Join Florissant budtenders Dr. Bex Johnson and Jeff Rowse as Dr. Bex walks us through how to do a medicine cabinet makeover at Feel State Florissant, recorded live on 1/24/22.
0:00 Find us on Instagram
1:28 Welcome
1:50 U.S. Prescription Statistics
3:44 How Cannabis Can Help
5:05 Cannabis Use Statistics
6:37 How Cannabis and Prescriptions are Different
7:55 How to do a Medicine Cabinet Makeover
8:11 Blue Dream for Pain Management
9:08 Weening off Opioids
9:47 Cannabis for Sleep
11:03 Cold Medication Replacements
11:32 Cannabis for Nausea
12:19 Cannabis for Skincare and Acne
12:57 Can cannabis prevent COVID?
14:51 Saying hello!
15:09 What's your favorite product right now?
16:49 What's coming up next?
17:49 What's the difference between rosin and resin?
BEX: Good evening everyone! Welcome to episode 13 of The Feels. I’m Dr. Bex, back from MLK day, and with me, as always, is our own canna-connoisseur, Jeff Rowse. Today on the Feels…It’s time for a medicine cabinet makeover, y’all! More than one hundred thirty one million people—sixty six percent of all adults in the United States—use pharmaceutical drugs, and they’re taking more than ever.
JEFF: Those who use scripts take four different pills on average. They may also take over-the-counter drugs, vitamins, and other dietary supplements. That’s a full medicine cabinet! Pharmaceutical use is particularly high for older people and those with chronic conditions. Those scripts are costly, too. Americans spend more on prescription drugs than anyone else in the world.2 Average costs are about twelve hundred dollars per person per year. That’s a lot of pills.
BEX: It’s also true that we can reduce the amount of pharmaceuticals we consume. Forty nine percent of regular pharmaceutical drug users asked their prescribers whether they can stop taking a drug, and seventy one percent were able to eliminate at least one.3 Ellen Kunes, leader of Consumer Report’s Health and Food Content Development Team, said, quote “We can see that when consumers ask if they can stop taking at least one of their medications, in the majority of cases, their doctors agree.”
JEFF: Coincidentally, in 2018, sixty seven percent of doctors were in favor of using cannabis for medical purposes. And a whopping eighty five percent of American adults approve of medical cannabis use.4 That steep statistic likely holds true simply for the fact that growingly known to all, the therapeutic properties of cannabis are nearly infinite, as more and more are discovered each day.
BEX: It is both factual and evidence-based that cannabis helps with physical health, mental health, and disease-treatment and prevention. In terms of physical health it is a pain reliever or analgesic. It reduces inflammation that can cause pain. It relieves muscle spasms. It reduces convulsions. What can’t cannabis do?
JEFF: In terms of mental health, cannabis is an antidepressant and an anxiolytics. That means it reduces depression and anxiety. Cannabis is an anti-insomnia agent and a psychotropic in some instances. That means it produces a “high.”
BEX: Lastly, in terms of disease treatment and prevention, it is an antibacterial agent and an antioxidant. Cannabis functions as an anti-epileptic and an antiproliferative, meaning it prevents the spread of harmful cells. It's also an antioxidant that protects the body from the free radicals that destroy cells.
JEFF: Lastly, cannabis acts as a neuroprotectant. That means it protects our nervous system. Cannabis can also relieve symptoms associated with HIV/AIDS, cancer, Alzheimer's disease, Crohn's disease, epilepsy and glaucoma—to name very few.
BEX: Now, the use of medical cannabis is increasing, most commonly for pain, anxiety, and depression. Emerging data suggest that use and abuse of pharmaceutical drugs may be decreasing in states where medical cannabis is legal. In 2017, a cross-sectional study conducted in Washington state, surveyed a couple thousand cannabis users. They wanted to determine whether participants had intentionally substituted cannabis for pharmaceutical drugs.
JEFF: Their findings revealed that forty six percent of participants indeed had substituted–and that was five years ago! Do you know how the popularity of cannabis has gained since then?! Just imagine how many people now have made the big switch to cannabis for relief. The most common classes of drugs substituted were narcotics/opioids, anxiolytics/benzodiazepines and antidepressants.
BEX: In the 2020 Department of Health and Senior Services 2020 annual report on the medical marijuana program, thirty percent of the sixty nine thousand, three hundred and ninety three Missourians that got their medical card last year did so to help relieve themselves of a physical or psychological dependence on pharmaceuticals. You can expect that number to grow in next year's report.
JEFF: Cannabis and pharmaceuticals have a cornucopia of similarities: those same exact previously mentioned therapeutic properties–ranging from analgesics to anxiolytics–are exhibited in prescribed pharmaceuticals. Where they differ, however, in that cannabis is commonly becoming seen as the lesser of “two evils.”
BEX: Take narcotics or opioids for example. The studies I’ve read indicate that cannabis may be a viable tool in targeting the adverse effects of opioid use. Some American states have recently modified their medical cannabis laws by allowing patients to substitute their prescribed opioids with medical cannabis. What this means: is that the medical value of cannabis appears to be based not only on what cannabis is, but also on what cannabis is not.
JEFF: This perception has been described in a qualitative study of physicians in Israel, where cannabis was presented as a justified treatment option as “the lesser of two evils.” They presented this by emphasizing problems in standard medications.
