Tonights speakers. Dr. Peter grinspoon is a primary care physician, educator and cannabis specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital and instructor at Harvard Medical School and a Certified Health and wellness coach. He is also the author of free refills. A doctor confronts his addiction will be joined in conversation tonight by Marion Mcnabb mcnabb is the president of the Cannabis Center for excellence, inc. , a Nonprofit Organization that conducts Citizen Science focused studies and programs in. The areas of community engagement, medical cannabis, adult use, cannabis and social justice in the cannabis industry. Dr. Grinspoon presenting his new book, seeing through the smoke. This book is an unflinching examination at the grossly misunderstand drug that data driven medical science and a critical Historical Perspective to reveal the truth behind cannabis by focusing on the critical purported harms driving pregnancy addictiveness, memory, and by focusing on the most cited medical benefits relieving chronic pain, sleep anxiety, autism and cancer. Seeing through the smoke will help patients, doctors, health experts, regulators and politicians move toward, move beyond biased perceptions and arrive a shared reality towards cannabis. Were so pleased to host this event at Harvard Bookstore tonight. Please join me in welcoming dr. Grinspoon and Marion McnabbMarion Mcnabb. Thank you so much, dan, for that very kind. This. Is good. Good, everybody. Its a distinct its my distinct honor and pleasure to be here tonight with my dear friend and colleague, dr. Peter grinspoon, who has just published second book seeing through the smoke. A cannabis specialist untangles truth about marijuana. Thank you all for being here tonight. And thank you to peter for writing this book so that we could all be here. My name is dr. Marion mcnabb. Im the president of the Cannabis Center of excellence. 5013 Nonprofit Organization based out of east boston. Been working in the cannabis industry here in massachusetts since 2017. And ive had the honor of knowing dr. Grinspoon for several now collaborating with him on Cannabis Research studies together the Cannabis Center of excellence. Im excited to be here tonight with my dear friend and colleague as we dive deep into. One of the many topics of his book, one that is near and dear to both of our hearts cannabis and the role it can play in addressing the opioid epidemic. Shortly we will hear from peter, who will read us an excerpt of the and we will follow with time for some q a from the audience. To weve already heard peters background, but ill give my version of it. Dr. Peter grinspoon is a primary care physician, educator and cannabis specialist who is a dear and a Certified Health and wellness coach. Thank you. He is also a tedx speaker and commonly lectures on the topics of cannabis, psychedelics, addiction opioids and physician health. Peter speaks with authority and lived experience and makes us contribute actions authentic and realistic. For tonights discussion focused on chapter 15 of peters book titled cannabis instead of. Bigger isnt always better. This is such a powerful chapter in your book, peter, as it really hit on some practice call and evidence based interventions that can be considered for how cannabis can possibly play a role in helping us address current Opioid Crisis that we are facing. To give discussion a bit of context, im going to share a few Key Statistics with you all. And last year alone, 108,000 people in the United States lost their lives to opioid overdoses and. Overdose deaths have reached an all time high here in massachusetts. In 2014, message ucits declared the Opioid Crisis a Public Health emergency in the state. And massachusetts is now one of the top ten states with the rates of opioid Overdose Deaths in the country. Massachusetts City Residents are suffering from an exponential increase in opioid related. Overdose deaths and people seeking substance abuse. Substance use treatment due to the use of prescription opioids and heroin. In fact, if you take the number one bus from right here to, nubian square, youll go mass and caps, which is an intersection of massachusetts avenue and milan cass boulevard. It is an epicenter of substance use, homelessness and illness. We are in urgent need of solutions and coordination to address this crisis. And 2021. There were over 2290 overdose fatalities in massachusetts, many of which in boston, and the highest overdose death rate in massachusetts is among american indians. Followed by black and latinx men. The risks associated opioid overdoses continue to increase as the drug supply changes. And we see increasing levels of fentanyl a highly, highly potent synthetic opioid present. Now there are subgroups of those suffering with addiction that are more vulnerable to overdoses, including those that are homeless and that are veterans. Were lucky to have governor maura healey as our here in massachusetts as led the nation in exposing the wrongdoing of the billionaire Sackler Family through suing Purdue Pharma and court for cause of the opioid epidemic. In 2020, she announced the resolution of claims against the nations three largest drug distributors that is now providing hundreds of millions of dollars to address the Opioid Crisis across the state and nation. We are in need of Urgent Solutions to address this Opioid Crisis and the role that cannabis can play is only compelling. Its a practical, nonlethal and legal tool, and our Public Health and clinical toolkit that we could be employing and Harm Reduction capacity with the commonwealth of massachusetts currently issuing 500 million in opioid resettlement funding