DEAN BECKER: This is Cultural Baggage, I’m DeanBecker reporting from Denver and the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws 40th Conference. That is, indeed, Ziggy Marley that you hear in the background, the featured musical act of the first night of the conference.
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DEAN BECKER: I’m with the chairman of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, Mr. Steve Dillon. How are you, sir?
STEVE DILLON: I’m fine. Glad to be here.
DEAN BECKER: Steve, this is a very optimistic crowd, very energetic crowd, are they not?
STEVE DILLON: Absolutely, they’re very enthusiastic because they know they’re hearing about freedom and what’s right and they’re with like-minded people and there’s 500 of us, almost, out here. Just giving each other support for an issue we love and believe in.
DEAN BECKER: And the word is that it is legalized. We hearing not just medical marijuana but several states are pushing that effort and likely to succeed. What do you think?
STEVE DILLON: Well, overall we’re making great progress in lots of areas. More and more medical states but the latest focus, as Keith Stroup was saying this morning in his speech, we should focus more on what we really want. And what we really want is safe, affordable, reliable, accessible marijuana. And we should be able to grow it and possess it and use it and casually distribute it just like the Schaffer Commission reported in the ‘70s and as we know to be what should happen.
The current federal law, decrim bill next year, talks about possibly allowing the states to decide – a states’ rights approach to legalization of marijuana. Let each state decide just like on the alcohol model. Whether to tax it and regulate it or have dry counties or whatever. And certainly that’s a different approach, and I’m all for different change. Especially any change that goes to the idea that of legal marijuana. It simply is time that we look at that issue straight ahead, honestly, transparently. Let’s tell the people what we really want. What we want is legal marijuana.
DEAN BECKER: Steve, this is the 40th anniversary of NORML. It’s also, coincidentally, the 40th anniversary of Nixon’s declaration of this war on drugs. It’s time and so many ways to reexamine it. As you indicated, the Schaffer report called it the safest therapeutic agent known to man.
STEVE DILLON: Actually that was Francis Young and the 1988 DEA report. After 15 years of study, the DEA judge, Administrative Judge Francis Young, made a finding about cannabis and marijuana and said that it is, indeed, the safest, non-therapeutic substance known to man and recommended that, certainly, we not criminalize the substance and allow it to expand in use in medicine. And that was in ’88. The Schafer commission was back in the ‘70s.
But there’s literally hundreds and hundreds of reports throughout history that support the idea that marijuana has benefit as a medicine, has benefit as a recreational drug, as a religious sacrament and many, many other uses. The point is we should be able to use the plant any way we want as long as we do it in a responsible manner.
I’m a Libertarian. I believe I can swing my fist in any direction as long as I don’t hit anybody else in the nose. And that how it is with marijuana. I think that if we use it responsibly, we don’t drive drunk or stoned and we don’t go to work drunk or stoned and we act responsible and we don’t give it to children who shouldn’t have substances of any kind and we don’t overindulge and we’re responsible, I think there’s absolutely nothing wrong with it at all.
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DEAN BECKER: Truthfully, these conferences are starting wear on this old man but I still had a great time. The hotel was very receptive to the idea of smoking cannabis.
They had a special room where people could just drop in and smoke to their heart’s content. My gosh, there was even a debate between the mayoral candidates for a special mayoral election in the NORML Convention. That’s how open Denver is to progress.
And, on the day before the conference, on 4/20, Denver had a massive rally. 20-40,000 people smoking in the open area between the city hall and the state capital.
I’ve got about 12 hours of recording from this conference. We’ll be sharing much of that with you over the coming weeks. But, from the last day of the conference, this is the doctors’ panel talking about the positive aspects of cannabis sativa.
To introduce the panel, the chairman of the board, Mr. Steve Dillon.
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STEVE DILLON: This next panel is Marijuana: Physicians and Researchers Perspectives and Experiences. You know, it’s not what you don’t know that gets you in trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so. And these people know the truth about medical and research area about cannabis.
(applause)
And they’re going to tell you what it really is. Will Rogers said that. I’m going to introduce Paul Armentano, our NORML Deputy Director. Paul is one of the best writers in the whole world about marijuana and research. He’s a friend of mine. Just a few weeks ago I had a chance to use his services in Indiana when I was doing some lobbying and he prepared some remarks for me. He works and he believes in this movement. I want you to welcome Paul Armentano, Deputy Director of NORML, who will moderate this panel.
PAUL ARMENTANO: This is on physicians’ and researchers’ perspectives and we heard a lot yesterday about some of the science pertaining to medical marijuana. But we were hearing about animal studies and petri dishes and molecules and that’s all well and good. But today we’re going to hear from people that, actually, not only work with marijuana but they work with marijuana and humans. And that’s ultimately why we’re all here. That’s what we want to know about.
So, I’m going to keep my opening remarks really limited so we can get into the meat of this panel and get into the terrific speakers we have here. Just a couple comments. You know despite this ongoing political debate we’re having right now, presently, regarding the legality of medical marijuana. If we put that aside and we just look at the clinical and pre-clinical investigation of marijuana and its compounds as a medicine, the research is not more prevalent at any time in modern history.
