Ganja Beach Medical Center

08/23/2024

This is the truth, say no more. Why do you think psychedelics became illegal? Once the hippies turned on to L*D they spoke of Love Not War. That went against The Narrative of the institution, and there began the War on Drugs. This isn't the first time either. Think about the Spanish conquistadors landing on the shores of the Aztec civilization, they did not like the mushrooms they found, and made them illegal.

12/13/2021

Come join me this Tuesday evening at 6:45 p.m. on the W**d Speek Podcast Show, with host Wendy Love Edge! I'm really looking forward to a great conversation about everything cannabis and psychedelics. Hope to see you all there!

11/30/2021

As I continue to go through my notes from the Wonderland conference in Miami I came across this panel hosted by where they addressed the need for veterans suffering from PTSD. This was one of my favorite panels, as the subject is close to my heart. I am a board member of the Veterans nonprofit organization (Unifieddream.org), and we are always searching for more ways to help our injured brothers and sisters.

Learning about the coming future treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder and treatment-resistant depression brings a ray of Hope to this population. In addition to conducting research on the effectiveness of psychedelic therapies for treating disorders like these, their companies are also working to give veterans free access to these costly treatments.

My only complaint is the lengthy process of validating the research and bringing the treatments to the public. While we sit here waiting for the lawmakers and scientists to go through that process, patients lives hang in the balance. Sadly, last week we lost another brother in our community to Su***de. This is more common than people realize. We have the tools and need to end their suffering now.

What do you think about the psychedelic therapy for veterans suffering from PTSD?

To learn more about my Clinical Services, please contact my office. Teletherapy sessions available. Link in bio. 😎🤙💚

11/21/2021

11/02/2021

The mention of the word Trauma brings to mind the diagnosis of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), but what does it actually mean in practice? A simple definition of this concept would be an intense emotional reaction to some abusive or threatening event, like an accident or abuse. Immediate symptoms of shock and denial are common when people experience traumatic events. Over the long-term, many physical and emotional problems can develop such as anxiety, depression, sleeping problems, relationship problems, flashbacks, and more.

What most people don't realize is that trauma effects of functioning of our brain in specific ways that can actually increase the likelihood of experiencing the unpleasant symptoms. Dr. Daniel Amen, clinical neuroscientist psychiatrist, has been studying the effects of trauma on the human brain using SPECT Brain Imaging scans for many years, and has identified specific changes in brain structure and function related to trauma. Five specific deep brain structures related to anxiety we're identified using these scans. They are the basal ganglia, the amygdala, the thalamus, the anterior cingulate gyrus, and the right temporal lobe.

"These structures are part of the brain's limbic, or emotional, system. They are involved with motivation, habit formation, pleasure, integrating feeling and movement, and anxiety... Trauma is associated with changes in activity levels in the brain that are linked to detrimental issues, such as anxiety, fear, negative thinking, heightened awareness, feeling on edge, pain, and more...". It's not as bad as you think, we can heal from trauma.

There are several therapies available that are effective in the treatment of trauma. For those of you interested, trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy and eye movement desensitization and reprogramming (EMDR), are both very effective therapeutic styles for working with trauma. In my clinical experience, plant medicine (medical cannabis and psychedelics) are also very effective in helping people manage the symptoms of trauma as well as working through to the resolution of it.

What do you think about the future of trauma treatment?

*Continued in comments

10/30/2021

In my clinical work as a Psychologist I teach people coping skills and strategies to manage their mental health issues, and the traditional model of mental health treatment relegates Psychiatry to medicating the patient. Research demonstrates that antidepressant medications often do not help the patient when compared to placebos, are not a cure, and they often bring many side effects to the patient during their course of treatment. These points have led me to seek out other ways to help my patients address their problems.

With the legal status of medical cannabis and psychedelics interfering with the ability to research these compounds and their usefulness, clinicians have had to rely on observational data for decades in order to learn more about them. I am pleased to see such an esteemed institution as John's Hopkins University embracing the use of observational clinical studies to support the efficacy of medical cannabis in treating the symptoms of mental health disorders.

"Though antidepressant effects of CBD have been consistently reported preclinically..., our work contributes to the literature by showing a potential for translation across species without many of the negative side effects associated with traditional antidepressants...". There's a lot more to this study, and there were some limitations noted as well. The stigma from the War on Drugs is hard to beat down, which is why we need to keep the education coming. Research is the language of the clinician, and the journals are the way to communicate to them. I can only hope that the majority of clinicians embrace plant medicine as a viable treatment for a myriad of mental health and medical disorders.

What do you think about cannabis helping with anxiety and depression?

To learn more about my Clinical Services, please contact my office. Teletherapy sessions available. Link in bio. 😎🤙💚

10/24/2021

The evidence supporting Clinical Endocannabinoid Deficiency (CED) as a contributing factor to Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) continues to grow. These researchers inhibited the CB1 receptors in mice to assess the effects on social behavior. The results are amazing. "In this study, pharmacological inhibition of the primary endocannabinoid producing enzyme, DGL-α, induced a constellation of deficits in behavioral domains associated with autism".

The authors further noted "These data indicate that reduced 2-AG bioavailability, or CB1 inhibition, each induce unique respective behavioral phenotypes relevant to neurodevelopmental disorders, particularly ASD. This suggests fundamental differences in CB1 signaling via 2-AG and the CB1 receptor itself, particularly for social behaviors, and that 2-AG signaling may represent a target for the development of novel therapeutics".

What does all this mean? That's a great question! This experiment validates the hypothesis that CED is a causal factor in the development of neurodevelopmental disorders like ASD. The role of endocannabinoids in both the development of as well as the optimal functioning of the nervous system needs to be further explored. I am excited about what the future will bring for the treatment of these disorders!

Do you think that medical cannabis can help with the symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder?

To learn more about my Clinical Services, please contact my office. Teletherapy sessions available. Link in bio. 😎🤙💚

10/20/2021

The Paradigm on psychedelics is clearly shifting as a result of the big names from the ivy league universities joining the fight. In this case, Johns Hopkins University received the first government grant in over 50 years to research the use of psilocybin in working with to***co addiction. The War on Drugs did a lot of damage and wasted five decades a valuable time that could have been spent on Research.

There is no need to waste time on the past, other than to take lessons from it and not repeat the bad stuff. Embracing the present and opening the floodgates of research to illuminate how to use these miraculous substances as treatments for a variety of disorders is the most pragmatic goal going forward in my opinion.

What do you think about the future of psychedelics and treating addictions?

To learn more about my Clinical Services, please contact my office. Teletherapy sessions available. Link in bio. 😎🤙💚