High Truths on Drugs and Addiction Dr. Roneet Lev

Kratom, also known as mytragynine  is a plant with opioid and stimulant effects. It can be addictive just like opioids are addictive. And yet, the drug is being sold in drinks and supplements.

Romulo Torres worked hard to achieve sobriety from alcohol and bought "Feel Free" drink at 7-11. He had no idea the "Fell Free" would bring him back to the shackles of addiction to Kratom complete with full force withdrawal symptoms of severe opioid withdrawal along with psychosis and lapses of consciousness associated with high dose Kratom.

Shounak Dharap represents Romulo in a class action suit against the companies that sell Kratom without providing warnings about addiction.


Shounak Dharap is a partner at Arns Davis Law and leads the firm’s complex litigation practice area. He litigates a wide range of class action matters in the areas of labor and employment, consumer protection, civil rights, and sexual abuse; as well as personal injury and wrongful death actions. When not litigating, Shounak is a second-term elected trustee on the Palo Alto Unified School Board and a volunteer community  mediator for the City of Palo Alto’s mediation program.
LA Times article on Kratom Lawsuit
Kratom Addiction/Withdrawal - NIDA information

Cannabis includes hundreds of different chemical, some of which have promising medicinal value. What does it take to get more cannabis based medications that are FDA approved?

 


Jacquelyn L. Bainbridge, BSPharm , PharmD, , FCCP, MSCS, FAES
Jacquelyn L. Bainbridge, BSPharm, PharmD, FCCP, MSCS, FAES, is a Professor at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, where she holds joint appointments in the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Department of Clinical Pharmacy, and the Department of Neurology in the School of Medicine. Dr Bainbridge received her doctorate in pharmacy from the University of Colorado in Denver, where she subsequently completed a specialty residency in neurology.

Dr Bainbridge is a Multiple Sclerosis Certified Specialist (MSCS) who is actively involved in clinical research in many areas of neurology, including multiple sclerosis (MS), epilepsy, geriatrics, Parkinson’s disease (PD), back pain, cannabis, and psilocybin. Currently, she is working on 3 clinical trials investigating cannabis for the treatment of back pain, PD and autism, sponsored by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE), and 1 synthetic cannabidiol (CBD) study involving patients with Fragile X syndrome.  Dr. Bainbridge is involved in 1 additional clinical trial sponsored by the CDPHE, for back pain in patients not on opiates or on opiates, with a dose reduction using cannabis (CBD and delta 9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)). Dr. Bainbridge is also involved in 2 psilocybin trials 1 involving cancer patients and one involving severe depression.  Additionally, Dr. Bainbridge is reporting on post-surgical cancer patients and their endocannabinol response whether they are a cannabis user or not. Dr Bainbridge continues to study the safety and efficacy of antiseizure medications (ASMs) in older adults. She was previously an investigator for several National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded trials researching drugs that may be neuroprotective in PD. Dr. Bainbridge has completed 1 clinical trial using a synthetic CBD product in patients with scleroderma. She has published several articles in professional journals, including Epilepsia, Pharmacotherapy, The International Journal of Multiple Sclerosis Care, and the American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy. She has reviewed and written several book chapters on MS, epilepsy, migraine, chronic pain, women’s issues, pharmacokinetics, and the practice of pharmacy. Dr Bainbridge is a frequent lecturer on topics of neurologic and pharmacologic interest, including MS, chronic pain disorders, epilepsy, migraine, movement disorders, neuroprotection, restless legs syndrome (RLS), Huntington’s disease and the administration of cannabis for therapeutic intent.

Dr Bainbridge is a member of numerous professional organizations, including The Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers (CMSC), The National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS)  Epilepsy Foundation of Colorado, the American Academy of Neurology (AAN), the American Epilepsy Society(AES), Epilepsy Foundation of America (EFA), American College of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP), American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP), Colorado Pharmacists Society (CPS), and American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP). She is the past president of the board of directors for The Restless Legs Syndrome Foundation (RLSF) and The Epilepsy Foundation of Colorado (EFC). Dr. Bainbridge is currently on the Board of Governors for The Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers (CMSC), and on the Board of Directors for The Epilepsy Foundation of Colorado and Wyoming Professional Advisory Board and The American Lung Association (ALA).  Dr. Bainbridge has been elected as a Fellow of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy (FCCP), Fellow of the American Epilepsy Society (FAES) and has won several student preceptor and teaching class awards. Dr. Bai

MAT is Medication Assisted Treatment. Dr David Deyhimy talk about the FDA approved medications to treat opioid use disorder.




David I. Deyhimy, MD, FASAM, is an addiction medicine specialist and anesthesiologist dedicated to helping those suffering from substance use disorder and preventing overdose deaths from opioids. He is the founder and medical director of MYMATCLINIC, specializing in managing opioid use disorder and medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD). He is the medical director of The Solace Foundation of Orange County, the first non- profit naloxone distribution program in Orange County. He is Chief Medical Advisor for Project Opioid and a medical advisor for healthcare and digital therapeutics companies. A firm believer in medical research and evidence- based substance use disorder treatments, he has helped thousands of patients improve their lives with medical treatments, education, and behavioral change. In his free time, David enjoys spending time and traveling with his wife and two teenage daughters. He is also an avid cyclist and loves to surf and ski whenever possible.

A medical marijuana card does not follow the standard of care for prescribing antibiotics or pain medications.  There is no benefit-harm calculation for cannabis cards. A concerned parent calls into High Truths because of the mental health harms cannabis caused his son.  Dr. D'Souza is one of the leading scientific experts on cannabis and head of Cannabis Research Center at Yale.  He teaches us about cannabis and the brain.


