www.nationalpainreport.com/a-new-documentary-chronicling-the-scary-truth-about-our-pain-problem-8838786.html

There are no marathon runs for chronic pain, no walks for its cure. Yet chronic pain disables some 25% of the population in developed countries such as Canada and the U.S.A. This is no small disease. In Canada, chronic pain costs the economy an estimated 60 billion annually in treatment, lost wages & productivity; in the U.S.A. a staggering 634 billion.

Those who suffer with intractable pain in North America now outnumber heart disease, cancer & diabetes patients combined. The current media focus on “The Opioid Crisis,” a dramatic but not necessarily more serious issue – has unfortunately resulted in a profound loss of care for chronic pain sufferers who in many cases are being undertreated- with dire consequences. This burgeoning epidemic is largely ignored &underfunded.

Pain Warriors by award winning filmmakers Tina Petrova and Eugene Weis, examines with unflinching truth “the forgotten ones.” Long time pain patients denied life giving medications by government policies can be driven to suicide while some doctors who bravely fight to uphold their Hippocratic oath are threatened with loss of license, livelihood and even criminal charges that can lead to incarceration. Would we take away someone’s insulin, beta blocker or Warfarin because a small percentile of the population found a way to monetize those drugs and get high off them? Are the human rights of pain patients being sacrificed for politically expedient policies, and extreme cuts to patient care costs?

Pain Warriors serves up a plate of disturbing truth: chronic pain patients face a lifelong battle with no cure in sight. They build their lives around managing pain and struggle to perform simple every day functions like walking or shopping for food. Their demographic is invisible, shunned and disbelieved. And yet “they” “could be “us” in a flash. We are all a car accident, a surgery, or a degenerative condition away from this tragic outcome. This brave documentary shines a light on patients fighting for the right to manage severe pain, including an eleven-year old who draws his pain as long toothed monsters, as well as specialists prevented from helping their patients achieve a small degree of comfort and dignity through pain control. Tragically, when opioids and other medications are suddenly withdrawn because of a blanket “one-size-fits-all” legislation, doctors and patients alike are being left with nowhere to turn. From the somber spreading of ashes at Newport Beach Ca. to H.H. The Dalai Lama’s hospital in Zanskar India, viewers are swept up in a stunning cinematic journey featuring gripping stories from the trenches.

Pain Warriors~ enters into the desperate lives of pain patients fighting for their very survival, families torn apart by suicide, and the troubled worlds of compassionate doctors who stand up for them, risking reputations and licenses in doing so. Tina and Eugene bring a balanced view, to a timely issue. painwarriorsmovie@gmail.com/ www.painwarriorsmovie.com

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Twin Lakes police captain accused of illegally removing prescription medication from department

https://fox6now.com/2019/02/18/twin-lakes-police-captain-accused-of-illegally-removing-prescription-medication-from-department/

TWIN LAKES — Captain Dennis Linn, the second in command at the Twin Lakes Police Department, was placed on administrative leave amid an investigation into allegations he illegally removed prescription medication from the department.

In 2016, Captain Linn was awarded for 20 years of service, and on Monday, Feb. 18, FOX6 confirmed the Twin Lakes Police Department, along with the Wisconsin Department of Justice’s Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) launched an investigation into allegations against him.

According to an affidavit, comments Linn made to a fellow detective in the evidence room raised “red flags.” Captain Linn told the fellow detective his wife was in “a lot of pain” and was recently cut off from her prescriptions by her doctor. This, as Linn and the detective processed medication collected through the “Drug Take Back Program.” The affidavit said the detective was about to leave to get supplies when Linn said “I wouldn’t leave me down here. I don’t want to be suspected of anything, especially after I just told you about my wife.”

The detective stayed in the room and soon alerted the police chief when she noticed a bottle of oxycodone hidden inside a small garbage can.

According to the affidavit, a body camera was placed in the evidence room, which recorded Linn picking out an item from the garbage can at the end of his shift. The camera picked up sounds of “pills rattling.”