throughout the state. Perhaps its an opportunity to think about new approaches medical cannabis. In my opinion, the following the approaches that grinspoon will now share in his chapter 15 of his book are compelling enough in my mind that they would make a significant impact. All right, thats enough talking for for now. Ill hand it over to peter. For right here. Testing. He. Thanks for coming. Thank you so much to Harvard Bookstore for hosting us. Thank to marian for bravely deciding to join me up here. You to my mom. Raise your hand. Betsy grinspoon. Was actually married to my dad, lester grinspoon, for 66 years, and my dad was a critically important in the legalization. I write about this, but in a totally different part of the book and just very briefly, my involvement in the cannabis issue has been a lifelong number one. My danny was a pioneering Cannabis Patient in the 1970s. My parents, my actually bought him medical in the early 1970s, right. Richard nixon was starting his war on drugs. You know, they could have lost career. My dad, a psychiatrist, mom, a teacher. But the fact is, cannabis really helped. My brother danny, he was on chemotherapy. He was at the jimmy fund building. And when use cannabis, he could really hold down food and play with his little brothers. Made a huge difference, especially for the last year of his life. And, you know, theres very little thats as impactful as witnessing the alleviation of suffering in a Family Member. So i eventually went through a career in medicine and i knew that medical cannabis was medicine, maybe, among other things, i was just a kid, but i certainly knew was a medicine. And that helped sort of insulate me from a lot of the nonsense they teach you in medical school. Weve got a very long way to go get physicians up to speed, not just a medical cannabis, but a cannabis in general. Number two, as i alluded to, my father was a very legendary cannabis advocate, psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School as well. He wrote a book in 1971 called marijuana reconsidered, that at a time when 12 of americans supported full legalization of cannabis and when Richard Nixon was literally starting his war on drugs, my dad called for legalization, he said. There were harms. Cannabis certainly can affect teenagers, could affect pregnant women, but the harms of criminalizing were far, far worse than the harms of using cannabis. It should be illegal. So again, 12 of americans supported fully with my dad rules book, which was reviewed in the front page of the New York Times book review, which i think is the main reason harvard didnt fire him on the spot because they were not happy with his work. And then the support for legalization went up about a point for each of the 50 years he worked on it until he passed away two years ago. So now its about 67 and 94 of americans are in favor of legal access to medical cannabis. Name anything else that 94 of americans agree on . They dont even agree. The earth is round, sky is blue. So who would have thought cannabis unites and who would have thought that growing up, as i did with a front row to the Legalization Movement so part of this book is about the Legalization Movement, about how it came about and the people that brought it about. Part of it is about the war on cannabis users and what weve done to people there have been 20 million arrests for nonviolent cannabis offenses over the last 50 years is actually horrible. I, i could go on and on about what having a criminal record does to your education, to your job prospects, to your. And then i, i do have a chapter called do no harm about and about how doctors were flat out on wrong side of the war on drugs and need to do a lot better not just on cannabis but on all the drugs. I mean, enough of the stigma, the judgment, the criticizing this stuff is is actually killing people. And then i go through all the harms of cannabis, the major ones, you know, driving cognition, teenage pregnancy, see addiction. And i about what are the real harms what is the science say and what are the imagined harms. And keep in mind, like deciphering the science is very difficult because the Us Government has only funded until very recently studies the harms of cannabis and they literally would not fund a researcher or studies into the benefits of cannabis. So we have this research, but its really one sided. I mean, if youre looking in one direction. First of all, youre not to see the other direction. And then the doctors are like, well, theres no data. What we have in theyre looking for data. And there is a lot of data. So and number two, its just very hard to understand these studies because theyre studies. But they were with an agenda. The agenda to vilify cannabis because you couldnt really create a big enough moral panic and with just cocaine and heroin to wage a whole war on drugs, you had to include cannabis. And you only could include cannabis if. You demonized it and vilified it. So i go through all these harms with the most recent science and then i go through the benefits. Can they help with pain can it help with insomnia . Can it help with can it help with autism . A lot of people are giving it to the kids for autism and its its really amazing how both sides get it wrong. The pro people think it cures everything and they whenever a study comes out about the harms, they just say, oh, thats just Us Government propaganda, which is really, really dangerous. I mean, if you use drug, you need to know the harms. We, many of us know the harms of alcohol and we still to drink. But were making an informed decision. But you cant make an informed decision unless you have Accurate Information