You know, for example, in 2010 investigators at the University of California Center for Medicinal Research, the CMCR – you guys should all know who they are and should go to their website. They publically announced the findings of series of randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trials assessing the medical value of inhaled cannabis. These studies utilized the “so-called” FDA gold standard trial design – that’s a double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover clinical trial. And in each of these clinical trials they said that the short-term use of marijuana as a medicine was safe and it was effective.
Around the globe we see similarly controlled trials taking place. A 2010 review by researchers in Germany reported that since 2005 there’s been 37 separate clinical trials assessing the value of either cannabinoids or inhaled marijuana. There are 2,500 subjects that took part in these trials. This is a larger body of evidence than we have for most FDA-approved pharmaceutical medications. And these are just talking about trials that have taken place in the last few years.
We now have over 20,000 published papers in the scientific literature pertaining to cannabis and cannabinoids. It is not hyperbole to say that marijuana is one of the most studied plants on earth.
And while it’s great to talk about what these results might mean within the confines of a small, placebo-controlled trial, while it’s great to talk about the number of studies we have in clinical journals, I think it’s more important to humanize this issue and talk about what is really taking place out in the field and that’s why we have the panel that we have here today.
We’ve assembled a group of experts who have expertise on both the research and also in the practice of medical marijuana and they’re here to share their expertise with you.
The first speaker I’m going to bring up to the podium is Dr. David Bearman. He’s Vice President of the American Academy of Cannabinoid Medicine. He’s a former Health Officer and Director of the Sutter County Health Department. He’s somebody that I look to when I am seeking guidance on the medical use of marijuana. And he’s somebody who has been passionate and committed to this issue and passionate and committed to the patients. He is one of a handful of doctors that is willing to spend his time, go to court and stand up for patients’ rights. He’s been very successful doing so. Please welcome Dr. David Bearman.
AUDIENCE: (applause)
DAVID BEARMAN: Now I’ve got about 20 hours worth of material and 10 minutes to give it to you so we’re probably not going to do anything be hit the high points. And, I won’t have time to tell you about the two Assistant District Attorneys, the Deputy Sheriff, the doctors, the lawyers, the homeless people who are my patients. Nor will I have time to talk to you about the woman who was hemiparetic from having two cerebral bleeds and told me, “I have intractable seizures unless I’m a little bit high and then I never get a seizure.”
I won’t be able to tell you about the war veteran who had shrapnel removed from his head because he had intractable seizures and they replaced that with double vision which gave him intractable headaches. And he was proud to say that he was very active in civic affairs.
So, I’m going to touch on some of the science here. I want to let people know that we do have this American Academy of Cannabinoid Medicine. We have some of our flyers out here. If you didn’t get one, I’ve got about 20 left.
We are trying to make sure that physicians who are making recommendations for the medical use of cannabis are doing it according to reasonable medical standards. If you see a doctor’s office that has a line around the block and the line is moving, most of us don’t consider that a real practice of medicine. So let me jump in ….
AUDIENCE: (applause)
DAVID BEARMAN: OK. Oh, and I wouldn’t be an American if I didn’t entrepreneurially push my book which is on how we got these irrational drug laws. It’s kind of a history thing.
OK, let’s jump into this. This is no laughing matter. I wrote a little OPED piece a couple months ago saying, “Maybe we should give Cheech and Chong honorary medical degrees because of the fact that cannabis is a medicine.”
In 1997, you had General McCaffrey accusing doctors who were doing this of practicing “Cheech and Chong medicine.” Well obviously he was not a doctor, he didn’t go to medical school and I doubt whether he read any one of the studies that Paul has mentioned. This just tells you that I've been involved in a lot of different things. I’ve worked at every level of government. For the last 11 years I’ve done pain management with an emphasis on medicinal use of cannabis and I’ve seen about 2,000 patients. When I see a patient I spend about an hour with them. I enjoy that, the patient’s enjoy that.
Use of cannabis as a medicine for numerous conditions has a well-documented history stretching back thousands of years. With the identification of an endogenous system of receptors and ligands in recent years. Abundant experimental data has reinforced the antidotal claims of people who perceive medicinal benefit from the currently illegal consumption of cannabis.
Paul asked me to talk about the use of cannabis as an antidepressant, treatment for PTSD, ADD, ADHD. I hope to touch on the analgesic effects, other people will talk about its anti-inflammatory, anti-epileptic and auto-immune disease utility.
And we all know about the federal government jumping up and down the (?) meanings of that I won’t go into that.
There’s been an enormous amount of research. I think we owe a great of gratitude to the people at the University of California, at the four medical schools they’ve done research at in the last 10 years. And we certainly owe a great debt of gratitude to Dr. Mechoulam who characterized THC in 1964.
Medical marijuana movement…we all know the history about that and the HHS terminating the Independent New Drug program because people might get the wrong idea that this stuff can’t be so bad. And that just goes to show you what Dr. Mason knew or didn’t know.
