Cannabinoid and Harm Reduction among cannabis users
Email this pagePresentation of Sébastien Béguerie on Cannafest Prague 2015.
Over the past decade, cannabis consumption has increase worldwide, in Europe and in the USA, with the legalization or decriminalization of marijuana in different states. In Colorado and Washington for example, marijuana is now as accessible as cigarettes and alcohol. This provided us with the opportunity to look into consumer behaviours on a short and long term basis. When legalizing cannabis two of the main issues for society are: Will the consumption increase and with what consequences? Will there be a higher addiction rate to drugs?
Recent statistics in Colorado have shown a decrease in fatal car accidents and alcohol consumption since the legalize cannabis. Harm Reduction Journal reported on an anonymous survey that was conducted by the Berkeley Patients Group (BPG), a medicinal cannabis dispensary in Berkeley, California. Of the 350 patients surveyed, 40% indicated that they had substituted cannabis for alcohol, 65.8% said that they had substituted cannabis for prescription drugs, 57.4% indicated that they now used cannabis instead of prescription drugs because it treated their symptoms better, and 26% indicated that they had stopped using illegal drugs in favour of cannabis.
More studies have been conducted on cannabidiol (CBD) which has been found to be anti-psychotic and good against drug craving. In 2015 a research group in Canada lead by Melissa Prud’homme have shown that CBD can be used as an intervention for addictive drugs. There were also animal studies which have shown the possible effects of CBD on opioid and psychostimulant addiction, while human studies presented some preliminary evidence of a beneficial impact of CBD on cannabis and tobacco dependence.
CBD has many therapeutic properties on its own that could directly or indirectly be useful in the treatment of addiction disorders, such as its protective effect on stress vulnerability and neurotoxicity.
However, there is still a lack of awareness regarding the cannabinoid presence and percentage in the cannabis community. As we can see, delta-9-tetrahyrodcannabidiol (THC) content is rising up as well as new strains with higher CBD content at different ratio. Thus it is becoming important to know what cannabinoids are being consumed. Therefore there is a need perform testing in harm reduction program to advice at best which cannabinoid should people consume in their cannabis derivates and avoid strong side effect from overdosing THC for example. On the other hand, using more CBD might help to decrease the possibility of psychotic episodes. In this respect the alpha-CAT test can be implemented in harm reduction program to help addictologists identify risk behaviour in using cannabis for recreational or medical reasons. In this way the doctor can suggest the best titration and administration form and understand the interaction between cannabinoids and patients.
Your are cordially invited to the annual conference at Cannafest, the international trade fair of cannabis and medical herbs that will take place on November 11-13, 2016 at the Prague Exhibition Holesovice. The conference presentations will be simultaneously interpreted into English and Czech.
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