5 Holy Grails of Medical Marijuana

 

If you have been underneath a rock for the last year or out in the bush hibernating, there has been a mainstream development in investing, medicine, and in societal acceptance medical marijuana.  Society is finally realizing the benefits of this versatile plant which is about to kick start a revolution in modern medicine as cannabinoids are turning out to be one of the best and most versatile forms medicines, from nature or man.  

Science and medicine have ignored cannabinoids and the endocannabinoid system for the last 40 years primarily because of the drug war.  As a result of ignoring this critical system in the human body, cannabinoid medicine is now the last low hanging fruit in the biotech sector.   We are a generation behind in cannabis science creating a sub theme in biotech investing playing more than 40 years of catch up in this area of medicine.

The Endocannabinoid System

The Endocannabinoid System is one of the body’s great re-balancing mechanisms.   It is the system that regulates other systems in the body.  It regulates your blood sugar, cholesterol, circulation, immune system, brain function, nervous system and metabolism.   Cannabinoids target the CB1 and CB2 receptors of the endocannabinoid system whose receptors exist in the central nervous system, the brain, the immune system, gastrointestinal tract, and peripheral nervous system. 

Within the emerging opportunity of medical marijuana there are at least 5 ‘Holy Grails’ of cannabis medicine within reach of the pharmaceutical and natural medicine industries. 

• Immune & auto-immune diseases
• Cancer
• Pain & inflammation
• Metabolic diseases
• Neurological disorders

Immune and Auto-Immune Diseases - $100B

Speaking from experience, one if the best medicines for HIV, is cannabis.  It is so powerful; 'Cannabinoid therapy' can even become an alternative to HAART therapy and ARV medication.  CBD interacts with CB2 receptors stimulating the immune system and CD4 cell count production while THC slows down transcription of the HIV virus.  Even after almost 9 years of diagnosis, the more cannabis I put into my system, the better I feel with the caveat I don't smoke it.

Who knows what an ideal dose is for a person with HIV like myself or even what that ideal dose will do to someone with HIV.  Currently I do about 1,500 mg of THC a day and want to increase this dose at least 10 fold and show no signs or symptoms of HIV or AIDS.  At a high enough dose; a theory is cannabinoids may be able to shut down the virus similar to HAART. 

There is also an emerging problem in the US where HIV patients are outliving HAART cocktails whose virus is becoming resistant to available drug cocktails.  What is an HIV patient going to turn to when drug manufacturers refuse to make any more HIV drug cocktails?  The logical conclusion is cannabis of course.  My health strategy is the opposite, use cannabis to delay the onset of AIDS and then use HAART cocktails as a last resort after I have exhausted all other options.  If I am correct in my approach, I should outlive most other HAART patients by the period before I started using ARV medication, which so far is 10 years. 

There are over 30M people in the world who live with HIV and only 8 million of those use HAART medication.  In 2014 this is still an under-served market simply because drug manufacturers refuse to sell HIV patients in 3^rd world countries affordable medication.  The HIV drug market is estimated at $20B with $13B of this market spent in the US.  Cannabis could conceivably take a huge chunk of this market as HIV patients start running out of ARV options.

As little as 400mg of THC per day is enough to delay the onset of AIDS for years.  If 35M HIV patients took half a gram of 80% THC cannabis oil a day at a long term price of $5 per gram, at minimum, that is a $30 billion market.  In my opinion, every HIV patient in the world should take at least half a gram a day irrespective of their drug program.  For someone in Africa, $2.50 per day is much more affordable than the outrageous programs for ARV medication. 

It is not just HIV; cannabis works on many different immune and auto-immune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes, and multiple sclerosis.   Auto immune diseases affect 50 million Americans, 50 times the amount of Americans infected with HIV.

A stand dose for cannabis oil seems to be between 0.5 grams and 1 gram of 80% THC oil...  clearly the potential market just in this category is staggering.

Cancer - $150B

The biggest revolution in oncology in the last 5 years is the discovery that cannabis can cure cancer.  I say that with a grain of salt because I believe cancer is a chronic disease caused by the body being out of balance from both external factors like asbestos exposure and/or internal body factors like having a poor PH.  The facts are the facts, people are beating cancer with cannabis.  So maybe you can’t say cannabis cures cancer, but what it does do is kill cancer cells and hundreds of people throughout North America are on a version of Rick Simpson’s Phoenix Tears.  What people can no longer deny is that concentrated cannabis kills cancerous tumors and will stop the spread of cancer if taken in high enough doses.

