Yesterday in Irvine I took care of a 41 year old women who suffered from severe pain as a result of cervical dystonia.   Her pain was compounded by the fact that she developed botulism after a botox injection 4 months ago.  Her pain was consistent an 8+/10 on a daily basis.   She had [...]

Today in Long Beach I took care of a 77 year old women with metastatic breast cancer.   She has been on chemotherapy for the last 4 months and is experiencing excruciating pain, nausea, insomnia and lack of appetite.   Her pain medications (narcotics) are no longer effective and are only making her nauseous.   [...]

Choosing the right doctor for your medical marijuana recommendation is important.   If you are in the Southern California, specifically Orange County and Long Beach area, there is only one choice.   Dr. Sean Breen, medical director of Medical Cannabis of Southern California, has been the only consistent physician offering recommendations for the past 4 [...]

How many more celebrities, friends and family do we have to read about before we (as physicians) realize that prescription xanax, lorazepam and sleeping pills are not a great choice for MOST patients.   Xanax (alprazolam), diazapam (valium) and lorazepam (ativan) all fall under the same drug category called benzodiazepines.   They work by stimulating [...]

A lot has changed in the past 3 months for the medical marijuana industry in California.   Local municipalities have asked federal law enforcement to help shut down dispensaries by the dozen. It has worked.   Over the past 14 days Costa Mesa went from having 37 medical marijuana dispensaries to 0.0  Letters to landlords [...]

Quite often I get patient in my office who have used medical marijuana to sleep for years with excellent results.    Across the board, they all tell me that they sleep soundly and do not wake up feeling groggy.   Most doctors are prescribing sleeping pills like Ambien, Lunesta or even Trazodone.   Most of [...]

“There is no way that this guy is seriously ill and needs medical marijuana.  Just look at him.”  I can not tell you how many times I hear people say that medical marijuana is being handed out to a bunch of pot heads just based on how they look.   My question to you is [...]

A lot has happened to the medical marijuana industry in 2011.   I expect more of the same for 2012 so hold onto your shorts.   2011 was supposed to be a year of growth for the medical marijuana industry.  More and more patients in California were seeing the benefits of this plant first hand [...]

A recent study conducted by Dr. Abrams, the head of Hematology and Oncology at UC San Francisco, showed that patients who took vaporized medical marijuana in addition to opioids had a 33% greater reduction in pain that patients who only took opioids.   This is a groundbreaking study in the United States which showed that [...]

Since 2008 Doctor Breen has been evaluating patients in Long Beach that qualify to use medical marijuana under California’s proposition 215.    His office is located at the Los Altos Medical Center at 1777 N Bellflower Blvd Suite 212 which is down the street from the VA Hospital and Long Beach State.   His practice [...]