BEX: Jeff, we’ve been talking for three pages. It’s time to join the wave of all these studies we’ve discussed, and flip our pharmaceuticals into cannabis: it’s time for my infamous medicine cabinet makeover!
JEFF: Take it away, Doc!
BEX: We cannot start this medicine cabinet makeover segment without first talking about the magical Blue Dream from Flora Farms, currently in stock here at Feel State Florissant. Now, you can switch out a pharmaceutical or two for Blue Dream. Take pain medication, as our first example. Consider swapping out your NSAIDS like aspirin or ibuprofen. That’s because Blue Dream has terpenes like myrcene and pinene which have wonderful anti-inflammatory properties.
JEFF: Not to mention cannabinoids like THC and CBD. Both help with aching joints and swollen muscles due to their anti-inflammatory properties. And we all know, the only thing we want to swell is the love in our hearts. So get down here quick. Because our patients already knew about Blue Dream before we told you, and we have limited quantities left.
BEX: Now, there are many, many Missourians wanting to wean themselves off of opioids. Cannabis could be a good replacement because of its analgesic or pain-relieving properties. So, switch on over to Bubba Fett, Grand Daddy Purp or any chemovar with terpenes such as linalool, limonene, beta-caryophyllene, or myrcene. Also, those muscle relaxants in your medicine cabinet can be swapped out; as cannabis is effective for making spasticity and stiffness more tolerable.
JEFF: Doc, I can tell our viewers from personal experience that cannabis
can also be considered as a swap out for sleeping pills. Now, I never took sleeping pills. I don’t take any OTC medications. But cannabis, when consumed in certain quantities, can make me sleepy. Like really sleepy. Chemovars with the terpenes myrcene, linalool, and nerolidol should have some nicely sedating properties to them. You would definitely want to consider taking Illicit’s Creamz for a whirl.
BEX: Or, if smoking isn’t your thing, we have Vivid Dream capsules. Each capsule has ten milligrams of THC and ten milligrams of CBN. And, as we’ve discussed on past episodes of The Feels, CBN, when combined with THC, produced a sleepier effect than either on their own. That’s why we also have Nighttime Robots. Each piece contains ten milligrams of THC and twenty milligrams of CBN.
JEFF: This is a good time to add that cold medications are common amongst medicine cabinets, and can commonly be swapped out for cannabis products as it combats some symptoms related to colds. Round about a month or so ago, I got the flu. Since I didn’t want to smoke, for three days I nursed a bottle of Keef two hundred milligram Strawberry Kiwi, non-carbonated beverage. It was all I needed to remain comfortable all weekend.
BEX: If you’re feeling nauseous, perhaps replace that big bottle of Pepto-Bismol or box of Alka Seltzer with a Wynk one to one ratioed seltzer. Each seltzer has five milligrams of THC and five milligrams of CBD. Both cannabinoids are known anti-emetics. But if the bubbles are too much, then flower will do the trick. A recent University of New Mexico study confirmed that cannabis, when smoked or vaped, resulted in quote, “an average symptom improvement of nearly four points on a zero to ten scale just moments after consumption, with increasing benefits over time.”
JEFF: Ladies, now that I think about it, you could supplement Ponds cold cream with Amend’s 1 to 1 to 1 ratioed lotion. The CBC acts as a cellular regenerator, helping to tighten the skin after you’ve removed your makeup. And the THC and CBD have the potential to help with acne due to their anti-inflammatory properties. So you might be able to clear some cabinet space by saying goodbye to your acne cream.
BEX: The news has been alive with two stories about cannabis being able to prevent Covid. In one, researchers from Oregon State University showed via a chemical screening technique, that CBGA and CBDA bind to the Covid spike protein and block a critical step in the process the virus uses to infect people. Now, smoking flower or vaping would not be the correct ingestion method because the acidic forms of the cannabinoids are needed.
JEFF: The other story broke four days ago when researchers published a paper claiming CBD prevented the spread of Covid in mice by blocking the ability of Covid to replicate itself after infecting a host.9 Now, we here at The Feels are by no means suggesting you throw away your home Covid testing kits, wear or don’t wear a mask or get or don’t get vaccinated. We are simply informing you of two recent news stories that have gotten the cannabis community very excited.
BEX: In fact, this episode of the Feels is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as medical advice. If there are medications you want to stop using, please consult your doctor or physician first. Pharmaceuticals, when on a continued regimen and suddenly discontinued, can be a danger to your health.
JEFF: I think we’ve dropped enough knowledge, Doc. Why don’t we go to our Producer, Nick, to see if we have any questions from the audience.
JEFF: That’s going to do it for this episode of The Feels. If anyone wants access to any of the studies we discussed tonight, reach out to Dr. Bex or I at info@myfeelstate.com. You can also wait until this episode is posted on our blog at myfeelstate.com. Once posted, not only will the full transcript of today’s episode be available for you, but links to the studies as well. Shout out to Kristen Williams from hempsley.com for the awesome job she does!
Also, this is the last week Feel State Florissant is collecting goods for TEAM: The Emergency Assistance Ministry. Thank you, to each and every one of you for tuning in. Next week we are going to be discussing specific ailments and the chemovars that might help provide relief.
