Safety Concerns and Potential Side-Effects of Cannabis Medicine

 

Today I am going to speak about some of the safety concerns and potential side-effects of Cannabis Medicine. Please note that I am speaking about full spectrum organic whole plant medicine and not the synthetic cannabinoid products that are up to 800 times stronger than plant medicine and have serious side-effects, fatalities and product recalls.

The truth is that the Cannabis plant is one of the safest plant medicines available today when correctly prescribed … BUT… in today’s post-modernist society I am here to tell you that it is NO LONGER safe to self-medicate with this medicine whether you are using medicinally or recreationally.

It is absolutely imperative that anyone who is wondering whether Cannabis could help them or a loved one, must please consult with someone who has studied the Endocannabinoid System (ECS) and knows how to prescribe this medicine.

The reason why human beings need THC is because it is only the THC molecule that can bind to the ECS receptors to activate the system BUT,,, only teenzy weenzy amounts are required to achieve this. And THC is ONLY found in the Cannabis plant.

So even though this plant is now scientifically implicated in 678 medical conditions including sars virus and Alzeheimers…Medical Doctors are still not being taught about the ECS at medical schools. Fortunately today there are many online courses that offer CPD points to clinicians to encourage them to study the system so that they can confidently advise their patients about dosing and delivery routes.

And when purchasing any Cannabis medicine please insist on a COA, this is the only real way that you can truly know what is actually inside the thousands of products that have popped onto the shelves since 2018.

Doctors and healers need to be aware of what the medical world refers to as the biphasic effect of medicine.

This medical rule is not unique to Cannabis medicine it is a general medical principle that means that high and low doses can have opposite effects. A good example is alcohol, where at first a person seems “stimulated” but after one too many the same person can become sedated…and the same thing can happen with Cannabis Medicine, antibiotics, blood pressure meds and many others, contraception is also a bi and tri-phasic medicine where different effects are experienced at different doses.

Remember that in the 1980’s and early 90’s even, 6% THC was considered high and today we have “over 30’s” clubs, and the average THC readings are around 22% this is more than 3 x stronger than many people are able to cope with, especially Cannabis naïve patients and the elderly

So for example a person who has been using Cannabis for anxiety may now start finding that they are experiencing anxiety instead of calming it, this is because of the biphasic effect where a high THC dose is having the opposite effect. So it is incredibly important to be aware of this and my advice is to seek out strains that do not exceed 15% THC and that is quite high already.

In simple terms today’s high THC strains that contain no CBD are far too strong for most medicinal use. In my book I explain how current breeding practices could ultimately end up out-breeding CBD. Truly I feel that the greatest threat to the plant’s safety margin is man’s quest for the highest THC strains.

Healers and doctors also need to be aware that the ECS controls the human hormone system and in certain types of hormonal cancers one has to be precise with dosing so as to avoid the biphasic effect in respect of THC.

In other words, if your doctor or healer prescribes too high CBD or THC in certain hormonal cancers you could end up feeding the cancer instead of destroying it….I cannot stress the importance of this statement enough…..because most definitely Cannabis does destroy most types of cancer in a number of ways, but the truth is that only minute amounts of THC is required in the presence of the other plant molecules.

Always ask your grower or your healer what the CBD percentage and terpene profile is of your flowers and your oils or tinctures. Very important to ask questions to make informed opinions about your health and happiness.

It is also very important that the person selling you any medical product must do the “Drug to Drug Interaction Checks” for CBD and THC.

I have spent many years helping people to work out dosage on products I did not produce and I see this as a huge concern going forward,  and I urge everyone to ask the oil maker directly what is in the medicine you have bought and always insist on COA.

This is so important… I again cannot stress this enough especially for patients using statins, heart meds, blood pressure meds and blood thinners but also most chronic medications, there are a lot of pharmaceutical interactions that must be considered before administering Cannabinoid Medicine and not everyone today is a candidate for this treatment, largely due to Drug Interactions.

The best strains for the least side effects are the 1:1 strains where the plants have the same % CBD as THC. Doctors I have worked with absolutely love these strains for making medicine because there are hardly any side-effects because of the presence of CBD.

