“I have a few little old ladies in my practice,” he reveals. “They have a cookie every night and say, ‘I don’t take my Percocet anymore.’ I would consider that a success because that’s a far less harmful way to treat their pain.”
Dr. Ian Mitchell (pictured) says that in an ideal world, physicians would learn about the medicinal properties of cannabis in medical school. Doctors would be trained about different extracts from marijuana plants, including cannabidiol, aka CBD, and tetrahydrocannabinol, aka THC.
Mitchell says that CBD is normally about one to two percent of a marijuana plant, whereas the psychoactive agent THC is over 10 percent and getting closer to 20 percent.
Drug prohibition has led to plants being grown with a higher THC percentage because that’s what buyers prefer. The downside, he says, is that plants with higher THC levels often have drastically lower levels of CBD.
“You don’t have the antipsychotic and anti-anxiety properties,” Mitchell explains. “So all of the sudden, you’re smoking this very intense stuff that in the U.K. they call skunk. That probably does make people a bit psychotic and probably does make people very anxious, but this is because of prohibition.
“That’s part of the argument for proper regulations—so that you could choose stuff to have cannabidiol,” he adds. “I consider that essential in a medical-cannabis situation. I want to know what my patients are getting as far as the THC and CBD content.”
Research planned into PTSD and cannabis
He's part of a team awaiting approval from UBC and Health Canada to launch a study into the effect of different preparations of cannabis on posttraumatic stress disorder. He points out that PTSD is taking a tremendous toll on military families in particular.
"This is a huge deal in America," Mitchell says. "Right now, there are 22 veterans a day who commit suicide."
Paxil is the only medication that's approved for treating PTSD, but according to Mitchell, it doesn't work for most people. He says that there is "very good preliminary evidence that cannabis can be effective".
"Some of the synthetic cannabinoids like nabilone have been shown effective for nightmares associated with PTSD," Mitchell states.
He reveals that in the pending research study—the first trial of its kind—one group of research subjects would receive cannabis with CBD but no THC. Another group would consume cannabis with CBD and THC. Another would get cannabis with THC but no CBD and others would receive a placebo.
continue reading: http://www.straight.com/news/413971/kamloops-physician-ian-mitchell-explains-how-cannabis-relieves-pain-and-reduces-anxiety
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