“In this study, we investigated whether medical cannabis access was associated with prescription opioid prescribing in Medicare Part D. We found that overall opioid prescribing in Part D was lower when states permit access to medical cannabis. When examining data by individual drug classes, we found that prescriptions for hydrocodone and morphine had statistically significant negative associations with medical cannabis access via dispensaries; while not statistically significant, there were also negative associations between dispensary MCLs and fentanyl and “other opioid” use. Combined with previously published studies suggesting cannabis laws are associated with lower opioid mortality, these findings further strengthen arguments in favor of considering medical applications of cannabis as one tool in the policy arsenal that can be used to diminish the harm of prescription opioids.” https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2676999
Author Archives: David Worrell
Therapeutic Effects of Prolonged Cannabidiol Treatment on Psychological Symptoms and Cognitive Function in Regular Cannabis Users: A Pragmatic Open-Label Clinical Trial.
“Chronic cannabis use has been associated with impaired cognition and elevated psychological symptoms, particularly psychotic-like experiences. While Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is thought to be primarily responsible for these deleterious effects, cannabidiol (CBD) is purported to have antipsychotic properties and to ameliorate cognitive, symptomatic, and brain harms in cannabis users. However, this has never been tested in a prolonged administration trial in otherwise healthy cannabis users. Here, we report the first study of prolonged CBD administration to a community sample of regular cannabis users in a pragmatic trial investigating potential restorative effects of CBD on psychological symptoms and cognition.
Results: CBD was well tolerated with no reported side effects; however, participants retrospectively reported reduced euphoria when smoking cannabis. No impairments to cognition were found, nor were there deleterious effects on psychological function. Importantly, participants reported significantly fewer depressive and psychotic-like symptoms at PT relative to BL, and exhibited improvements in attentional switching, verbal learning, and memory. Increased plasma CBD concentrations were associated with improvements in attentional control and beneficial changes in psychological symptoms. Greater benefits were observed in dependent than in nondependent cannabis users.
Conclusions:Prolonged CBD treatment appears to have promising therapeutic effects for improving psychological symptoms and cognition in regular cannabis users. Our findings require replication given the lack of a placebo control in this pragmatic trial, but suggest that CBD may be a useful adjunct treatment for cannabis dependence.”
Cannabinoids in health and disease: pharmacological potential in metabolic syndrome and neuroinflammation.
“The use of different natural and/or synthetic preparations of Cannabis sativa is associated with therapeutic strategies for many diseases. Indeed, thanks to the widespread diffusion of the cannabinoidergic system in the brain and in the peripheral districts, its stimulation, or inhibition, regulates many pathophysiological phenomena.
In particular, central activation of the cannabinoidergic system modulates the limbic and mesolimbic response which leads to food craving.
Moreover, cannabinoid agonists are able to reduce inflammatory response.
In this review a brief history of cannabinoids and the protagonists of the endocannabinoidergic system, i.e. synthesis and degradation enzymes and main receptors, will be described. Furthermore, the pharmacological effects of cannabinoids will be outlined. An overview of the involvement of the endocannabinoidergic system in neuroinflammatory and metabolic pathologies will be made.
Finally, particular attention will also be given to the new pharmacological entities acting on the two main receptors, cannabinoid receptor type 1 (CB1) and cannabinoid receptor type 2 (CB2), with particular focus on the neuroinflammatory and metabolic mechanisms involved.”
“Research on the antiepileptic effects of (endo-)
“Cannabidivarin (CBDV) and cannabidiol (CBD) have recently emerged among 
“White adipose tissue (WAT) stores excess energy as triglycerides, and brown adipose tissue (BAT) is specialized in dissipating energy as heat. The endocannabinoid system (ECS) is involved in a broad range of physiological processes and is increasingly recognized as a key player in adipose tissue metabolism. High ECS tonus in the fed state is associated with a disadvantageous metabolic phenotype, and this has led to a search for pharmacological strategies to inhibit the ECS. In this review we present recent developments that cast light on the regulation of adipose tissue metabolism by the ECS, and we discuss novel treatment options including the modulation of endocannabinoid synthesis and breakdown enzymes.”
“Early-life stress (ELS) creates life-long vulnerability to stress-related anxiety disorders through altering stress and fear systems in the brain.
The 
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