A search warrant executed at Linn’s home revealed three empty Walgreens prescription bottles, one for oxycodone and two for hydrocodone. The names on the bottles did not match Linn’s name or that of his spouse.

Marijuana concentrates and six twisted tissues with black material were taken — found in garbage cans at his home, according to the affidavit.

FOX6 News knocked on the door at Linn’s home Monday. No one answered. He has not been charged with a crime at this point, but the police chief said the investigation is ongoing — including a separate, internal investigation into whether Linn violated any department policies or procedures.

Linn has been a full-time member of the Twin Lakes Police Department since 2002.

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Attorneys for ex-DEA agent Chad Scott say prosecutors retaliated against defense witness

https://www.theadvocate.com/new_orleans/news/courts/article_191e2f6a-354b-11e9-83da-cba26c0974a5.html

In a sharply worded new court filing, attorneys for indicted former federal drug agent Chad Scott are accusing federal prosecutors of improperly retaliating against a defense witness. They are asking the judge to dismiss the charges against Scott as a result.

The broadside, filed Tuesday in federal court, is the latest in a series of blistering motions filed by Scott’s attorneys, Matt Coman and Stephen Garcia. It comes less than three weeks after jurors were unable to reach a verdict on any of the seven counts Scott faced, forcing U.S. District Judge Jane Triche Milazzo to declare a mistrial.

In another motion, Coman and Garcia urge Milazzo to postpone the March 18 scheduled date for Scott’s retrial, arguing that they have crowded trial schedules and that it will be difficult to subpoena witnesses and experts for the second trial. 

Coman and Garcia reserved their strongest language for their motion to dismiss. 

Prosecutors ran afoul of the law when they “intimidated and retaliated against James ‘Skip’ Sewell after that witness testified and the first trial ended in mistrial,” Scott’s attorneys wrote. Their actions “must not be sanctioned by allowing this prosecution to continue.”

Sewell, one of three witnesses who testified for Scott, was a longtime, highly decorated DEA agent who had been Scott’s supervisor before Scott was suspended in 2016 as part of the investigation into the task force he led.

Sewell was also caught up in the probe. Although there were no allegations against him, he was put on light duty for more than a year while the investigation proceeded. He then retired — in good standing — from the DEA and went to work for 22nd Judicial District Attorney Warren Montgomery as an investigator.

During his time with Montgomery’s office, he was placed on a violent crime task force and was sworn in as a DEA task force officer in late 2018. But soon after his Jan. 30 trial testimony, he was notified by DEA brass that he was no longer on the task force. The government’s actions were ” ‘intentional and in bad faith,’ warranting the dismissal of the indictment with prejudice,” the defense filing says.

This is at least the second time that Scott’s legal team has accused prosecutors of misconduct. In June, they accused prosecutors of “framing” Scott and hiding evidence that supported his innocence. They asked Milazzo to toss out the indictment, but she refused.

In a separate filing, Coman and Garcia say that both of them have trial commitments in different parts of the country during late March and April, and that forcing them to reconvene to retry Scott at that time would place an undue burden on the defense. They also say they are trying to secure the testimony of an additional expert, which would be difficult given the quick turnaround of the trials. They suggest a trial date in September.

Scott faces 11 total charges, but last year, Milazzo split the counts into two trials. The first, on seven counts of obstruction, perjury and falsification of government forms, ended Feb. 4 in a mistrial. The trial on the remaining four counts is currently set for Oct. 1, though that date has been thrown into question by the status of the retrial on the first seven counts. 

Scott and some members of the Metairie-based task force he led have been the targets of an investigation that began more than three years ago. Two task force members, former Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office deputies Johnny Domingue and Karl Newman, have already pleaded guilty to federal crimes. Both testified for the prosecution in Scott’s trial.  

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Trump Administration Is No Friend to Pharmacy Benefit Managers Like CVS

https://realmoney.thestreet.com/investing/trump-administration-is-no-friend-to-pharmacy-benefit-managers-like-cvs-14872546

Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) are in for some problems if proposed regulation is given approval.

The usually business friendly Trump administration is not as amicably positioned for pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) like CVS Health Corp.  (CVS) .