I’m sure by now many people have heard about the “Entourage Effect”…. that means that all of the plants chemicals must be present in order for the medicine to be safe and effective. There are more than 160 cannabinoids and more than 200 terpenes in this plant that offer protection to humans and animals, but these must be present in the plants that are used to make medicine.

My Two Top medical concerns today are adolescent use and pre-existing and undiagnosed mental health conditions.

The truth is that you cannot die from dagga in the same way as alcohol can kill you. According to the WHO Cannabis has a very low addiction rate at 3% where coffee is at 7%, alcohol at 10.2% and tobacco at 30%

We know that in children, under 12 years old there is a biologically built-in defense mechanism known as “Delayed Receptor Expression” that protects small children from the psychoactive effects THC.

You can find my talk on Child Safety on my rumble account where I unpacked 14 scientific facts as evidence to safety of THC in small children.

This means that children over 12 years old are becoming receptive to the effects of THC, and special medical considerations are required in terms of dosing and application when the adolescent might need treatment that targets the ECS. For example refractory epilepsy, asthma and cancer in teenagers.

My biggest concern with teenagers is high THC and the biphasic effect that can lead to psychosis.

In my experience, and there is a lot of scientific evidence that the majority of patients, including young people, with psychosis, suffered with it before they consumed Cannabis. Please know that I absolutely do not condone self-medicating any medicine but especially Cannabis because of today’s high THC strains.

Anyone with pre existing or undiagnosed mental health conditions must stay far away from high THC and seek out plants that are between 6 to 12% THC never higher than 15%. I cannot stress this enough.

The big question is still…. Does dagga damage brain cells????

One of the main functions of THC and the ECS, is neurogenesis, the creation of new brain cells, and many doctors today have witnessed what this plant can do for the human brain especially in children suffering with seizures, spasms and other brain traumas. Most gliomas aka brain tumors respond exceptionally well to properly prescribed THC. Today there is absolutely zero scientific evidence to prove that this plant in any way damages brain cells.

There is a very good biological reason why it is impossible to overdose on this plant

There are ECS receptors on every single cell in the human body EXCEPT for 2 types of cells….. the Cardiac and Respiratory cells in the Medulla Oblongata.

This means that a human being or animal cannot die from a heart attack or stop breathing from consuming Cannabis, and this is  the biological reason why no human being has ever died from plant Cannabis Medicine.

When it comes to plant safety there are a number of reasons for the high safety margin of this plant

It is a scientific fact that Plant THC only acts a partial agonist at the ECS receptors and that CBD naturally calms the effects of THC.

Compared  to synthetic THC products that act as FULL agonists and this is the reason why man-made synthetic and single molecule Cannabis medicine is 800 x stronger and have severe side effects.

You can read all about plant safety in my book but let me explain exactly how CBD mitigates the effects of THC inside the human brain. This is an extract from my clinical practice book.

KEY TAKE-AWAY POINTS:

• CBD can bind to many receptors in the body but it cannot actually bind to the ECS receptors.

• It does however interact with the ECS and there are even CBD ‘docking bays’ on most of cells in the body.

• CBD acts as an antagoninst at the ECS receptors

• CBD can alter the shape of the ECS receptors

Scientists refer to this as “negative allosteric modulation of CB1 & 2 receptors”. The secret is that CBD can actually change the shape of the Cannabis receptors. This, in turn, affects the potency and reduces the effects of THC as it binds with the receptor. [15] (Pertwee, 2008)

Imagine that the surface of the receptor is more or less the same shape as a blood cell like a disc shaped doughnut with a hole in the middle. This hole represents the THC docking bay that requires the THC molecule in order to activate the system and open the receptors.

CBD has the ability to alter the shape of our receptors from a round donut to resemble, say, a sickle or half- moon shape. This then reduces the surface area of the receptor by half and by reducing the surface area of the receptor this reduces the THC uptake, and in turn minimizes the psychedelic effects of the THC (Marzo,et al 2014) [17] (W Jaeger, 2008)

Today, smoking the plant is the least popular way of medicating. We now have so many different products to try but one of the best ways of consuming this plant is in its raw form.