Cannabis performs several anti-tumor functions …

1. Anti-proliferative  – prevents cancer cells from reproducing
2. Anti-angiogenic  – prevent the formation of new blood vessels needed by tumor to grow
3. Anti-metastatic -   prevents cancer from spreading to other organs
4. Apoptotic – induces cancer cell to seek its own death hastening death of cancer cell

THC and CBD are proving to be a very powerful one two punch against many forms of cancer.  THC has powerful anti-tumor properties and acts to kill tumors directly while CBD helps induce cell death and helps stop the cancer from spreading.  The ratio of THC to CBD is different with every cancer at every stage and could be 100% THC all the way to 100% CBD; but it is generally thought a 3:1 THC to CBD ratio is a good shot gun approach, although GWPH’s cancer drug has a 1:1 THC to CBD ratio.  What I am finding is people are prescribing THC oil to attack the cancer directly and CBD's to supplement the therapy.

There are a few studies out there using CBD's to kill cancer cells, but by no means is CBD the primary cancer killer, THC is. There seems to be a strong correlation with tumor-less cancers requiring higher CBD concentrations while tumor heavy cancers responding to high THC concentrations.  Another major factor for cancer seems to be tissue content.  If the cancer is in a high fat tissue/cell area or made up of fat cells, THC seems to bind to the cell better and be much more effective. 

The most revolutionary part of cannabinoids and their anti-tumor properties is they target cancer cells while leaving healthy cells completely untouched.   Cancer is a $100B plus industry and cannabis is poised to take a huge bite out of this market.   All the following cancers have been beaten with cannabis oil like Rick Simpsons Phoenix Tears or FECO made in the US, even big name celebrities like Tommy Chong using cannabis oil to beat prostate cancer.   

• Brain cancer
• Lung cancer
• Breast cancer
• Thyroid cancer
• Prostate cancer
• Skin cancer
• Leukemia

Cancer cells have even been reverted back to healthy living cells by encapsulating them in cannabinoids.  This work is being done right here in the MMAR clubs in Vancouver by doctors volunteering their time for research.    

Metabolic Diseases - $125B+

Cannabinoids play a major role in regulating and re-balancing the body’s active metabolisms such as weight, cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar levels.  Cannabinoids have the potential to play a key role in preventing and maintaining type 2 diabetes as well as many other metabolic related diseases, many of which stem from poor health.  Cannabis cannot only help stimulate appetite and increase weight in those who are underweight; but it can also help signal to the body a decrease in appetite in those that are overweight or even suppress appetite.  In short, it helps re-balance the entire body.

The endocannabinoid system is the body’s greatest mechanism in regulating and fixing the bodies other vital systems.  Cannabinoids stimulate the endocannabinoid receptors which then tell the body what it needs or does not need and then rolls out a response system appropriate to the ailment.  Diabetes is a major 21^st century epidemic and cannabis could play an important role in helping to stabilize a person’s body in a variety of metabolic disorders.  Diabetes alone affects 25M Americans who spend close $130B annually on the disease.
 

Pain/Inflammation - $100B

$35B is spent every year managing pain.  The anti-inflammatory market is nearly double that at $70B per year.  Combined, this $100B plus US market represents a major market segment for cannabis.  Cannabinoids are more effective pain management mechanisms for many types of pain than opiates, and CBD’s have been found to be 50 times more effective at calming inflammation than Ibuprofen in some cases.  Inflammation medicine is another area in medicine which could be greatly improved utilizing receptors in the endocannabinoid system.  Most effective anti-inflammatory medications are steroids which are not safe for everyday consumption,  certainly not for most patients, who deal with chronic inflammation.

It doesn’t matter what type of pain it is or what is causing the inflammation, cannabis is one of the most effective medicines for both pain and inflammation.  Again, it’s the one two punch of CBD and THC that combat to dull pain, and decrease both localized and general inflammation in the body.  Chronic pain, migraines, inflammation related pain; cannabis does not discriminate and works on it all.  As science begins to understand how cannabinoids interact in our body, the next generation of pain and inflammation medicine derived from cannabis should make most opiates a distant second choice to cannabinoid pain killers.

