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cannapatientcare.com august 2021
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cannabis patient care
patient focus
a stoner that just wants to get high who is hiding under the
guise of medical use," she said. "Sadly, this is prohibition-
ist thinking. It is encouraging that more and more healthcare
professionals are pulling back the curtain and recognizing the
science. But some want to hold on to the past."
Although cannabis is not a panacea, she said, it can be a
therapeutic tool for those who choose this modality. "Part of
what we need to do is to fix our broken healthcare system by
returning some of that autonomy to our patients so they can
be in charge of their own health."
McCauley moved to Florida in the fall of 2019 where she takes
a whole plant oil that is predominantly CBD with a little bit of
THC—on average of a 10:1 CBD to THC ratio oil, taking half of a
dropper every night. "I have yet to discover any difficulties in
my regimen," she said. "I've been pretty consistent, just like I
would take a medication, just to make sure that I'm maintaining
control over my epilepsy. And I am feeling pretty good."
Taking the Next Steps
One project she's been working on in Florida is to advance
legislation within the state in order to make it mandatory that
education about the endocannabinoid system is presented to
all nurses during their yearly continuing education courses.
"For the most part, there is little to no medical education
that is received for initial medical use here in Florida," she said.
"It's pretty scary. We've got a lot a lot of elderly here, and they
don't necessarily understand this concept of treatment. The
model here in Florida requires the patient to see a recommend-
ing doctor, which we have to pay out of pocket for. Then we go
to the dispensary and there is no medical representation avail-
able whatsoever. It's frustrating that there isn't very much edu-
cation being given to the patients who come in to the program."
For now, McCauley is ramping up an organization she cre-
ated—called "NurseDebb" (16)—working closely with the Can-
nabis Nurses Network, who empower nurses through educa-
tion, oppor tunity, recognition, and advocacy. She is also the
lead on the Advocacy Cornerstone Project, working as a free-
lance public speaker and an adviser on legislation and ad-
vocacy projects. "I have a couple of projects I am working on
currently. Ever ything's in various stages. I am really tr ying to
help advance that language within the legislation and doing
some policy development."
"Cannabis is not what we're used to," McCauley said. "We
have to step outside of the box that society has created and
the paradigms of yesterday to learn that there are different
ways to improve our health and regain our homeostasis."
Conclusion
Jones said she believes people are still greatly unaware of the
medical benefits of cannabis and hemp for epilepsy and sei-
zures because of the lack of education, research into alterna-
tive treatments, and awareness of the different types of ways
to consume the plant for medicine. "We can't ignore the strong
stigma that has always been attached to cannabis in general,"
Jones said. "The cannabis industry has come this far because
of the medical cannabis community whose lives have been
changed due to its medicine and have fought to have access
to it. Reach out for help. Start reading the research behind
medical cannabis. Talk to your neurologist and doctors about
cannabis as an alternative treatment."
McCauley agrees that the medical community needs to get
on board with cannabis as treatment, and said that the sto-
ries from patients is "really where this plant medicine push is
coming from."
"Everybody is getting sick and tired of being told what to
do and how to manage their lives," McCauley said. "I have to
say it still amazes me that the existence of our Endocannabi-
noid System is negated by the stigma of a plant. It's just still
so fascinating for me to see people argue against the science
that is very clearly available.
"We have talked about this change for far too long. Legis-
lation has been happening for far too long. I understand that
change takes time, but our patients are running out of time.
The Entheogenic Plant Medicine train is here, either get on it,
or step aside. Be sure you are advocating for the change you
want as individuals, as Americans, as humans," she said. "My
big message is to advocate for the most important patient of
all—yourself."
References
(1) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7049807/.
(2) https://www.epilepsy.com/learn/epilepsy-due-specific-
causes/genetic-causesepilepsy/epilepsy-and-genes.
(3) https://www.epilepsy.com/learn/types-epilepsy-
syndromes/dravet-syndrome.
(4) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2937162/.
(5) https://www.epilepsy.com/about-us/about-foundation.
(6) https://www.epilepsy.com/living-epilepsy.
(7) https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessa-jones-290a0b129/.
(8) https://www.drugs.com/lamictal.html.
(9) https://ballotpedia.org/California_Proposition_215,_
Medical_Marijuana_Initiative_(1996).
(10) https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.
xhtml?bill_id=200320040SB420.
(11) https://epilepsysociety.org.uk/epilepsy-auras.
(12) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6398594/.
(13) https://www.courts.ca.gov/prop64.htm.
(14) https://www.cannabisnurses.org.
(15) https://www.cannabisnursesnetwork.com.
(16) https://www.linkedin.com/in/veteranrndeb/.