And this is another great way to avoid THC without losing the benefits, because the truth is that there is hardly any THC in the raw plant because the chemicals are still in their “acid versions” and chemically they then have an ‘A’ behind their letters so THC within the raw plant is known as THCA and CBD is CBDA and so on for all the different Phytocannabinoids. The plant terpenes also play a vital role in healing and it is now known that all terpenes are cannabimetic meaning that they have the same healing properties as the cannabinoids. 

There is an amazing study of the cannabinoid acids in the field of Migraines and Nausea where CBDA was 1000 times stronger than CBD and in that same study THCA was 25% stronger than THC.

People are literally healing themselves from cancer by adding raw cannabis plant to their smoothies and I encourage everyone to do this as a preventative measure, like a daily supplement, so that in times of illness your Endocannabinoid System will be able to defend you.

Endocannabinoid Deficiency is now a recognized medical condition and I have seen in my life how so many doctors miss this therapeutic target that can assist humans and animals with 678 medical conditions. That is really something!

In my practice I work with ultra low dosing and the idea is to never let my patients develop a tolerance to THC

As a rule of thumb ….as THC levels increase, dosage should decrease because only minute amounts of THC in the presence of CBD and other plant molecules, is all that is needed to treat most diseases and ailments with zero side-effects.

As mentioned before the only way to assess potency and purity of plant material is to insist on a Certificate of Analysis from a reputable laboratory.

You must always look at the ratios of THC to CBD, A higher ratio of CBD to THC typically means less psycho activity and therefore a lower risk of any side effects. I work on a 15 to 1 ratio in my practice for common ailments like anxiety, depression, insomnia, pain, inflammation, skin conditions and chemo care.

Cannabis is unlike any other medicine we know or have studied before and the truth is that only very low doses are needed to nudge the ECS in the right direction and for your body to start producing enough Endocannabinoids and ECS receptors to start healing.

I have witnessed how often patients on lower doses experience more significant symptom relief, especially for pain and sleep conditions.

And often times when a patient does not achieve efficacy the treatment is actually enhanced by REDUCING the dose instead of increasing the dose and this is very interesting medical response in the majority of people who try ultra low dosing protocols.

So the big question is : “Is Cannabis the be-all and end-all of modern medicine?”

The simple answer is of course NO!

There really are no magical ‘cure-all’ remedies and no one should expect this from the Cannabis plant as there are so many variants at play in disease assessment today especially the uniqueness of the individual ECS.

This is why I urge people to not wait until they or their loved ones are already at the end before thinking about inviting Cannabis into your lives. My whole life people have been coming to me on their deathbeds after the doctor has sent them home and I have seen hundreds if not thousands of stage 4 recoveries In my life, but unfortunately sometimes it is simply too late.

It is never fair to offer false hope but the truth is that for the majority of people who have tried Cannabis, the plant has offered them healing in one way or another.

So my message to everyone today is to be super conscious of Responsible Adult Consumption of THC, as well as harm reduction in our communities.

All Cannabis shops, dispensaries and social clubs have a huge role to play in Harm reduction today and I would love to urge owners of these establishments and anyone thinking of opening a Cannabis business to educate themselves and their staff on the medical aspects of the plant and to be conscious of members who might have pre existing or undiagnosed mental health conditions.

A big part of this social responsibility is to also offer members low THC and 1:1 strains that contain more CBD. It is always a good idea to have pre-rolled CBD flower on offer as well as a high CBD tincture in your first aid kit

Unfortunately today due to politics and economic greed surrounding this plant, one can no longer trust the scientific research online even on Pubmed. There have been recent court cases earlier this year that prove that 94% of funded Cannabis Medicine research is geared to finding harm with the plant. This means that only 6% of funded research is geared to positive outcomes, so you actually have to find someone who knows what they are talking about.

Here in South Africa there is no shortage of Doctors and Healers who have studied the ECS and if anyone needs any help please feel free to contact me directly and I will refer you to a practitioner in your area or assist you myself.