Managing pain and inflammation is another area I receive immense benefit from cannabis having endured 3 knee surgeries including a broken tibia plateau with 7 screws and a plate inserted into the left knee.  Without cannabis, running 1000 km per year at a 4:30/km clip with a screw still inserted through the width of the base of my knee would be impossible.

Neurological Disorders - $100B+

This might be the biggest category in cannabinoid medicine simply because it encompasses so many conditions from migraines to epilepsy and everything in between, many which remain unsolved and untreated by the science and medical communities.   3 million Americans live with epilepsy and it is estimated 65 million people live with the disease worldwide.  ALS is another disease recently in the limelight for whom most would greatly benefit from cannabis including slowing down the progress of the disease similar to how it works on many other diseases.

What is clear and is not a coincidence is that because we ignore the one thing that has the greatest impact on our neurological system, we continue to struggle to solve many of these ailments.   The irony is cannabis has been rejected because it causes a ‘high’ and we fear how it may impact our brains, but the reality for many of us, it will save our brains.

Someone once told me my greatest enemy was fear, we fear the unknown which keeps us from embracing truth.   What we do know is that both CB1 and CB2 receptors affect the nervous system indicating regulating the central nervous system is a primary function of the endocannabinoid system.

 

1. Brain damage/dysfunction
   • Alzheimer’s
   • Dementia
   • Concussions
2. Spinal cord disorders and injuries
   • Spina Bifida
3. Peripheral neuropathy
   • ALS
4. Seizure disorders
   • Epilepsy
   • Cerebral Palsy
   • Alcoholism
   • Brain Hemorrhage
   • Stroke
5. Movement disorders
   • Parkinson’s
   • Multiple Sclerosis
   • Muscle Spasms
6. Sleep Disorders
   • Narcolepsy
7. Neuropsychiatric illnesses
   • OCD
   • Tourette’s
   • Huntington’s
   • PTSD

Cannabinoid Medicine

Cannabis is poised to revolutionize both natural and pharmaceutical medicine.  Cannabinoid medicine has much potential because it can make nutraceutical health plans more effective by helping the body absorb and distribute nutrients where it is needed.  Cannabis has the potential to open up a new class or even several new classes of drugs in the pharmaceutical industry.

Cannabinoids like THC and CBD have little potential to be synthesized on their own or this would have been done already.  Products like Marinol have had little success against naturally derived THC.  The real potential is to combine pharmaceutical drugs with different cannabinoids to make the pharmaceutical drugs more effective.  One example of this is THC and its ability to cross the blood brain barrier.  Combining THC with other drugs that haven’t been able to cross the BBB may open the door to help solving and eventually curing diseases like dementia.  Certainly for diseases like dementia and Alzheimer’s the blood brain barrier is a major issue and combining cannabis with drugs that to carry them across would provide immediate synergies.  THC also acts to protect the brain so there are other synergistic activities THC performs on the brain as well making this area of medicine extremely promising.

I have serious doubts synthetic cannabinoids will replace the cannabis plant.  Natural medicine continues to grow and become an increasingly popular source of alternative medicine.  This includes cannabis and the ‘whole plant medicine’ that many patients source from their plants.  In fact, synthetic cannabinoids are far less effective.  What will emerge, is a new class of drugs based on combining natural cannabinoids with pharmaceutical medicine which will help revolutionize many programs from chemotherapy to pain medication.

This is where most biotech companies will fit in.  Not in growing MMJ or selling it like a MMPR company, but sourcing raw cannabinoids for production in their own medicines.   In effect this is where COC Cannabis Oil Corp wants to fit in.  Not in your traditional selling buds to the public, but producing a concentrated raw THC and raw CBD product for use by drug manufacturers, MMPR suppliers, gourmet kitchens, nutraceutical companies, and other retail medical marijuana outlets that may be allowed to exist in the future similar to the 40 or so ‘compassion clubs’ clubs active in Vancouver. 

That is our primary focus.  To produce a raw THC and CBD product you can infuse in any product or take straight in a gel cap.  So when you think of medical marijuana, most envision an individual smoking a joint to relieve pain or some weird disease under-served by the medical community.  That is part of it, and it will continue to be a large part of medical cannabis… but the horizon of this emerging industry is much more than that.

 Medical marijuana has the potential to revolutionize medicine and could help eradicate many 21^st century medical epidemics like cancer and diabetes.


Christopher Skidmore

COC Cannabis Oil Corp