We know that the AIDS epidemic is really what started the medicinal use of cannabis because it was effective as an appetite stimulant and anti-nauseant and an antidepressant. And the same benefits accrue to people who have cancer. There’s a video out that I would encourage you to get. Not the least of which is that I happen to have bit part in called, “What If Cannabis Cured Cancer?!” And we know that cannabis, again, with mice and tissue culture is very effective at killing cancer cells in about 10 or 15 different cancers. It has the potential to revolutionize the treatment of cancer.
There’s a variety of conditions that cannabis is useful in treating – pain is usually the #1 condition. About 60% of recommendations are made for the relief of pain. Nausea and appetite stimulation in 8 different states in the 1980s. And there’s a whole host of other conditions. And I want to talk to you about the mental health conditions depression and Attention Deficit Disorder and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Jocelyn Elders, the former Surgeon General of the United States, she talked about the benefits of cannabis. She spoke at a Drug Policy Alliance conference a number of years ago and I asked her, “Was anybody else in the Clinton Whitehouse behind you on this?”
“No, they were not.”
We cannot trust the politicians. Maybe we have one coming at lunch that we can trust but these people are not scientist and we need to get them to trust in science.
The Institute of Medicine came out and said that smoking marijuana was the best delivery system at the present time. They also said that cannabis had medicinal value. We know that it’s safe. As a matter of fact, most government studies that have been done, large commissions, have recommended the legalization of the recreational use of marijuana, let alone the use for medicinal purposes.
AUDIENCE: (applause)
DAVID BEARMAN: We all know about Judge Young and his saying that cannabis was one of the safest therapeutic agents known to man. And we know that Sativex was first approved in Canada in 2005. Sativex is, of course, liquid marijuana regardless of what Dr. Andrea Barthwell tries to say with her tap dancing.
And we have all kinds of studies talking about its efficacy and let’s go on and talk about how cannabis works. It doesn’t work by magic, it works through the endocannabinoid system. The endocannabinoid system is composed of at least two different receptors; the CB1 receptors and the CB2 receptors. Dr. Mechoulam believes there are at least 4 or 5 other receptors, cannabinoid receptors. And we have two naturally occurring cannabinoids anandamide and 2-AG.
Bob Melamede, who’s at this conference and teaches down at the University of Colorado has a wonderful presentation where he makes the contention that cannabinoid receptors have been around for 200 million years. He traces them back to the t trilobites. I’m not sure that I’d go that far back but it’s clear that we have them and most mammals have them.
A cannabinoid is a 21 carbon compound with a unique shape and you can see a picture of four of the most common cannabinoids. THC is a partial agonist which means it stimulates the CB1 receptors and the CB2 receptors. It’s found largely in the central nervous system and it’s also in the immune system and in other places.
THC is useful as an analgesic, it’s an anti-inflammatory, it’s an anti-nauseant, it’s an antiemetic (that means it stops you from throwing up), it’s an antispasmodic (that means it’s a muscle relaxant).
The therapeutic uses of CBD, which is turning out to be the “miracle drug”, it too is an anti-epileptic. Epilepsy was the first modern study done with cannabis back in 1949 that demonstrated the anti-epileptic value of cannabis. CBD is also an anti-inflammatory, it’s a tranquilizer, it’s neural-protective – you heard about Alzheimer’s - the CBD is probably the major sources of that benefit.
It helps treat PTSD and, of course, one of the real tragedies of our modern country is that the pentagon says that at least 33% of the people who are fighting in Afghanistan will come back with PTSD. And yet the VA is reluctant to recognize the use of cannabis although they have changed their policy in terms of TOX-screening for people in their pain programs. They can continue to be in their pain programs even though they’re testing positive for cannabis.
It reduces the invasiveness of cancer cells as I alluded to previously and it’s an anti-psychotic.
The terpenes also play a role. And retrograde inhibition is important. I’ve got two minutes to go. Retrograde inhibition is basically a way of slowing down the speed of neurotransmission. It decreases the number and speed of sensory inputs thereby helping with focus and concentration in Attention Deficit Disorder and helping to deal with the depression that goes along with PTSD.
CBD is an antidepressant. THC is an euphoriant, it’s an appetite stimulant and the terpenes jump in in the entourage effect. So this is how cannabis has an effect on dealing with depression.
People who have taken Effexor or Zoloft do well by adding cannabis but many of them are able to stop taking their antidepressant medications. Cannabis, of course, has fewer side effects. It doesn’t decrease libido (it increases it) and it treats the symptoms of decreased appetite, sleep problems and depressed or dark mood.
In terms of pain the anandamide binds with certain receptors that modulate pain stimuli and this binding decreases the transmission of the pain stimuli. The retrograde inhibition slows the speed of neurotransmission, decreasing pain input. Also the cannabinoids affect a pain center in the brain that is mediated by cannabinoids and helps to decrease the perception of pain. So cannabis is an analgesic. Many patients that I see are able to lower their dosage of opiate pain medication and in some cases stop it entirely. And, of course, cannabis does not have the side effects of constipation. Many patients say they have confusion with opioids and don’t have confusion with cannabis.
