#56 Legitimizing Cannabis Therapy as Safer than Opioids and Anti-psychotics

Blake Pearson has been internationally recognized for his work in cannabis medicine and efforts to legitimize cannabinoid therapy as a safer alternative to opioids and anti-psychotic drugs. He has helped improve your patients’ symptoms with cannabinoid medicine and has been able to reduce the anti-psychotics. Dr. Blake recently announced the start of a new research study into the impact of cannabinoid therapy on local residents with dementia. He has partnered with Lambton College and Steeves & Rozema Nursing Homes for a three-year, $360,000 research grant from the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). We discuss how Dr. Blake feels that this new study is not about healing or halting dementia. It’s about managing the behaviors associated with the disease — such as mood, calling out, agitation, and trouble sleeping. Blake wrote on his blog about a new placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial out of Israel published to evaluate the safety and efficacy of broad-spectrum CBD-dominant medical cannabis oil for the reduction of behavioral disturbances amongst patients with dementia. They found a statistically significant reduction in agitation over placebo with non-serious side effects.