the type of painkillers they use afterwards.

Two new studies, presented last week at the "Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics" meeting in Boston, Massachusetts, held by the American Association for Cancer Research, the National Cancer Institute, and the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer, showed how shielding lung cancer cells from opiates reduced cell proliferation, invasion and migration in cell cultures and in mice.

The studies were the work of Dr Patrick A Singleton, principal author of both studies and assistant professor of medicine at the University of Chicago Medical Center, and colleagues.

The idea that opiates may play a role in cancer spread and recurrence has been gaining ground since 2002 when a palliative care trial showed that patients given spinal rather than systemic pain relief lived longer, the researchers told the press.

Soon after that trial, a colleague of Singleton's, anesthesiologist Jonathan Moss, observed that patients who were given a selective opiate blocker in a compassionate-use protocol lived longer than doctors had expected.

And more recently, two retrospective studies showed that breast and prostate cancer patients who were given regional rather than general anesthesia had fewer recurrences.

Singleton said the two new studies point to the mu opiate receptor, where morphine works, as a potential therapeutic target.

He told the press that:

"If confirmed clinically, this could change how we do surgical anesthesia for our cancer patients."

He said the findings also suggest potential new uses for a new type of drug that blocks the receptor.

Moss had been treating his patients with methylnaltrexone MNTX, a modification of a drug that blocked morphine so it could not get through the protective barrier that surrounds the brain.

MNTX was developed in the 1980s by the late University of Chicago pharmacologist Leon Goldberg to treat opiate-induced constipation. The drug blocks the side effects of morphine without interfering with its ability to reduce pain.

Moss recalled that the patients had advanced cancer and an estimated life expectancy of up to two months, "yet several lived for another five or six".

"It made us wonder whether this was just a consequence of better GI [gastrointestinal] function or could there possibly be an effect on the tumors," he added.

Thus with other colleagues at the University of Chicago, Singleton and Moss started to look at the peripheral effects of opiates and how to block them.

Lab studies show that morphine directly boosts tumor cell proliferation and inhibits immune response.

Singleton, Moss and colleagues found that opiates also made it easier for tumors to invade new tissue and spread and establish themselves in new locations by stimulating angiogenesis (the growth of new blood vessels) and decreasing barrier function (natural resistance presented by structures like the endothelium, the lining of blood vessel walls).

For the two studies, they focused on the mu opiate receptor as a regulator of tumor growth and spread and examined the ability of MNTX to regulate these effects.

They used two different models of of non-small cell lung cancer and showed that MNTX inhibited the tumor-promoting effects of opiates.

In one study, they used bronchioloalveolar carcinoma cells and showed that MNTX blocked cancer-promoting signals and stopped tumor cell proliferation and migration.

In the other study they used Lewis lung carcinoma cells and showed that mice bred without the mu opiate receptor did not develop the tumors that normal mice did when injected with the cancer cells.

They also went on to show that MNTX reduced proliferation of cancer cells by 90 percent in normal mice and stopped invasion in cell culture and tumor growth and spread in mice.

As a result of the second study, the researchers concluded that MNTX reduced the ability of the opioid receptor to stimulate growth, angiogenesis and spread of the Lewis lung cancer tumor.

They suggest that if their observations are confirmed clinically, this may have a profound effect on the type of anasthetic cancer patients should be given during surgery and the type of painkillers they receive afterwards.

Source: University of Chicago Medical Cente

 

[Shredder]

Thanks for posting this Mom. It sure is an eye opener......