Shares of the pharmacy, retail, and healthcare giant are slumping after its pre-market earnings report provided much weaker guidance than was expected.

A large degree of deceleration was noted in both PBM and long term care in the company’s report.

“In Retail/LTC and PBM, we expect our greatest level of year-over-year deterioration in Q1,” the company reported, while still holding out hope for pick-up in the latter half of the year.

The pressure on PBM specifically could intensify if proposals from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) are enacted.

Reading the Regulation

According to the department’s “American Patients First” proposal, released shortly after the State of the Union address earlier this month, it argues for a new “safe harbor” for prescription drug discounts offered directly to patients, as well as fixed fee service arrangements between drug manufacturers and PBMs would be created.

Under the proposed rule, prescription drug rebates, that are estimated to constitute up to 30% of the list price of drugs, may be passed on directly to patients in order to make transactions more transparent and streamlined.

“This proposal has the potential to be the most significant change in how Americans’ drugs are priced at the pharmacy counter, ever, and finally ease the burden of the sticker shock that millions of Americans experience every month for the drugs they need,” HHS Secretary Alex Azar said in a statement announcing the proposal.

The rule would offer prescription drug discounts directly to patients, as well as fixed fee service arrangements between drug manufacturers and PBMs.

If enacted, the deal would crush the preferred drug status offered to drug manufacturers in exchange for kickbacks to PBMs. The “kickback” rebates offered to PBMs provide a significant revenue stream to these providers, like CVS, especially for higher end drugs.

The rule could promote some bipartisan support as well.

Drug pricing has been a major platform for leading  Democrats like Representative Elijah Cummings of Maryland and recently announced Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, though the aforementioned senators have narrowed their focus far more to manufacturers than the Trump administration has.

Erin Taylor, a health economist at the RAND Corporation, told the Pew Trusts that the largest PBMs – [UnitedHealth Group’s (UNH) ] OptumRx, [Cigna (CIG)  owned] Express Scripts and CVS Caremark, are “practically oligopolists” with power that rivals that of the drug companies.

“They are the elephants going up against the gorillas, because they have so many covered lives,” Taylor said in the research report. “The concern has arisen that the PBMs are getting too big a piece of the pie and contributing to high prices.”

Considering a PBM like CVS has $47 billion up for renewal in 2019 in its PBM business, a clamp on this income is a key issue to follow in 2019 as the proposal is considered.

Rebuke of Regulation

The proposed rule provoked a strong reaction from CVS CEO Larry Merlo on Wednesday morning.

“We see the rebate rule taking us backwards, not forwards,” Merlo told analysts. “A small percentage of seniors may net out favorably…but as many as 70 percent of beneficiaries are going to be worse off.”

“We’re certainly weighing in during the comment period with our concerns with the rebate rule, but more importantly what we believe the appropriate solutions are to address the root cause,” he added.

Still, CFO Eva Boratto said that the company is well positioned to deal with the shifting regulatory environment.

“It is clear that the PBM industry is in the middle of an environmental change given the dialogue around rebate,” she acknowledged. “However, it is also clear that the PBM brings tremendous savings and value to the clients we serve. The importance of size, scale and customer relationship will continue to be paramount, and we remain focused on delivering the value our clients expect.”

The company has also worked to increase transparency independently, anticipating governmental requirements for the company.

This begins with the creation of a a new PBM contracting model that will maintain guaranteed costs and offer 100% of rebates to customers and seek to reduce costs overall.

Further, executive VP of pharmacy services and supply chain Kevin Hourican was bullish on the Aetna integration’s ability to mitigate regulatory and pricing impacts with the scale that Boratto cited.

“By owning a large insurer and owning the largest PBM, we can lead that change by structuring a contracting relationship that if we can lower overall health care costs, we can take some of the burden off the annual reimbursement reform,” he noted. “Where that will come from is the last thing I’ll say is we can prove through technology and clinical care programs that we can improve medication adherence.”

The rule, which would go into effect in 2020 if approved, was not optimistically observed by Merlo in terms of voter acceptance either.

