Today I had the opportunity to evaluate a patient who just had surgery to repair a fractured left wrist (radius) as a result of a motor cycle accident. Typically patients that suffer from post operative pain get prescribed opiate narcotics such as vicodin, oxycontin and percocet. The problem with that is that many patients can’t take those medications because of the side effects. As a result more and more patients are turning to cannabis to control their pain. This patient was medicating once before he went to bed each day since the surgery. He has not had to take one percocet that he was prescribed by his orthopedic surgeon. In addition he has been sleeping “great” which is a plus when trying to recover from surgery.

As medical director for Medical Cannabis of Southern California I often evaluate patients who suffer from neuropathic pain as a result of diabetes. Neuropathic pain means pain that is associated with direct pathology to the nerves themselves. This is in contrast to pain in a muscle whose signal is transported to the brain via the healthy nerves. In diabetes the elevated levels of sugar in the blood actually cause damage to the nerves leading to chronic pain. Cannabis has been shown in several studies to reduce the pain associated with various causes of neuropathic pain including HIV neuropathy.

The Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research at the University of California at San Diego is committed to studying the medical benefits of cannabis. It regularly conducts clinical trials for various medical conditions, most of the centered around pain and muscle spasticity. It findings clearly show that marijuana (cannabis) is effective in treating acute and chronic pain.

What is interesting is that researches found that patients do not have to get high in order to get pain relief. They found that cannabis used in smaller amounts was just as effective as patients who took larger doses.

For the past month I have been treating a 62 y/o women for chronic pain that had been taking 18 pain killers every day. (12 oxycontin!) Not only did they stop working but they made her nauseated, constipated and feeling “loopy” all day. She told me that her life felt like she was out of control. Her pain management doctor spends 6 minutes with her and hands her a re-fill prescription for oxycontin. I am happy to report that after one month of using cannabis to treat her pain she is completely off opiate narcotics! Congratulations. I am glad you have control of your life again. There is hope!

As medical director for Medical Cannabis of Southern California I have many patients who are combat veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Unfortunately the military has a ZERO tolerance towards any drug use and does not recognize cannabis as a medicine. The majority of these patients have made the decision to use medicine for one of two things:

A week ago I blogged about a women by them name of Sam who had been taking 12 Norco and 6 Oxycontin daily for the past 5 years. I was elated when after ONE WEEK she had decreased her opiate use to 4 Norco and 4 Oxycontin.

As medical director for medical cannabis of southern california I often evaluate patients who take regular high doses of prednisone. Prednisone is the atomic bomb for inflammatory conditions such as crohns, ulcerative colitis, sever asthma and many other medical conditions. Unfortunately it’s effects do not come without significant side effects. Many patients can get relief of these side effects by using cannabis.

Last week I evaluate a 61 year old women named Fran who had multiple medical problems. Her main complaints were that she suffers from Parkinsons and has debilitating resting tremors and more importantly that she has been taking 18 pain pills EVERY DAY for the past 5 YEARS!!! (12 of which were oxycontin)

Chronic pain is one of the most common complaints that I recommend medical cannabis for in my practice. As a patient, any time you make a decision to start or stop a medication you always have to wiegh the benefits vs the risks. The problem that most patients experience is that traditional western medicine is unable to treat the cause of the underlying pain and instead focuses on treating the pain itself. These medications come with sever and dangerous side effects that preclude their use. Cannabis is an extremely effective alternative therapy to treating chronic pain.