about the harms and the benefits. Whats he going to do to me and how is it going to help . So i go through all the benefits and then i have a chapter on cbd which is a kind of a funny chapter because so many people are on cbd. And then finally i have a chapter on personal lifestyle uses. How are the ways in which you can enhance your lifestyle . How is it that people have been using it for 5000 years and you know, it helps people appreciate sex and music and religion, spirituality, and helps you mindfully connect to the president. Why is this drug been vilified . It helps people not that again, that it doesnt have horrors, which is what the second parts about. So that is sort of a synopsis of. The book and the chapter usually i read these chapters about like my personal involvement and the sort autobiographical. But you know, doing this summary. Marion, whos a specialist in all of these things and i just think its such a big crisis with the Opioid Crisis. And then just very briefly, on a personal note, im 15 years in recovery from the vicious to prescription opiates. So these statistics could have been me. And thats when my first book was about ice free refills, about how a doctor confronts this addiction, how you get addicted as a doctor, which is not hard because doctors are under so much stress and have so much access and how you recover. But i really wanted talk about cannabis and the Opioid Crisis. So going to do a brief reading then probably, you know, talk a little bit more and then were going to open it up for questions. So to what extent can cannabis help us address the Opioid Crisis . As i write this, we have lost more than 108,000 people in the United States to opiate overdoses within the last 12 months. I mean, that is just a astounding. Number of people to die from opiates. Several states have approved cannabis help address components of this epidemic. Is this sensible generally, there are five ways in which cannabis can alleviate the opiate crisis. Now, four of which im on board with, and one of which i dont agree with yet. So the first way is to offer cannabinoid therapy instead of opiates for patients with new chronic syndromes, all doctors should be equipped to offer this option. Right now, its about 2 of doctors this practice will lead to fewer patient exposure years to opiates and fewer opiates in circulation that could be diverted by Family Member or acquaintance. This is actually how addictions to prescription painkillers start when someone else gets into someones left opiates. Im not at all in favor of under treating pain patients or in cutting off opiates in patients who need them or have been on them with benefit. But it is amazing how many people dont actually need opiates do better on cannabis. The second way to help with the Opioid Crisis is to transition people who have been on chronic opiate treatment from opiate to cannabis. This has to be voluntary. Too many people getting kicked off their opiates that can lead to like severe distress and even an uptick in suicides. And then when you kick them off their prescription by illegal opiates, and thats the deaths are going up, the cracking down on the doctors, people are prescribing it and then people are buying it illegally. So it has to be voluntary as is wholly unethical and dangerous to force people off their opiates. Many people have transitioned from opiates to cannabis on their own and are eager to do this. This is especially true if they have access to a cannabis knowledgeable physician. You know, these are a little bit few and far between, but were working on this. Whos able to help coach them as well as to as well as to give them access safe and legal cannabis. According to a 2019 study, results from previous clinical studies suggesting the cannabis may be an effective analgesic and opiate substitute patients are reporting improved pain health and fewer side effects as a rationale for substituting. Now ive had a lot of success in my clinical practice transitioning patients from opiates to cannabis, though certainly not with everyone whos tried in some cases the pain is just so severe they feel the need to opiates and other people other patients successfully make the transition off of opiates. But have to go back on them because the Health Insurance cover cannabis and they simply cant afford it. Now, this is something were very hard working to change im going to grab some caffeine. I have a sign by my office and my Office Manager gave me this, said, without caffeine, i have no personality whatsoever. So bear with so my patient derek is one success story. When derek first wheeled up to me, he was the recent victim of a drive by shooting. The specialists had patched him up, which was really incredible. What they did, but they he suffered from severe, chronic nerve pain and ptsd. And it started a massive dose of oxycodone. I offered to transition into cannabis which he was open to. We worked together on this and as his opiates came down eventually to none his engagement and interest in the around him increased, he was also doing physical therapy and in time relapsing. So we cant attribute the improvement strictly to cannabis therapy. It certainly seemed like the cannabis was working though it is difficult to imagine that his remarkable renal function have occurred on that gargantuan dose of opiates. He fought his way out of the wheelchair and then off his cane and started a successful Small Business and then went on to study economics. Hes really, really successful. He said to me, if you didnt encourage me to get off the axes, i never would have achieved any of this. The third way to utilize cannabis to lower opiate overdoses is