He estimated the total cost of the legislation to the taxpayer at $200 billion over 10 years and would likely lead to many seniors leaving Medicare Part D coverage. He noted that this high cost signifies the proposal is not likely the best solution to bring forward.

As the presidential campaign season picks up and healthcare costs and drug pricing remains the number one issue in the mind of voters according to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, the progress of the proposal and the pushback from PBMs will be a pivotal issue to follow.

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Summa Health eliminating opioids from surgeries

https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/local-news/akron-canton-news/summa-health-eliminating-opioids-from-surgeries

AKRON, Ohio — Summa Health System has drastically reduced the use of opioids in surgeries at all of its hospitals as a direct result of the opioid crisis.

In 2017, Summa used narcotics in 98 percent of procedures, but now that number stands at 20 percent.

By the end of the year, the goal is to use narcotics in 10 percent or less of all surgeries.

“My goal is to eliminate the opiates from what we do in the operating room completely,” said Dr. Thomas Mark, the chairman of the anesthesiology department at Summa Health.

Mark said studies show addiction can start with just one dose of an opioid during surgery for up to six percent of patients.

“That’s unacceptable. We do 20,000 cases here at Summa. That means just because somebody had the audacity to have surgery, 450 people potentially face addiction,” Mark said.

Instead of relying on opiates, Summa is using regional blocks with local anesthetic that can last 24 to 36 hours, a continuous peripheral nerve block that can deliver medication directly to an affected area of the body, or a combination of over-the-counter pills, therapy and a pain management approach.

Mark said he’s also stressing to surgeons to cut down on the number of pain pills prescribed to patients after surgery – a trend he believes must continue to reduce the number of people who get hooked on narcotics and overdose.

For many people, pain pill addiction becomes a gateway to more dangerous drugs like heroin.

Nicole, a 32-year-old woman from Stow, told News 5 she became hooked on pain pills about 10 years ago.

“I would get them off the street and basically buy scripts off people,” she said.

She overdosed once on heroin and a second time on carfentanil, but has been clean for more than two years.

“I basically have to take it one day at a time and work with others to keep my sobriety.”

Since the changes, Summa reports a a higher satisfaction rating and patients returning home much earlier due to quicker recovery times.

Cleveland Clinic Akron General Medical Center has reduced the use of narcotics in colorectal surgeries to 17 percent and has also decreased opioid use in breast and bariatric procedures.

On March 5, the city of Green, the drug task force and Summa Health will discuss pre-operative and post-operative non-opioid pain management at Green City Hall. The event runs from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.

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Law enforcement pushes back on Michigan civil asset forfeiture reforms

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2019/02/19/law-enforcement-pushes-back-michigan-civil-asset-forfeiture-reforms/2913449002/

Lansing — Bipartisan legislation that would reform the state’s controversial civil asset forfeiture laws received pushback Tuesday from Michigan law enforcement.

The Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police voiced opposition in a state House committee to proposals that would require a conviction before police permanently forfeit up to $50,000 in property believed to be connected to a crime.

The association’s executive director, Robert Stevenson, said, by requiring a conviction, the legislation affords a higher level of protection for alleged drug dealers than others subject to civil proceedings or lawsuits.

“The federal government can seize your money for tax evasion without a criminal conviction,” Stevenson said. “Geoffrey Fieger has made a very good living seizing people’s money without any type of conviction. The state of Michigan can seize your property without a conviction. Any of you can go to small claims court today and get an order to seize somebody’s else’s property without a conviction.”

The bipartisan civil asset forfeiture reform plan would require a conviction before police could permanently seize or sell confiscated property worth less than $50,000.

The House Judiciary Committee heard testimony on the House-initiated legislation Tuesday as well as a similar package of bills that was passed last week by the Senate. The bills received the unique dual support of the left-leaning American Civil Liberties Union and the free-market-oriented Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

Rep. Graham Filler, chairman for the committee, said lawmakers are likely to consider the bills further next week. The DeWitt Republican said legislators are working with law enforcement to address some of the concerns with the proposed reforms.

