CannMed Coffee Talk

Our guest in this episode is Dr. Mauro Maccarrone. Mauro is a pioneer in endocannabinoid research. In 1997, his team identified the receptor targets for the first two endocannabinoids that were discovered by Professor Raphael Mechoulam earlier in the decade: anandamide and 2-AG. Since then, the endocannabinoid system has been the focus of his research.  At CannMed 2021 he will present "The Complex Endocannabinoid System and the Challenge of Developing Selective Drugs towards its Distinct Elements". 

Dr. Maccarrone's understanding of the ECS is exceptional and I really enjoyed picking his brain on some of the topics that have come up in conversations with other podcast guests. 

Topics discussed include: 

The technical challenges that prevented researchers from understanding the endocannabinoid system until the early 90sHow the discovery of the endocannabinoid system changed medical research and drug development The difference between endocannabinoids and phytocannabinoids The large number of enzymes involved in synthesizing and cleaving each endocannabinoid and how blocking or enhancing those enzymes can affect the concentration of endocannabinoids in a person’s bodyHow endocannabinoids work together to create an entourage effect How an increased level of endocannabinoids can help you forget a painful experience like childbirth or a difficult run. Why researchers need to agree on a standardized formulation of cannabinoids to use for research 

Thanks to our Sponsor: Cannabis Science and Technology

Cannabis Science and Technology focuses on educating the legal cannabis industry about the science and technology of analytical testing, quality control/assurance, extraction, cultivation, and processing/manufacturing. In October Cannabis Science & Technology launched a new brand, Cannabis Patient Care, which is an educational resource for patients, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and caregivers on the latest research, benefits, and treatment options cannabis provides for a variety of illnesses.

Also check out The Hemp Coffee Exchange and use the promo code “drinkhemp” to get 10% off your purchase.

Additional Resources:

CannMed Community Facebook GroupEndocannabinoid signaling at the periphery: 50 years after THCPubMed archive of publications featuring Dr. Maccarrone

Our guest this week is Dr. Staci Gruber, Director of the Cognitive and Clinical Neuroimaging Core at McLean Hospital’s Brain Imaging Center and an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Gruber has spent decades investigating how both recreational and medical cannabis use affects the brain. In 2014, Dr. Gruber launched Marijuana Investigations for Neuroscientific Discovery (MIND), the first-ever program of its kind designed to clarify the specific effects of medical cannabis use. 

What she and her team have found is that not only do medical cannabis patients tend to perform better on cognitive tests when compared to recreational users, but medical cannabis patients tend to outperform themselves when compared to tests administered before they started treatment. 

Staci and explores why this is the case in the podcast, as well as results from MIND’s double-blind, placebo-controlled CBD clinical trial for anxiety, which used a high-CBD whole-plant extract. Interesting observations from the study include:

Patients' performance on cognitive tests improved after starting treatmentPatients reported using smaller doses of the whole-plant extract than patients in trials using single-compound therapeuticsSome patients still tested positive for THC despite the fact that the hemp-derived extract contained less than .3mg/mL of THC.  

Thanks to our Sponsor: Healer

Healer is a trusted, physician-developed medical cannabis brand founded to address the challenges of helping patients and health providers get the best results with safe, reliably dosable products and education on how to best use them. Healer’s distinctive product formulations and educational material are based on the work of leading cannabis clinician, Dr. Dustin Sulak, D.O.   

Dr. Sulak's Healer Hemp CBD and CBDA products are available nationwide and are accompanied with a step-by-step usage guide and response tracker.  Visit HealerCBD.com and use coupon code CannMed for 20% off your order.

Also check out The Hemp Coffee Exchange and use the promo code “drinkhemp” to get 10% off your purchase.

Additional Resources:

CannMed Community Facebook GroupDrStaciGruber.comIt’s Not Easy Being Green: Assessing the Impact of Medical Marijuana on Cognition, Mood, Brain Function and Related Measures – CannMed 2017 Presentation

Our guest this week is Dr. Staci Gruber, Director of the Cognitive and Clinical Neuroimaging Core at McLean Hospital’s Brain Imaging Center and an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Gruber has spent decades investigating how both recreational and medical cannabis use affects the brain. In 2014, Dr. Gruber launched Marijuana Investigations for Neuroscientific Discovery (MIND), the first-ever program of its kind designed to clarify the specific effects of medical cannabis use. 

What she and her team have found is that not only do medical cannabis patients tend to perform better on cognitive tests when compared to recreational users, but medical cannabis patients tend to outperform themselves when compared to tests administered before they started treatment. 