This 30,000 number is from the Iraq War and the number is obviously going to be much larger from the war in Afghanistan.
The availability of dopamines increases the retrograde inhibition. The retrograde inhibition slows down the speed of neurotransmission and you have fewer negative ideas, negative stimuli that are coming to the mid-brain. If you overwhelm the mid-brain, which is also known as the reptilian brain, you are going to end up with the most primitive part of the brain (the one that deals with life and death) that’s going to be running the show rather than the cerebral cortex. By slowing down the rate of neurotransmission we allow more rational thought rather than having to deal with the very frightening memories that can trigger PTSD.
I’ve had people with PTSD, I do want to say this, they rarely benefit from psychiatric medications and yet many of them with cannabis. I mean they’ve told me that, “I would have committed suicide if it weren’t for marijuana.” And a number of other things which I don’t have time to go in to.
Attention Deficit Disorder…I have patients say, “My grades went from Cs and Ds to As and Bs from using marijuana.” Or, “I graduated from the Maritime Academy because of my use of marijuana.” You are able to focus more because you can slow down the speed of neurotransmission. And there are over 60 studies that show the role of cannabis and cannabinoids in controlling Attention Deficit Disorder.
It can be used with the sympathomimetic drugs, the Ritalin, the Adderall, the Dextroamphetamine. And it helps to deal with the side effects caused by that. Many people are also able to use cannabis by itself.
And, I just threw this in here, cannabis is a bronchodialater and in the 1920s there were cannabis cigarettes on the market for the treatment of asthma.
Well, there you have it, 20 hours worth of information in 12 or 13 minutes…15 minutes. Thank you very much.
AUDIENCE: (applause)
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DEAN BECKER: Once again, that was Dr. David Bearman. We’ll have my interview with him following this very important message.
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(Game show music)
DEAN BECKER: It’s time to play: Name That Drug by Its Side Effects.
Loss of personal freedom, family and possessions, ineligible for government funding, education and licensing, housing or employment, loss of aggressive mindset in a dangerous world. This drug’s peaceful, easy feeling may be habit forming.
I am the Reverend Dean Becker of the Drug Truth Network. Standing in the river of reform. Baptising drug warriors to the unvarnished truth. Drugtruth.net.
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DEAN BECKER: And, as promised, here’s my interview with Dr. David Bearman.
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DEAN BECKER: Dave, what’s going on in the world?
DAVID BEARMAN: Well, I tell you, I think we’re becoming more professional. I think there’s a growing consensus that we need to marginalize the doctors that are practicing minimalist medicine. We need to do testing on the different strains so we know what we’re getting. We need to put pressure on the federal government to reschedule marijuana.
I think we’re passed the tipping point and I think we’re going to see more and more people talking science and fewer and fewer politicians talking hysteria. I’m quite optimistic at this point.
DEAN BECKER: The politicians are finally growing a backbone.
DAVID BEARMAN: Well, I think that they’re finally beginning to believe the polls. I don’t know whether we would be giving the politicians too much credit to say they’re growing a backbone but they’re saying, “My goodness, 70-85% of the voters in my district support medical marijuana and 50-60% think it should be legal. Maybe it’s not so much of a political risk to support this.”
And so I think that…the other thing that’s happening too is the younger generation is coming along and they have a decidedly different attitude towards marijuana or cannabis than, you know, those of us who have the grey beards such as you and I do. They don’t see that there any big deal. They may have some reservations, they may have some hesitancies but I don’t see them stigmatizing their friends and associates who use marijuana nor do I see that group of students who use marijuana having their own clique. Their parts of every clique and becoming much more normalized.
The other thing that I’ve noticed as a physician practicing in Santa Barbara is a very gradual thaw amongst physicians, law enforcement and judges. There’s a decidedly different attitude today in 2011 then when I started doing this in 2000. You don’t see people having the “raised eyebrow”. You see people saying, “Yeah, you know my aunt used this when she had cancer.” Or “My neighbor has failed back syndrome and I’m really glad you’re here Dr. Bearman.”
One of the things I do here is, you know, some of these doctors are just making a “lick and a prayer”, 5 minute visit. They’re seeing teenagers. Well, first off I think the teenager thing is way overblown but yet it’s something we need to be aware of. I certainly only want to see people that are ill getting medical marijuana.
And I’ve said, in print, that the reason that most college kids shouldn’t be getting medical marijuana is they’re not sick.
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DEAN BECKER: Well I don’t want to tell you about all the headaches about being on the road and your software craters and blah, blah, blah. But we’ll have more from Dr. Bearman on this week’s 4/20 reports and lots more from the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws Conference.
They’ve got lots great audio and video available on their website as well. You can check it out at norml.org.
One hell of an event. You should have been here. We’ll have lots more on this week’s Century of Lies program as well. Please check it out.
As always I remind you that because of prohibition, which you may, in affect, support through your silence, you don’t know what’s in that bag. Please be careful.
Transcript
Transcript
Cultural Baggage / Apr 24, 2011
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(music)
DEAN BECKER: This is Cultural Baggage, I’m DeanBecker reporting from Denver and the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws 40th Conference. That is, indeed, Ziggy Marley that you hear in the background, the featured musical act of the first night of the conference.
