Reducing Dependency on Pain Medications

Recently we held a meeting at the Endocannabinoid System Club, and we hosted Dr. Felice, a naturopathic doctor as a guest speaker. He briefly touched on the topic of cannabidiol (CBD) for pain and inflammation management, but most importantly how CBD can enhance the effects of pain medication. This is important to note because pain medication has potentially negative side effects that can cause constipation, cause sedation and cloudy thinking, nausea and vomiting, dizziness, headaches, weakness, decreasing quality of life by leading to addiction, and depressing the respiratory drive, causing overdose related deaths (1). Overdose related deaths are destroying families around the world and it’s time we intervene.

As we all know, overdoses are way too common nowadays and anything we can use to decrease the number of overdose related deaths and decrease addiction is a huge win for humanity! This is where it gets interesting.  CBD was shown to enhance the potential pain-relieving effects of various pain medications, allowing us to use a lower dose of the pain medication (oxycodone, etc.) and still get the same, if not higher relief. This means allowing us to reach the threshold of pain relief, while using a lower dose of the pain medication, which can reduce the negative effects that pain medication has, including overdose related deaths!

The best relief for chronic pain and inflammation using cannabinoids is documented using CBD and THC in a 1:1 ratio (2). Our Blackberry Buzz gummies are a 1:1 ratio of CBD and THC, containing 10mg of CBD and 10mg of THC. Although I would suggest using something like cannabinoids entirely for pain management (when possible) studies show that we can include CBD to enhance the potential effects of pain medication. This means that we can include CBD for those dealing with pain and use a lower dose of pain medication, but still get the same, if not more relief. We can improve the quality of life of those dealing with acute and chronic pain by reducing or eliminating the dose of pain medications by including cannabinoids for pain management. 

This is something we have been praying for decades and it is finally here! The people finally have access to something that is safe and effective and much more health promoting when it comes to pain management. Cheers to improving the quality of life for our friends and family around the world! Plant medicine at its best. 

Bee Well,

Brandon Farless

References

2. Argueta, D. A., Ventura, C. M., Kiven, S., Sagi, V., & Gupta, K. (2020). A Balanced Approach for Cannabidiol Use in Chronic Pain.Frontiers in pharmacology, 11, 561. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2020.00561