Cannabis Patient Care - March/April 2022

Cannabis Patient Care March/April 2022

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34 cannabis patient care | vol. 3 no. 1 cannapatientcare.com use disorder and cannabis. She found a 2018 study that was pub- lished by the Journal of American Medicine Association (JAMA) detailing how when medical cannabis was available, prescrip- tions for opiates decreased by about 6% (4). Additional data in the study displayed a decrease in opiate deaths by 24–25%. "This was huge because I was like, 'Oh my gosh, why isn't everybody doing this? Why isn't everybody talking about this?'," Fuimao- no-Poe said. She added that this information led her to focus on how medical cannabis can be a tool to decrease opiate use. Another thing that Fuimaono-Poe and her team are working towards legislatively is allowing providers to not have to cite a qualifying condition and instead use their best judgment when treating a patient. She added that the rules that exist in Hawaii (and throughout the US) for medical cannabis don't exist with any other types of medications. Advocacy Advice Fuimaono-Poe's biggest advice for those interested in seeing change in the cannabis industry is to advocate. "It's like— it's so cheesy, we watched Spiderman and Uncle Ben, well, you know how Uncle Ben, one of his scenes was where he mentioned 'with great power comes great responsibility.' I honestly feel that anybody that is in this cannabis space, if you are not an advocate, you better get busy and get on it, because it's our responsibility," she said. "If you've touched this plant and it's helped you, if you work with this plant, if you make money from this plant, and you are not advo- cating for complete freedom of this plant, that's disappointing to me. I think that being an advocate is not that hard, it's just showing up—that is the most important part." One method Fuimaono-Poe uses to advocate for cannabis is by creating a post, putting in links to testify, and then physical- ly showing up to testify for the cause. It's just a couple of steps to take some time out of your life, but Fuimaono-Poe has wit- nessed first-hand the importance of the impact it has. The haze surrounding cannabis is dissipating because of the hard work being done by advocates to help change the plant's value and cultural image. When California passed Prop- osition 64 (Prop 64), adult-use cannabis came on the scene. Unfortunately, it devastated the craft cannabis market which had helped put California on the map (5,6). The small busi- nesses that survived are now being taxed out to where farmers are taxed when they're selling cannabis and to dispensaries. Fuimaono-Poe believes that every hand that touches cannabis is paying high taxes. As the industry continues to change and expand, she would like to see federal decriminalization, but in a way that doesn't create or make it more burdensome for craft cannabis businesses, users, and others. "They're calling it the second war on drugs with these adult use states to where it's so hard to be in compliance. That when people are out of compliance, then they're re-criminalized," said Fuimaono-Poe. "I think creating cannabis rules and regu- lations that aren't a burden and having a low tax are necessary, because at the end of the day, you're looking at a medicine." Cannabis isn't a tool to be abused; it has true potential to be a tool to treat various health ailments and diseases. There are many individuals who would like to help people gain more ac- cess to cannabis, but it is very difficult to start a business or to obtain products for treatment when the cannabis industry is so heavily taxed. The landscape needs to become more open to small businesses and minority communities rather than big conglomerate entities. If you want to see change, you need to be the change. To be- gin your advocacy journey, Fuimaono-Poe highly recommends meeting and organizing with like-minded people as the first step. Once you've joined a group of people who share similar values and initiatives as you, it's time to register with your leg- islature and you can select topics or keywords that pertain to your interests such as, cannabis, marijuana, and so on. Your legislature will then send you bills you can search through and find the ones that you support. One of the reasons Fuimao- no-Poe recommends finding a group or multiple groups, is that they help filter through and pull out the bills everyone is pas- sionate about. When the time comes for that bill to be dis- cussed, the most important step is to show up and testify! "I think that people don't understand their impact. By sim- ply doing something like recording your testimony, sharing It's so cheesy, we watched Spiderman and Uncle Ben, well, you know how Uncle Ben, one of his scenes was where he mentioned 'with great power comes great responsibility.' I honestly feel that anybody that is in this cannabis space, if you are not an advocate, you better get busy and get on it, because it's our responsibility.

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