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DEAN BECKER: I’m with the chairman of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, Mr. Steve Dillon. How are you, sir?
STEVE DILLON: I’m fine. Glad to be here.
DEAN BECKER: Steve, this is a very optimistic crowd, very energetic crowd, are they not?
STEVE DILLON: Absolutely, they’re very enthusiastic because they know they’re hearing about freedom and what’s right and they’re with like-minded people and there’s 500 of us, almost, out here. Just giving each other support for an issue we love and believe in.
DEAN BECKER: And the word is that it is legalized. We hearing not just medical marijuana but several states are pushing that effort and likely to succeed. What do you think?
STEVE DILLON: Well, overall we’re making great progress in lots of areas. More and more medical states but the latest focus, as Keith Stroup was saying this morning in his speech, we should focus more on what we really want. And what we really want is safe, affordable, reliable, accessible marijuana. And we should be able to grow it and possess it and use it and casually distribute it just like the Schaffer Commission reported in the ‘70s and as we know to be what should happen.
The current federal law, decrim bill next year, talks about possibly allowing the states to decide – a states’ rights approach to legalization of marijuana. Let each state decide just like on the alcohol model. Whether to tax it and regulate it or have dry counties or whatever. And certainly that’s a different approach, and I’m all for different change. Especially any change that goes to the idea that of legal marijuana. It simply is time that we look at that issue straight ahead, honestly, transparently. Let’s tell the people what we really want. What we want is legal marijuana.
DEAN BECKER: Steve, this is the 40th anniversary of NORML. It’s also, coincidentally, the 40th anniversary of Nixon’s declaration of this war on drugs. It’s time and so many ways to reexamine it. As you indicated, the Schaffer report called it the safest therapeutic agent known to man.
STEVE DILLON: Actually that was Francis Young and the 1988 DEA report. After 15 years of study, the DEA judge, Administrative Judge Francis Young, made a finding about cannabis and marijuana and said that it is, indeed, the safest, non-therapeutic substance known to man and recommended that, certainly, we not criminalize the substance and allow it to expand in use in medicine. And that was in ’88. The Schafer commission was back in the ‘70s.
But there’s literally hundreds and hundreds of reports throughout history that support the idea that marijuana has benefit as a medicine, has benefit as a recreational drug, as a religious sacrament and many, many other uses. The point is we should be able to use the plant any way we want as long as we do it in a responsible manner.
I’m a Libertarian. I believe I can swing my fist in any direction as long as I don’t hit anybody else in the nose. And that how it is with marijuana. I think that if we use it responsibly, we don’t drive drunk or stoned and we don’t go to work drunk or stoned and we act responsible and we don’t give it to children who shouldn’t have substances of any kind and we don’t overindulge and we’re responsible, I think there’s absolutely nothing wrong with it at all.
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DEAN BECKER: Truthfully, these conferences are starting wear on this old man but I still had a great time. The hotel was very receptive to the idea of smoking cannabis.
They had a special room where people could just drop in and smoke to their heart’s content. My gosh, there was even a debate between the mayoral candidates for a special mayoral election in the NORML Convention. That’s how open Denver is to progress.
And, on the day before the conference, on 4/20, Denver had a massive rally. 20-40,000 people smoking in the open area between the city hall and the state capital.
I’ve got about 12 hours of recording from this conference. We’ll be sharing much of that with you over the coming weeks. But, from the last day of the conference, this is the doctors’ panel talking about the positive aspects of cannabis sativa.
To introduce the panel, the chairman of the board, Mr. Steve Dillon.
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STEVE DILLON: This next panel is Marijuana: Physicians and Researchers Perspectives and Experiences. You know, it’s not what you don’t know that gets you in trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so. And these people know the truth about medical and research area about cannabis.
(applause)
And they’re going to tell you what it really is. Will Rogers said that. I’m going to introduce Paul Armentano, our NORML Deputy Director. Paul is one of the best writers in the whole world about marijuana and research. He’s a friend of mine. Just a few weeks ago I had a chance to use his services in Indiana when I was doing some lobbying and he prepared some remarks for me. He works and he believes in this movement. I want you to welcome Paul Armentano, Deputy Director of NORML, who will moderate this panel.
PAUL ARMENTANO: This is on physicians’ and researchers’ perspectives and we heard a lot yesterday about some of the science pertaining to medical marijuana. But we were hearing about animal studies and petri dishes and molecules and that’s all well and good. But today we’re going to hear from people that, actually, not only work with marijuana but they work with marijuana and humans. And that’s ultimately why we’re all here. That’s what we want to know about.
So, I’m going to keep my opening remarks really limited so we can get into the meat of this panel and get into the terrific speakers we have here. Just a couple comments. You know despite this ongoing political debate we’re having right now, presently, regarding the legality of medical marijuana. If we put that aside and we just look at the clinical and pre-clinical investigation of marijuana and its compounds as a medicine, the research is not more prevalent at any time in modern history.