The requirement of a conviction would reform long-debated civil asset forfeiture laws, which allow police to permanently confiscate cash, cars or other property that they suspect was involved in the commission of a crime or obtained through the commission of a crime.

The forfeiture proceedings occur in civil court, separate from the criminal process, and require a prosecutor to establish clear and convincing evidence rather than proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

More than $13 million in cash and assets amassed by drug traffickers was forfeited in 2017, according to a Michigan State Police report. 

The Legislature in recent years has increased the standard of evidence required to process forfeitures and eliminated a bonding requirement for citizens fighting to keep their property.

The $50,000 threshold would allow protections for people found with smaller amounts of money while acknowledging that larger quantities may indicate more serious dealers for which existing civil asset forfeiture laws may be more appropriate, said Sen. Peter Lucido, the Shelby Township Republican who introduced the Senate reform bills.

“It’s optically wrong not to give a person a day in court,” Lucido said. “…Once they’re found guilty, the civil asset forfeiture falls into place. But if they’re found not guilty, they should be returned their property.”

Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel joined House Speaker Lee Chatfield, R-Levering, for the introduction of the House civil asset forfeiture plan in January.

She told lawmakers Tuesday that she supported the bills in concept, but believed some tweaks were necessary on provisions for defendants located outside the state, a potential standard for the initial seizure of assets, and the destruction of property that could constitute evidence.

“These legislators have nearly a full two years,” Nessel said. “While I want to see this issue addressed as quickly as possible, take the time to get it right.”

Stevenson said drug deals are often separate from a dealer’s cache of cash and assets. While law enforcement may be able to prove a drug deal or the proceeds from a drug deal officers, they aren’t always able to connect them in court.

He gave the example of a confidential informant who made a $10,000 buy from a home that police later raided only to find a “dry hole” that sold out of drug products, but was littered with scales, packaging materials and $49,000, including the $10,000 used in the controlled buy.

“We would have to give them back all that property,” Stevenson said. “This is like being pregnant; you either are or you aren’t. It’s drug proceeds or it’s not drug proceeds.”

The Prosecuting Attorneys Association of Michigan also recommended changes to the bills, including lowering the threshold to $25,000 and giving law enforcement more time than the proposed 28-day window to issue a warrant.

“That’s wholly unworkable,” said Livingston County Prosecutor Bill Vailliencourt. “Lab reports alone form the state police crime lab to determine if a substance is controlled or not takes much longer than 28 days.”

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Attorney General Dave Yost seeks $16 million repayment from pharmacy middleman OptumRx

https://www.dispatch.com/news/20190219/attorney-general-dave-yost-seeks-16-million-repayment-from-pharmacy-middleman-optumrx

After nearly a year of investigating, Ohio is taking its first steps to recover money from pharmacy middlemen who do billions of dollars worth of business with state agencies.

Attorney General Dave Yost announced Tuesday that he is seeking repayment of nearly $16 million paid to pharmacy-benefit manager OptumRx by the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation. Yost intends to take OptumRx to nonbinding mediation, saying the company has overcharged the bureau since 2015. Such mediation is required under the contract between the bureau and OptumRx. If it fails, the dispute presumably will be taken to court.

“The state of Ohio and the BWC consider these matters of public significance and have calculated the following overcharges attributable to OptumRx’s failure to adhere to agreed discounts on generic drugs. …” says a copy of Yost’s Feb. 11 letter to OptumRx that was obtained by The Dispatch.

As part of its Side Effects investigation into pharmacy benefit managers, The Dispatch reported in May that the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation had performed an analysis of its prescription-drug spending and, in the words of former BWC pharmacy program manager John Hanna, “discovered we were being hosed.”

The firm that conducted the analysis, Healthplan Data Solutions, determined that OptumRx overcharged BWC by $5.7 million in 2017. That’s 6.5 percent of the $86 million in total agency spending on prescription drugs that year. The bureau fired OptumRx as a consequence of the analysis.

