By Michele Ross: For Complete Post, Click Here…
In Chronically Cannabis, Dr. Michele Ross, a neuroscientist and cannabis expert, answers the Mighty community’s questions about treating chronic pain with cannabis.
The Mighty community asked: “Is it better to use cannabis on a schedule, like with prescriptions, or to take as needed?”
Right now CBD is only prescribed via Epidiolex and THC is prescribed as Marinol. Otherwise, it’s up to you to decide how to deliver the dose. Some people react differently to CBD. For example, some people get sleepy. If you get sleepy and it’s relieving anxiety or relaxing, the dosing should be an hour before you go to sleep. Don’t take it in the morning before you go to work or want to do something. There are other people who will take CBD and coffee and they’re up, that’s their energy drink. It’s all about figuring out how you respond.
If you take CBD once a day it’s not going to be effective enough for your chronic pain throughout the day. It’s not an extended-release. The most commonly used products are tinctures, those drops you put under the tongue. For tinctures, you need to do it at least in the morning and at night. Some patients do it three times a day. Really it’s as much as you need.
There are other ways to consume, like vape pens or CBD flowers, which I love for breakthrough pain. The drops are great for providing baseline inflammation reduction and pain reduction. You want to make sure you are reducing your pain at the same level every day. Then you have the CBD vape pen for those breakthrough moments, where you’re going “OK, I didn’t expect to go walking through the mall today,” or maybe you used up too many spoons. Hit that vape pen and it’ll help you get back to your normal pain levels you can manage.