Staci and explores why this is the case in the podcast, as well as results from MIND’s double-blind, placebo-controlled CBD clinical trial for anxiety, which used a high-CBD whole-plant extract. Interesting observations from the study include:

Patients' performance on cognitive tests improved after starting treatmentPatients reported using smaller doses of the whole-plant extract than patients in trials using single-compound therapeuticsSome patients still tested positive for THC despite the fact that the hemp-derived extract contained less than .3mg/mL of THC.  

Thanks to our Sponsor: Healer

Healer is a trusted, physician-developed medical cannabis brand founded to address the challenges of helping patients and health providers get the best results with safe, reliably dosable products and education on how to best use them. Healer’s distinctive product formulations and educational material are based on the work of leading cannabis clinician, Dr. Dustin Sulak, D.O.   

Dr. Sulak's Healer Hemp CBD and CBDA products are available nationwide and are accompanied with a step-by-step usage guide and response tracker.  Visit HealerCBD.com and use coupon code CannMed for 20% off your order.

Also check out The Hemp Coffee Exchange and use the promo code “drinkhemp” to get 10% off your purchase.

Additional Resources:

CannMed Community Facebook GroupDrStaciGruber.comIt’s Not Easy Being Green: Assessing the Impact of Medical Marijuana on Cognition, Mood, Brain Function and Related Measures – CannMed 2017 Presentation

On this episode, we talked with tissue culture expert, Mark Jordan. Mark is currently the Chief Executive Officer at Minibis headquartered in Longmont, CO, where he started a tissue culture lab dedicated to Cannabis research and development. His previous positions include work at Colorado Seed Incorporated, Eurofins Biodiagnostics, and the Denver Botanic Gardens. While at the Denver Botanic Gardens Mark worked as the Research Horticulturist, running the protocol creation tissue cultural lab, as well as a breeding program for Scutellaria and Dracocephalum. This experience allowed him to understand the potential for the application of tissue culture for the Cannabis industry and set him on the path he is now. 

As you might expect, Mark and I spent a lot of time talking about the tissue culture process. Mark was kind enough to walk me through the basics of process including the four stages of plant tissue culture.  We also got into: 

How tissue culture propagation differs from clonal propagation How tissue culture can be used to remediate plants infected with pathogens or viruses Germinating seeds in tissue culture Dark rooting in tissue culture and more 

Even if you’ve never grown a cannabis plant before, I think you will find this conversation interesting. I know I did. 

Thanks to our sponsor Dark Heart Nursery. Visit darkheartnursery.com to learn more.

Also check out The Hemp Coffee Exchange and use the promo code “drinkhemp” to get 10% off your purchase.

Additional Resources:

CannMed Community Facebook GroupCannabis Tissue Culture and Germplasm Storage - CannMed 2019 Presentation

On this episode, we talked with tissue culture expert, Mark Jordan. Mark is currently the Chief Executive Officer at Minibis headquartered in Longmont, CO, where he started a tissue culture lab dedicated to Cannabis research and development. His previous positions include work at Colorado Seed Incorporated, Eurofins Biodiagnostics, and the Denver Botanic Gardens. While at the Denver Botanic Gardens Mark worked as the Research Horticulturist, running the protocol creation tissue cultural lab, as well as a breeding program for Scutellaria and Dracocephalum. This experience allowed him to understand the potential for the application of tissue culture for the Cannabis industry and set him on the path he is now. 

As you might expect, Mark and I spent a lot of time talking about the tissue culture process. Mark was kind enough to walk me through the basics of process including the four stages of plant tissue culture.  We also got into: 

How tissue culture propagation differs from clonal propagation How tissue culture can be used to remediate plants infected with pathogens or viruses Germinating seeds in tissue culture Dark rooting in tissue culture and more 

Even if you’ve never grown a cannabis plant before, I think you will find this conversation interesting. I know I did. 

Thanks to our sponsor Dark Heart Nursery. Visit darkheartnursery.com to learn more.

Also check out The Hemp Coffee Exchange and use the promo code “drinkhemp” to get 10% off your purchase.

Additional Resources:

CannMed Community Facebook GroupCannabis Tissue Culture and Germplasm Storage - CannMed 2019 Presentation

On this episode we welcome Dr. Marion McNabb, President of the Cannabis Center of Excellence INC and CEO of Cannabis Community Care and Research Network (C3RN). Marion is a Public Health Doctor by training that has nearly 20 years of global and domestic public health experience.

Her team recently completed a veterans’ health and medical cannabis research study with the goal of gathering information from U.S. military veterans regarding their current health conditions, conventional medical treatments, medical cannabis use and its effectiveness with self-reported health conditions and symptoms.