You know, for example, in 2010 investigators at the University of California Center for Medicinal Research, the CMCR – you guys should all know who they are and should go to their website. They publically announced the findings of series of randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trials assessing the medical value of inhaled cannabis. These studies utilized the “so-called” FDA gold standard trial design – that’s a double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover clinical trial. And in each of these clinical trials they said that the short-term use of marijuana as a medicine was safe and it was effective.
Around the globe we see similarly controlled trials taking place. A 2010 review by researchers in Germany reported that since 2005 there’s been 37 separate clinical trials assessing the value of either cannabinoids or inhaled marijuana. There are 2,500 subjects that took part in these trials. This is a larger body of evidence than we have for most FDA-approved pharmaceutical medications. And these are just talking about trials that have taken place in the last few years.
We now have over 20,000 published papers in the scientific literature pertaining to cannabis and cannabinoids. It is not hyperbole to say that marijuana is one of the most studied plants on earth.
And while it’s great to talk about what these results might mean within the confines of a small, placebo-controlled trial, while it’s great to talk about the number of studies we have in clinical journals, I think it’s more important to humanize this issue and talk about what is really taking place out in the field and that’s why we have the panel that we have here today.
We’ve assembled a group of experts who have expertise on both the research and also in the practice of medical marijuana and they’re here to share their expertise with you.
The first speaker I’m going to bring up to the podium is Dr. David Bearman. He’s Vice President of the American Academy of Cannabinoid Medicine. He’s a former Health Officer and Director of the Sutter County Health Department. He’s somebody that I look to when I am seeking guidance on the medical use of marijuana. And he’s somebody who has been passionate and committed to this issue and passionate and committed to the patients. He is one of a handful of doctors that is willing to spend his time, go to court and stand up for patients’ rights. He’s been very successful doing so. Please welcome Dr. David Bearman.
AUDIENCE: (applause)
DAVID BEARMAN: Now I’ve got about 20 hours worth of material and 10 minutes to give it to you so we’re probably not going to do anything be hit the high points. And, I won’t have time to tell you about the two Assistant District Attorneys, the Deputy Sheriff, the doctors, the lawyers, the homeless people who are my patients. Nor will I have time to talk to you about the woman who was hemiparetic from having two cerebral bleeds and told me, “I have intractable seizures unless I’m a little bit high and then I never get a seizure.”
I won’t be able to tell you about the war veteran who had shrapnel removed from his head because he had intractable seizures and they replaced that with double vision which gave him intractable headaches. And he was proud to say that he was very active in civic affairs.
So, I’m going to touch on some of the science here. I want to let people know that we do have this American Academy of Cannabinoid Medicine. We have some of our flyers out here. If you didn’t get one, I’ve got about 20 left.
We are trying to make sure that physicians who are making recommendations for the medical use of cannabis are doing it according to reasonable medical standards. If you see a doctor’s office that has a line around the block and the line is moving, most of us don’t consider that a real practice of medicine. So let me jump in ….
AUDIENCE: (applause)
DAVID BEARMAN: OK. Oh, and I wouldn’t be an American if I didn’t entrepreneurially push my book which is on how we got these irrational drug laws. It’s kind of a history thing.
OK, let’s jump into this. This is no laughing matter. I wrote a little OPED piece a couple months ago saying, “Maybe we should give Cheech and Chong honorary medical degrees because of the fact that cannabis is a medicine.”
In 1997, you had General McCaffrey accusing doctors who were doing this of practicing “Cheech and Chong medicine.” Well obviously he was not a doctor, he didn’t go to medical school and I doubt whether he read any one of the studies that Paul has mentioned. This just tells you that I've been involved in a lot of different things. I’ve worked at every level of government. For the last 11 years I’ve done pain management with an emphasis on medicinal use of cannabis and I’ve seen about 2,000 patients. When I see a patient I spend about an hour with them. I enjoy that, the patient’s enjoy that.
Use of cannabis as a medicine for numerous conditions has a well-documented history stretching back thousands of years. With the identification of an endogenous system of receptors and ligands in recent years. Abundant experimental data has reinforced the antidotal claims of people who perceive medicinal benefit from the currently illegal consumption of cannabis.
Paul asked me to talk about the use of cannabis as an antidepressant, treatment for PTSD, ADD, ADHD. I hope to touch on the analgesic effects, other people will talk about its anti-inflammatory, anti-epileptic and auto-immune disease utility.
And we all know about the federal government jumping up and down the (?) meanings of that I won’t go into that.
There’s been an enormous amount of research. I think we owe a great of gratitude to the people at the University of California, at the four medical schools they’ve done research at in the last 10 years. And we certainly owe a great debt of gratitude to Dr. Mechoulam who characterized THC in 1964.
Medical marijuana movement…we all know the history about that and the HHS terminating the Independent New Drug program because people might get the wrong idea that this stuff can’t be so bad. And that just goes to show you what Dr. Mason knew or didn’t know.