In his letter to OptumRx, Yost wrote that the pharmacy benefit manager overcharged the bureau by $6 million in 2015, by $2.7 million between the beginning of 2016 and the end of October 2016 and by $7.2 million between Nov. 1, 2016, and Oct. 27, 2018.

More such moves are expected against pharmacy benefit managers administering public dollars. OptumRx also is the pharmacy benefit manager for one of Ohio’s five Medicaid managed-care plans, while CVS Caremark is PBM to the other four. Together, the companies administer $2.5 billion in annual Medicaid drug spending.

The Dispatch conducted an analysis in June using confidential reimbursement data that showed the PBMs were charging taxpayers far more more for prescription drugs than they were reimbursing pharmacists. The Ohio Department of Medicaid then hired Healthplan Data Solutions to conduct an analysis using all reimbursement data.

That study found that the two PBMs charged $224 million more a year for drugs than they were reimbursing pharmacists. That was as much as $187 million above the typical cost of administering such programs in one year, the analysis found.

PBMs act as middlemen between drugmakers, insurers and pharmacies. OptumRx, CVS Caremark and ExpressScripts control 80 percent of the pharmacy benefit management business in the United States, according to filings in federal litigation over CVS’s merger with insurance giant Aetna.

Critics say PBMs use their size and a lack of transparency to drive up drug costs — and corporate profits. But the PBMs say they use their size and sophistication to achieve savings for consumers and taxpayers.

In the case of the workers’ compensation bureau, Yost said OptumRx failed to manage the effective rate of the bureau’s maximum-allowable-cost list “to achieve the discounts against (the average wholesale price) promised by OptumRx, and OptumRx wrongfully increased prices charged to BWC.”

Last year, while he was state auditor, Yost released a critical analysis of the practices of the PBMs that serve the Medicaid program. It confirmed that they were charging far more than they were paying for drugs, and “various practices were identified as indications of potential conflicts of interest that could impact pharmacy services in the Medicaid program and other publicly funded health care.”

The same report said analysts didn’t have enough data from the Medicaid operations involving OptumRx and CVS Caremark to “provide a complete picture of pharmacy costs and PBM compensation.”

It added that “there are a number of additional factors that impact PBM revenues and pharmacy reimbursements that were outside of the scope of this report, such as rebates, additional plan fees, and pharmacy fees. The Ohio legislature should take steps to mandate the reporting of additional statistical and financial data that would provide a more complete understanding.”

Ohio has about 3% of the country’s total population … 16 million over charge by ONE PBM… handling the Rxs for one of the state’s Medicaid HMO’s.. There is 4 other Medicaid HMO’s in Ohio which is managed by CVS Health/Caremark PBM. 

Both of these PBM’s charged Ohio 224 MILLIONS than they reimbursed pharmacies.  Just on Medicaid pts in a state with just 3% of our total population…

Anyone question why YOUR PRESCRIPTIONS COST SO DAMN MUCH ?

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Canadian study finds benzodiazepine use in patients drops 45 percent after medical cannabis treatment

https://www.thegrowthop.com/cannabis-health/cannabis-medical/canadian-study-finds-benzodiazepine-use-among-patients-drops-45-percent-after-medical-cannabis-treatment

Four in 10 patients who regularly consumed benzodiazepines stopped taking the medication within about six months of initiating and being monitored on medical cannabis, Aleafia Health Inc. reports in what it believes is the first study of its kind published in peer-reviewed journal.

Appearing in Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research, the observational study featured a cohort of 146 patients receiving physician-led treatment at Canabo Medical Clinic, which is wholly owned by Aleafia, a federally licensed producer and vendor of cannabis that operates medical clinics, cannabis cultivation and research and development facilities.

With an average age of 47 years, 61 percent of patients were female, 54 percent reported prior use of cannabis and all were referred to the clinics by practising physicians outside the clinic network. “A retrospective analysis was performed on a cohort of patients using medical cannabis. These data are part of an ongoing database gathered by Canabo Medical Clinic on medical cannabis patients,” the study notes.