Deepak Cyril D’Souza, MD is a Professor of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine and a staff psychiatrist at VA Connecticut Healthcare System (VACHS). He received his medical degree from John’s National Academy of Health Sciences, Bangalore, India in 1986 and completed his psychiatric residency at State University of New York Downstate in 1992 followed by a postdoctoral fellowship in Psychopharmacology and Neurosciences at Yale University School of Medicine. He then joined the faculty in the Dept. of Psychiatry at Yale and VA Connecticut Healthcare System. He is an active clinician, teacher and researcher, 30 years of experience.
Clinical Administration: He directs the Neuropsychiatry Program at VA Connecticut Healthcare System, the clinical service that cares for veterans with serious mental illnesses including psychotic disorders, mood disorders and personality disorders. He also chairs the Research and Development Committee at VA Connecticut Healthcare System.
Research Administration: He directs the Neurobiological Studies Unit where experimental psychopharmacological studies are conducted. He serves as the Chair of the Research and Development Committee of VA Connecticut Healthcare System.
Education: He is actively involved in teaching residents. In recognition of his contributions as a teacher, he received the Yale Psychiatry resident’s teaching award in 2008. He also directs the VA Schizophrenia Research Fellowship program the training ground for a number of current researchers. He is a mentor for a number of junior faculty who have career awards.
Pathophysiological Research: He directs the Schizophrenia Neuropharmacology Research Group at Yale (SNRGY). Over the last 3 decades, he has employed three approaches to his research. He has conducted experimental psychopharmacological studies with ketamine, amphetamine, THC, nicotine, salvinorin A in healthy human volunteers and patients to evaluate the contributions of various neurotransmitter systems to the pathophysiology of psychosis, cognitive deficits, and reward dysfunction. He also uses in vivoneuroreceptor imaging to study schizophrenia and cannabis use disorder with ligands that bind to synaptic vesicles, muscarinic receptors, CB1 receptors, etc. He is also involved in a consortium to collect fluid biomarkers in schizophrenia.
Treatment Research: In parallel to these studies of pathophysiology, he has conducted phase 1 - 4 clinical trials to develop new treatments schizophrenia, mood disorders and cannabis use disorder. More recently he has been investigating the therapeutic potential of psychedelic compounds (psilocybin, dimethyltryptamine) in the treatment of neuropsychiatric conditions including depression and migraine. His research is funded by the U.S. National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the National Institute of Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse (NIAAA), VA R&D and several foundations.
His work has been published in the highest impact Psychiatry journals including Molecular Psychiatry, Lancet Psychiatry, Biological Psychiatry, American Journal of Psychiatry and Neuropsychopharmacology (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=qDmD8DsAAAA

Cannabis has many different chemicals, namely cannabinoids that have pharmaceutical benefits. Learn about FDA approved cannabinoid research.  There is a big difference between medications that are FDA approved and smoking weed.



Jennifer Triemstra, MS PhD

Jennifer L Triemstra, MS, PhD – Associate Medical Director – Cannabinoid Education, US Medical Affairs, Jazz Pharmaceuticals
 Jennifer, also known as, “Trie”, is an Associate Director in Medical Affairs for Jazz Pharmaceuticals, leading the Cannabinoid Science Education program.  Trie has been working in the cannabinoid science space for nearly 7 years and was instrumental in building the content for CannabinoidClinical.com educational website and leads the Cannabinoid Education Working Group.  Trie has presented to learners across the United States including scientific and healthcare providers, advocacy groups, medical societies, state government and policy making members, and beyond the US including the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs.  Prior to her current role, Trie was a Medical Science Liaison at Greenwich Biosciences, US subsidiary of GW Pharmaceuticals, providing scientific support to develop an FDA-approved cannabidiol therapy for the treatment of seizures associated with epilepsy.  Trie received her Master of Science in Cellular and Molecular Biology from Saint Cloud State University and her PhD in Comparative and Molecular Biosciences at the University of Minnesota, School of Veterinary Medicine.  Before graduate school, she spent several years working in academia performing laboratory research focused on neuroendocrinology.

The National Marijuana Initiative strives to dispel misconceptions about marijuana and raise awareness of issues surrounding the drug; so that citizens and policymakers can make well-informed choices regarding marijuana use and regulations.
Some of the services offered include:


Educational presentations on marijuana and the effects of its legalization for law enforcement groups, public forums, community coalitions, and legislators
The NMI Speakers Bureau, which consists of independent subject matter experts who conduct informational presentations about their respective fields
A public resource for valid information and reliable data based upon current research into marijuana and its impacts


Dale Quigley is the Deputy Coordinator of the National Marijuana Initiative for the HIDTA program in the United States. He is responsible for providing information and education on issues surrounding marijuana. Prior to this role, he served at the Rocky Mountain HIDTA in Denver from 2011 – 2016 as the Manager of Intelligence and later oversaw their training program.
Deputy Quigley holds a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice and has been a peace officer in Colorado since 1979. In January 2016, he retired as a Sergeant from the Aurora Police Department. In his experience, Deputy Quigley notes his most rewarding assignments have been related to drug enforcement. He has an extensive background in narcotics investigations and supervising drug units, which includes supervising a gang-oriented drug task force for the FBI.
Recognized as a subject matter expert in several aspects of drug enforcement, he regularly speaks at regional, national, and international drug conferences on the impacts of drug usage. Additionally, he has instructed drug law at the Community College of Aurora (Colorado) and a series of drug enforcement classes for the Rocky Mountain HIDTA program.

Ed Shemelya is the National Marijuana Initiative Coordinator for the HIDTA Program. He has a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice. He has been speaking on Legalization in America, Understanding Hemp and Marijuana, and Current Affairs in Marijuana since 2013.