We know that the AIDS epidemic is really what started the medicinal use of cannabis because it was effective as an appetite stimulant and anti-nauseant and an antidepressant. And the same benefits accrue to people who have cancer. There’s a video out that I would encourage you to get. Not the least of which is that I happen to have bit part in called, “What If Cannabis Cured Cancer?!” And we know that cannabis, again, with mice and tissue culture is very effective at killing cancer cells in about 10 or 15 different cancers. It has the potential to revolutionize the treatment of cancer.
There’s a variety of conditions that cannabis is useful in treating – pain is usually the #1 condition. About 60% of recommendations are made for the relief of pain. Nausea and appetite stimulation in 8 different states in the 1980s. And there’s a whole host of other conditions. And I want to talk to you about the mental health conditions depression and Attention Deficit Disorder and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Jocelyn Elders, the former Surgeon General of the United States, she talked about the benefits of cannabis. She spoke at a Drug Policy Alliance conference a number of years ago and I asked her, “Was anybody else in the Clinton Whitehouse behind you on this?”
“No, they were not.”
We cannot trust the politicians. Maybe we have one coming at lunch that we can trust but these people are not scientist and we need to get them to trust in science.
The Institute of Medicine came out and said that smoking marijuana was the best delivery system at the present time. They also said that cannabis had medicinal value. We know that it’s safe. As a matter of fact, most government studies that have been done, large commissions, have recommended the legalization of the recreational use of marijuana, let alone the use for medicinal purposes.
AUDIENCE: (applause)
DAVID BEARMAN: We all know about Judge Young and his saying that cannabis was one of the safest therapeutic agents known to man. And we know that Sativex was first approved in Canada in 2005. Sativex is, of course, liquid marijuana regardless of what Dr. Andrea Barthwell tries to say with her tap dancing.
And we have all kinds of studies talking about its efficacy and let’s go on and talk about how cannabis works. It doesn’t work by magic, it works through the endocannabinoid system. The endocannabinoid system is composed of at least two different receptors; the CB1 receptors and the CB2 receptors. Dr. Mechoulam believes there are at least 4 or 5 other receptors, cannabinoid receptors. And we have two naturally occurring cannabinoids anandamide and 2-AG.
Bob Melamede, who’s at this conference and teaches down at the University of Colorado has a wonderful presentation where he makes the contention that cannabinoid receptors have been around for 200 million years. He traces them back to the t trilobites. I’m not sure that I’d go that far back but it’s clear that we have them and most mammals have them.
A cannabinoid is a 21 carbon compound with a unique shape and you can see a picture of four of the most common cannabinoids. THC is a partial agonist which means it stimulates the CB1 receptors and the CB2 receptors. It’s found largely in the central nervous system and it’s also in the immune system and in other places.
THC is useful as an analgesic, it’s an anti-inflammatory, it’s an anti-nauseant, it’s an antiemetic (that means it stops you from throwing up), it’s an antispasmodic (that means it’s a muscle relaxant).
The therapeutic uses of CBD, which is turning out to be the “miracle drug”, it too is an anti-epileptic. Epilepsy was the first modern study done with cannabis back in 1949 that demonstrated the anti-epileptic value of cannabis. CBD is also an anti-inflammatory, it’s a tranquilizer, it’s neural-protective – you heard about Alzheimer’s - the CBD is probably the major sources of that benefit.
It helps treat PTSD and, of course, one of the real tragedies of our modern country is that the pentagon says that at least 33% of the people who are fighting in Afghanistan will come back with PTSD. And yet the VA is reluctant to recognize the use of cannabis although they have changed their policy in terms of TOX-screening for people in their pain programs. They can continue to be in their pain programs even though they’re testing positive for cannabis.
It reduces the invasiveness of cancer cells as I alluded to previously and it’s an anti-psychotic.
The terpenes also play a role. And retrograde inhibition is important. I’ve got two minutes to go. Retrograde inhibition is basically a way of slowing down the speed of neurotransmission. It decreases the number and speed of sensory inputs thereby helping with focus and concentration in Attention Deficit Disorder and helping to deal with the depression that goes along with PTSD.
CBD is an antidepressant. THC is an euphoriant, it’s an appetite stimulant and the terpenes jump in in the entourage effect. So this is how cannabis has an effect on dealing with depression.
People who have taken Effexor or Zoloft do well by adding cannabis but many of them are able to stop taking their antidepressant medications. Cannabis, of course, has fewer side effects. It doesn’t decrease libido (it increases it) and it treats the symptoms of decreased appetite, sleep problems and depressed or dark mood.
In terms of pain the anandamide binds with certain receptors that modulate pain stimuli and this binding decreases the transmission of the pain stimuli. The retrograde inhibition slows the speed of neurotransmission, decreasing pain input. Also the cannabinoids affect a pain center in the brain that is mediated by cannabinoids and helps to decrease the perception of pain. So cannabis is an analgesic. Many patients that I see are able to lower their dosage of opiate pain medication and in some cases stop it entirely. And, of course, cannabis does not have the side effects of constipation. Many patients say they have confusion with opioids and don’t have confusion with cannabis.
This 30,000 number is from the Iraq War and the number is obviously going to be much larger from the war in Afghanistan.