Benzodiapines, a class of psychoactive drugs, include the most common sedatives and anti-anxiety medications. This class of medication is used to treat anxiety, insomnia and alcohol, seizure and spasticity disorders. “Complications of long-term use include lack of concentration, dependence, tolerance, overdose and addiction,” the research adds.

Findings indicate that after completing an average two-month prescription course of medical cannabis, 30.1 percent of patients had discontinued use of benzodiazepines, 44.5 percent at follow-up after two prescriptions, and 45.2 percent at final follow-up after three medical cannabis prescription courses. This shows “a stable cessation rate over an average of six months,” study authors suggest.

 

Conditions precipitating cannabis treatment

Reported primary conditions driving cannabinoid treatment were grouped into neurological, 7.5 percent; pain, 47.9 percent; psychiatric conditions, 31.9 percent; and other, 12.7 percent. “After three clinic visits, 45.0 percent of patients using benzodiazepines, and 30.3 percent of patients who discontinued benzodiazepines, reported that their life was impacted by their medical condition ‘all the time’,” the research reports.

“This study found no significant difference in the proportions of CBD and THC in the cannabis used by patients who continued and those who discontinued benzodiazepines,” the study goes on to say.

Beyond a decrease in the use of benzodiazepines, “these patients, following prescription cannabis use, also reported decreased daily distress due to medical conditions,” notes a press release from Aleafia.

Citing information from the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse and Addiction—which reports that 10 percent of the Canadian population takes prescription sedatives—the Aleafia statement notes that the centre found “benzodiazepines may lead to serious long-term complications, including dependence, overdose and death.”

That is consistent with findings recently published in The British Medical Journal. The study, which looked at all Ontarians who died of an opioid-related cause from Jan. 1, 2013 through Dec. 31, 2016, reported that benzodiazepines consumption significantly increased the risk of opioid overdose.

Growing interest in cannabis

“The study results are encouraging, and this work is concurrent with growing public interest in a rapidly developing Canadian cannabis market,” suggests Chad Purcell, lead author of the Aleafia study, who has a BSc with honours in pharmacology, a BSc in pharmacy and will receive an MD degree from Dalhousie University in 2019.

Other study authors include Andrew Davis, who has PhD and M.A. in economics from the University of Rochester and a BSc from Memorial University of Newfoundland; Dr. Nico Moolman, a clinical assistant professor at the University of Saskatchewan who specializes in head and neck surgery; and Dr. Mark Taylor, currently a professor and interim head of the Division of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at Dalhousie University, who has more than 150 peer-reviewed publications to his credit.

Emphasizing the need for caution, however, Purcell notes that study results “do not suggest that cannabis should be used an alternative to conventional therapies.”

Among other factors, patients were not tested for verification of reported benzodiazepine discontinuation, as well as sample size and retrospective observational methodology used “preclude an inference of a causal relationship between cannabis and benzodiazepine use trend,” the study points out. “Without dependable safety data and evidence from randomized trials for this cohort, cannabis cannot be recommended as an alternative to benzodiazepine therapy,” it notes.

“Our purpose is inspiring others to advance current cannabis understanding as we collect stronger efficacy and safety data that will lead to responsible policy and recommended practices for use,” Purcell emphasizes.

“This study’s results will not be surprising to many patients who have transitioned from prescription painkillers and sedatives with the help of physician-led medical cannabis therapy,” suggests Dr. Michael Verbora, chief medical officer at Aleafia.

Still, hurdles need to be cleared—including regulatory challenges and stigma—to satisfy the current shortage of medical cannabis research, Dr. Verbora notes. “At Aleafia, we will continue to leverage our IP and leading cannabis data to further advance patient care through advanced treatment methods and specialized product development.”

The study notes the observations made merit “further investigation into the risks and benefits of the therapeutic use of medical cannabis and its role rating to benzodiazepines use.”

 

Want to keep up to date on what’s happening in the world of cannabis?  Subscribe to the Cannabis Post newsletter for weekly insights into the industry, what insiders will be talking about and content from across the Postmedia Network.

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https://www.healthcaredive.com/news/doj-sticking-with-cvs-aetna-merger-pact-despite-negative-public-comments/548601/

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