We talked a lot about the veteran’s study as well as other public health topics related to medical cannabis, including 

How military veterans use cannabis to treat a variety of conditions and reduce dependence on other medicationsWhat barriers veterans face when trying to access medical cannabisWhat programs have been established to assist veterans with the cost of cannabis medicineHow veterans’ use of medical cannabis compares to the general populationHow has the COVID-19 pandemic changed cannabis use in terms of frequency, purchasing habits, and conditionsHow implementing proper testing led to the eventual lift of the vape ban in MassachusettsHow the vote to legalize adult-use cannabis in New Jersey affects the issues of public health, social justice, and advocacy

Thanks to our sponsor, Cannabis Science and Technology. Cannabis Science and Technology is proud to present a special supplement and free virtual Veterans Day e-Symposium focused on medical cannabis treatment for veterans with PTSD. The supplement and symposium will feature Dr. Marion McNabb and the data she uncovered in her 2019 Veterans Health and Medical Cannabis Study. In addition, the supplement will include articles with Dr. Staci Gruber, veteran patient Stephen Mandile, a VA caregiver, a nurse, and medical cannabis advocates all heavily involved with this topic. The e-symposium will also feature a special panel discussion, organized by Stephen Mandile, with a group of veterans from across the country. Learn more at www.cannabissciencetech.com.

Also check out The Hemp Coffee Exchange and use the promo code “drinkhemp” to get 10% off your purchase.

Additional Resources:

2019 Veterans Health and Medical Cannabis Study with UMass Dartmouth2018 Open Cannabis Consumer and Patient Study with UMass DartmouthCOVID-19 Medical Cannabis Patient and Adult-Use Consumer StudyCOVID-19 and Cannabis - Where is the research? (webinar)New Jersey Cannabis Legalization and Social Justice Course New Jersey Cannabis Legalization and Social Justice Research Study (Collecting data until Nov 3. Students present findings Dec 3) Sign Up for Cannabis Center of Excellence Updates 

SIGN UP FOR PODCAST UPDATES AND ENTER TO WIN 2 VIP DINNER TICKETS!

On this episode we welcome Dr. Marion McNabb, President of the Cannabis Center of Excellence INC and CEO of Cannabis Community Care and Research Network (C3RN). Marion is a Public Health Doctor by training that has nearly 20 years of global and domestic public health experience.

Her team recently completed a veterans’ health and medical cannabis research study with the goal of gathering information from U.S. military veterans regarding their current health conditions, conventional medical treatments, medical cannabis use and its effectiveness with self-reported health conditions and symptoms.

We talked a lot about the veteran’s study as well as other public health topics related to medical cannabis, including 

How military veterans use cannabis to treat a variety of conditions and reduce dependence on other medicationsWhat barriers veterans face when trying to access medical cannabisWhat programs have been established to assist veterans with the cost of cannabis medicineHow veterans’ use of medical cannabis compares to the general populationHow has the COVID-19 pandemic changed cannabis use in terms of frequency, purchasing habits, and conditionsHow implementing proper testing led to the eventual lift of the vape ban in MassachusettsHow the vote to legalize adult-use cannabis in New Jersey affects the issues of public health, social justice, and advocacy

Thanks to our sponsor, Cannabis Science and Technology. Cannabis Science and Technology is proud to present a special supplement and free virtual Veterans Day e-Symposium focused on medical cannabis treatment for veterans with PTSD. The supplement and symposium will feature Dr. Marion McNabb and the data she uncovered in her 2019 Veterans Health and Medical Cannabis Study. In addition, the supplement will include articles with Dr. Staci Gruber, veteran patient Stephen Mandile, a VA caregiver, a nurse, and medical cannabis advocates all heavily involved with this topic. The e-symposium will also feature a special panel discussion, organized by Stephen Mandile, with a group of veterans from across the country. Learn more at www.cannabissciencetech.com.

Also check out The Hemp Coffee Exchange and use the promo code “drinkhemp” to get 10% off your purchase.

Additional Resources:

2019 Veterans Health and Medical Cannabis Study with UMass Dartmouth2018 Open Cannabis Consumer and Patient Study with UMass DartmouthCOVID-19 Medical Cannabis Patient and Adult-Use Consumer StudyCOVID-19 and Cannabis - Where is the research? (webinar)New Jersey Cannabis Legalization and Social Justice Course New Jersey Cannabis Legalization and Social Justice Research Study (Collecting data until Nov 3. Students present findings Dec 3) Sign Up for Cannabis Center of Excellence Updates 

SIGN UP FOR PODCAST UPDATES AND ENTER TO WIN 2 VIP DINNER TICKETS!

On this episode we welcome Dr. Kevin Spelman from the National University of Natural Medicine. Kevin has a wealth of knowledge when it comes to medicinal plant, nutraceutical, and cannabinoid research and has authored 29 peer-reviewed publications on medicinal plants. Over the last 30 years, he has coordinated new product development, formulated product lines, advised on analytical and QC guidelines, research activity and educational curriculums for industry and universities.

