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24 cannabis patient care | vol. 2 no. 2 cannapatientcare.com nurse focus "Patients are really vulnerable to misinformation, which un- fortunately is prolific in the cannabis industry," said Cham- pagne. "There's a lot of deceptive marketing tactics. For ex- ample, CO 2 extraction takes this cannabis flower with 500 compounds and strips it down to a dozen or a couple of doz- en compounds. Removing the antioxidants, the bioflavonoids, essential fatty acids, the chlorophyll, and they'll call that full spectrum. That's extremely deceptive to patients. We saw a lot of patients being taken for a ride and they would call us and sometimes they'd already bought product." So, depending on the product, nurses would offer advice: "Best case scenario, we might say, 'sorry, that's not optimal.' Worst case scenario it might be, "wow, your neighbor made it. We don't know the strain. It's not lab tested. We really can't condone its use because it could it could actually have some toxins in it that would be harmful," said Champagne. "We got tired of this scenario with patients, and that's really what spawned Cannabis Nurse Approved." Champagne also founded Integrated Holistic Care (5), which focuses on medical cannabis education and has served thou- sands of individual patients, supporting their success in achieving their optimal health goals. Champagne's role has now progressed to include educating medical professionals, through both accredited and college-level cannabis courses. Through these educational efforts, she is able to reach more patients than she would be able to do on her own. Advocacy Efforts Champagne's cannabis passion doesn't stop at education: She is also currently advocating in Oregon for cannabis nurses and patients to have the right to educate and receive education by nurses. Champagne advocates through Autism Safe Haven (6) a nonprofit organization, which she is also a founder of, and focuses on cannabis inclusive care resources specifically for autism. Future plans include expanding on other conditions such as Alzheimer's, cancer, mental health, hospice, and other areas where cannabis has been shown to be beneficial for those patients. "Unfortunately, when somebody is placed in a facility or placed out of home, out of necessity, oftentimes their ability to access cannabis ends because of federal regulations, because of fear on the part of some of those businesses," she explained. "That's really the focus of our advocacy—to improve access for those patients." Champagne also spends time advocating for cannabis leg- islation. She has participated in various videos advocating for Jim Bartell (7), who lost his son, Ryan, to stage four pancreat- ic cancer. Bartell is fighting to get a bill in California dedicat- ed after his late son (8). "Ryan's Law, if it passes in the state of California, will allow patients who are hospitalized the right to use their cannabis therapy. This is the third year they're trying to push it through. It's on Gavin Newsom's desk right now. Last year, he vetoed it and the year before, I don't think it quite made it to him," she explained. Optimism for the Future Like many cannabis supporters, Champagne hopes to see the plant federally descheduled and decriminalized. There is sci- entific data highlighting the medicinal properties of cannabis and that it means no harm. The stigma surrounding cannabis and its' "reefer years" have greatly prevented legislation and research from moving forward. How can we depict the cannabis plant as something so dangerous yet, there is so much we do not know about it? "Realistically, I would love to see a separation between the whole plant with its unsurpassed safety profile, which should just be a basic human right, whereas human altered products can't boast safety or efficacy matching whole plant canna- bis," said Champagne (9). "I think those human altered forms are perfect to hand to the pharmaceutical companies and let them make their taxes and their money or profits off of it. But the whole plant should be free to everybody." Often patients are fearful due to the unwarranted stigma attached to cannabis and offering them general education about its safety profile and the reputable research can really help ease those concerns. – J A N N A C H A M P A G N E CONTINUED ON PAGE 29