The availability of dopamines increases the retrograde inhibition. The retrograde inhibition slows down the speed of neurotransmission and you have fewer negative ideas, negative stimuli that are coming to the mid-brain. If you overwhelm the mid-brain, which is also known as the reptilian brain, you are going to end up with the most primitive part of the brain (the one that deals with life and death) that’s going to be running the show rather than the cerebral cortex. By slowing down the rate of neurotransmission we allow more rational thought rather than having to deal with the very frightening memories that can trigger PTSD.
I’ve had people with PTSD, I do want to say this, they rarely benefit from psychiatric medications and yet many of them with cannabis. I mean they’ve told me that, “I would have committed suicide if it weren’t for marijuana.” And a number of other things which I don’t have time to go in to.
Attention Deficit Disorder…I have patients say, “My grades went from Cs and Ds to As and Bs from using marijuana.” Or, “I graduated from the Maritime Academy because of my use of marijuana.” You are able to focus more because you can slow down the speed of neurotransmission. And there are over 60 studies that show the role of cannabis and cannabinoids in controlling Attention Deficit Disorder.
It can be used with the sympathomimetic drugs, the Ritalin, the Adderall, the Dextroamphetamine. And it helps to deal with the side effects caused by that. Many people are also able to use cannabis by itself.
And, I just threw this in here, cannabis is a bronchodialater and in the 1920s there were cannabis cigarettes on the market for the treatment of asthma.
Well, there you have it, 20 hours worth of information in 12 or 13 minutes…15 minutes. Thank you very much.
AUDIENCE: (applause)
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DEAN BECKER: Once again, that was Dr. David Bearman. We’ll have my interview with him following this very important message.
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(Game show music)
DEAN BECKER: It’s time to play: Name That Drug by Its Side Effects.
Loss of personal freedom, family and possessions, ineligible for government funding, education and licensing, housing or employment, loss of aggressive mindset in a dangerous world. This drug’s peaceful, easy feeling may be habit forming.
(gong)
Time’s up!
The answer: doobie, jimmie, joint, reefer, spliff, jibber, jay, blunt, steege, greener, cracker, hogger, bone, carrot, mary jane, marijuana, cannabis sativa.
Made by God….Prohibited by man.
I am the Reverend Dean Becker of the Drug Truth Network. Standing in the river of reform. Baptising drug warriors to the unvarnished truth. Drugtruth.net.
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DEAN BECKER: And, as promised, here’s my interview with Dr. David Bearman.
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DEAN BECKER: Dave, what’s going on in the world?
DAVID BEARMAN: Well, I tell you, I think we’re becoming more professional. I think there’s a growing consensus that we need to marginalize the doctors that are practicing minimalist medicine. We need to do testing on the different strains so we know what we’re getting. We need to put pressure on the federal government to reschedule marijuana.
I think we’re passed the tipping point and I think we’re going to see more and more people talking science and fewer and fewer politicians talking hysteria. I’m quite optimistic at this point.
DEAN BECKER: The politicians are finally growing a backbone.
DAVID BEARMAN: Well, I think that they’re finally beginning to believe the polls. I don’t know whether we would be giving the politicians too much credit to say they’re growing a backbone but they’re saying, “My goodness, 70-85% of the voters in my district support medical marijuana and 50-60% think it should be legal. Maybe it’s not so much of a political risk to support this.”
And so I think that…the other thing that’s happening too is the younger generation is coming along and they have a decidedly different attitude towards marijuana or cannabis than, you know, those of us who have the grey beards such as you and I do. They don’t see that there any big deal. They may have some reservations, they may have some hesitancies but I don’t see them stigmatizing their friends and associates who use marijuana nor do I see that group of students who use marijuana having their own clique. Their parts of every clique and becoming much more normalized.
The other thing that I’ve noticed as a physician practicing in Santa Barbara is a very gradual thaw amongst physicians, law enforcement and judges. There’s a decidedly different attitude today in 2011 then when I started doing this in 2000. You don’t see people having the “raised eyebrow”. You see people saying, “Yeah, you know my aunt used this when she had cancer.” Or “My neighbor has failed back syndrome and I’m really glad you’re here Dr. Bearman.”
One of the things I do here is, you know, some of these doctors are just making a “lick and a prayer”, 5 minute visit. They’re seeing teenagers. Well, first off I think the teenager thing is way overblown but yet it’s something we need to be aware of. I certainly only want to see people that are ill getting medical marijuana.
And I’ve said, in print, that the reason that most college kids shouldn’t be getting medical marijuana is they’re not sick.
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DEAN BECKER: Well I don’t want to tell you about all the headaches about being on the road and your software craters and blah, blah, blah. But we’ll have more from Dr. Bearman on this week’s 4/20 reports and lots more from the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws Conference.
They’ve got lots great audio and video available on their website as well. You can check it out at norml.org.
One hell of an event. You should have been here. We’ll have lots more on this week’s Century of Lies program as well. Please check it out.
As always I remind you that because of prohibition, which you may, in affect, support through your silence, you don’t know what’s in that bag. Please be careful.
Here’s a taste of Ziggy to close it.
(music)