Medical Cannabis for Pain Relief ― Dedicated to Veterans

The general public is dying in record numbers from opioid overdosing. Veterans are dying at twice the rate of the general public from opioid overdosing. Imagine what this is like for veterans. It is so much worse for them in an already bad situation.

Opioids have proven efficacy and relative safety treating acute pain and pain during terminal illness.

Opioids do not have proven efficacy or safety for treating chronic pain in the long term (Kowal 2015).

Ninety days is often used as a parameter for defining chronic pain. Studies show that after ninety days of continuous use, opioid treatment is more likely to become lifelong. Studies show that patients who continue opioids for more than ninety days tend to be high-risk patients (Kowal 2015).

Ten states with medical cannabis laws had a 24.8 percent lower mean annual opioid overdose mortality rate compared with states without medical cannabis laws.

Excerpts from the book: Pain is stressful, and the body reacts by tensing muscle around that pain. Tensing one’s muscles is usually an unconscious and habitual response to pain, which only makes the pain cycle worse. It can become an unconscious response. Nonetheless, this contraction response stresses the body even further. Muscle tension further compounds the pain cycle by restricting blood flow to the tense and painful area. This in turn restricts oxygen and nutrients to the area to keep the tissue healthy. This further compounds the problem by preventing metabolic waste from leaving the affected area. When lactic acid and other irritating metabolic waste build up due to lack of blood flow, the irritation from the metabolic acid waste causes what is called muscular “trigger points.”

When nutritional stress or environmental, emotional, and other leading causes of stress deplete us, this depletion can also lead to a condition now known as “Endocannabinoid Deficiency Syndrome” or “Clinical Endocannabinoid Deficiency.”

The sympathetic stress response, when it fires, puts demands and stress on our systems. It uses up more raw materials and fuels, such as vitamins, minerals, and hormones. All systems of the body will suffer from prolonged stress, which leads to depletions—not only physiological depletions, but depletions of emotions, mind, and spirit. Pain is stressful and easily can wear us out. The endocannabinoid system can be depleted or compromised under stress.

Chemical exposures to pesticides and environmental toxins can also compromise the endocannabinoid system (eCS) and the body’s ability to produce neurohormones. When nutritional stress or environmental, emotional, and other leading causes of stress deplete us, this depletion can also lead to a condition now known as “Endocannabinoid Deficiency Syndrome” or “Clinical Endocannabinoid Deficiency.”

Medications that help mood, especially the SSRI class of antidepressant, inhibit reuptake of serotonin, in order to leave more for use if there was ever a shortage, in theory. The endocannabinoid system, when functioning properly, will stimulate the presynaptic neuron to make more serotonin and tell the presynaptic neuron how much to fire. So how will the eCS impact psychiatry?

The nervous system is responsible for pain, no doubt, but the endocannabinoid system is responsible for the nervous system. Maybe this is why so many people get pain relief from cannabis. The eCS system helps to regulate neurotransmission, and neurotransmission is how we experience pain.