Dr. Spelman will share his knowledge and expertise as an instructor for our CannMed Medical Practicum, taking place Monday, April 12th. After that eight-hour course, attendees will walk away with practical information about clinical applications, dosing strategies, potential drug interactions, special considerations for geriatric and pediatric patients, and more. 

Kevin also shared a lot of his knowledge with me in our conversation. Topics we hit on include: 

How the entourage effect includes more than just cannabinoids and terpenesHow plant-based medicines differ from single-molecule pharmaceuticals How plants use terpenes to communicate with each other How high levels of terpenes can be toxic How a plant's responses to environmental stresses can change its medicinal effects How at home extraction techniques compare to commercial processes And much more

Thanks to our sponsor, The American Cannabis Nurses Association. The ACNA is non-profit professional nursing organization that seeks to advance excellence in cannabis nursing practice through advocacy, collaboration, education, research, and policy development. The ACNA is comprised of a network of professional nurses across the country. They are rapidly growing and eagerly welcome more nurses who seek to learn about cannabis therapeutics and integrate it into their practice. The ACNA's annual Cannabis Care Conference is being held virtually December 6-8th, 2020.

Also check out The Hemp Coffee Exchange and use the promo code "drinkhemp" to get 10% off your purchase.

Additional Resources:

The Spelman Report

SIGN UP FOR PODCAST UPDATES AND ENTER TO WIN 2 VIP DINNER TICKETS!

On this episode we welcome Dr. Kevin Spelman from the National University of Natural Medicine. Kevin has a wealth of knowledge when it comes to medicinal plant, nutraceutical, and cannabinoid research and has authored 29 peer-reviewed publications on medicinal plants. Over the last 30 years, he has coordinated new product development, formulated product lines, advised on analytical and QC guidelines, research activity and educational curriculums for industry and universities.

Dr. Spelman will share his knowledge and expertise as an instructor for our CannMed Medical Practicum, taking place Monday, April 12th. After that eight-hour course, attendees will walk away with practical information about clinical applications, dosing strategies, potential drug interactions, special considerations for geriatric and pediatric patients, and more. 

Kevin also shared a lot of his knowledge with me in our conversation. Topics we hit on include: 

How the entourage effect includes more than just cannabinoids and terpenesHow plant-based medicines differ from single-molecule pharmaceuticals How plants use terpenes to communicate with each other How high levels of terpenes can be toxic How a plant's responses to environmental stresses can change its medicinal effects How at home extraction techniques compare to commercial processes And much more

Thanks to our sponsor, The American Cannabis Nurses Association. The ACNA is non-profit professional nursing organization that seeks to advance excellence in cannabis nursing practice through advocacy, collaboration, education, research, and policy development. The ACNA is comprised of a network of professional nurses across the country. They are rapidly growing and eagerly welcome more nurses who seek to learn about cannabis therapeutics and integrate it into their practice. The ACNA's annual Cannabis Care Conference is being held virtually December 6-8th, 2020.

Also check out The Hemp Coffee Exchange and use the promo code "drinkhemp" to get 10% off your purchase.

Additional Resources:

The Spelman Report

SIGN UP FOR PODCAST UPDATES AND ENTER TO WIN 2 VIP DINNER TICKETS!

This episode’s guest is Jordan Zager, co-founder and CEO of Dewey Scientific. Jordan is an expert in cannabis genetics and natural product biosynthesis, having authored multiple research papers in the fields of trichome development and metabolism, mathematical modeling of biochemical pathways, and functional genomics. 

Jordan’s CannMed 2021 presentation is titled "Gene Networks Underlying Cannabinoid and Terpenoid Accumulation in Cannabis" and in it, he will explore the biochemical processes the cannabis plant uses to create cannabinoids and how each cultivar’s unique genetics plays a role. 

Topics we covered in the interview include:

The problems cannabis and hemp growers are trying to solve via genetics. How lighting and temperature influences gene expression in cannabis plants and the cannabinoids and terpenes they produce   The Potential for minor cannabinoids to become more dominat in future cultivars How just how far behind cannabis genomics research is when compared to other crops

Thanks to our sponsor, The Scientist Magazine. The Scientist is a seriously refreshing source of life-science research news and a forum for in-depth explorations of issues important to both scientists and the science-curious public. 

Also check out The Hemp Coffee Exchange and use the promo code "drinkhemp" to get 10% off your purchase.

Additional Resources:

Gene Networks Underlying Cannabinoid and Terpenoid Accumulation in Cannabis - Plant Physiology paperDewey Scientific website

SIGN UP FOR PODCAST UPDATES AND ENTER TO WIN 2 VIP DINNER TICKETS!