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Cannabis Has Unique Benefits for People with Biopolar Disorder Says New Medical Research
Does cannabis help with biopolar?
Around 46 million people around the world struggle with the symptoms of bipolar disorder.
Bipolar disorder can disrupt daily life, affecting relationships and ability to work. There are three kinds of bipolar disorder: Bipolar I, whose symptoms include manic episodes that can last at least a week and may even require admission to the hospital. Bipolar II is characterized by patterns of manic and depressive episodes, particularly elevated moods that make patients more agitated and energetic. The third type is known as cyclothymic disorder, whose symptoms include a rapid cycling of high and low mood swings, going from excessively energetic and happy to depressive in a switch.
Psychotherapy and medications are recommended for the treatment of bipolar disorder. Pharmaceutical medications are conventionally seen as necessary to help regulate moods. However, many patients don’t find relief from symptoms from pharmaceutical medications especially its effects take a while, and they usually come with side effects.
Cannabis is a safer, more natural alternative that can help patients with bipolar disorder.
A brand new study, whose results were presented at the Neuroscience 2022 conference, reveals that marijuana may have “uniquely beneficial effects” for this condition. Researchers presented the findings of a study that sought to understand how cannabis affected cognitive and goal-directed behaviors among people with bipolar disorder. They specifically found that cannabis was effective in improving cognitive function while helping reduce risky decision making, which is common among individuals with bipolar disorder.
The researchers also suggest that cannabis reduces the dopaminergic activity in the brain to help suppress its symptoms.
“Chronic cannabis use may have uniquely beneficial effects in people with BD. Previous studies suggest that some people with BD have increased dopaminergic activity due to a reduced dopamine transporter expression,” they concluded. “Chronic cannabis use has been shown to reduce dopamine release, thus chronic cannabis use may result in a return to dopamine homeostasis in people with BD and consequently normalizing their deficits in goal directed behaviors. We are engaged in additional studies that explore this potential,” wrote the authors.
Other Studies
There have been similar findings in other older studies.
According a 2018 clinical trial data, researchers found that cannabis consumption is linked to improvement in clinical symptoms of bipolar disorder. It also doesn’t negatively impact cognitive performance, they shared. Researchers from Harvard Medical School, McLean Hospital, and Tufts University analyzed the impact of cannabis on cognitive function and moods among patients who have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. This marked the first clinical trial to ever be conducted with the goal of analyzing how marijuana affects neuropsychological performance and mood.
They found that cannabis use resulted in reduced scores for depression, anger, and tension. It was also associated with increased vigor. However, patients who consumed marijuana also showed no significant changes in cognitive performance compared to subjects who abstained.
“The current study highlights preliminary evidence that patients with BPD who regularly smoked marijuana reported at least a short-term clinical symptom alleviation following marijuana use, indicating potential mood-stabilizing properties of marijuana in at least a subset of patients with BPD,” they concluded.
A significant portion of the population do not even know they have bipolar disorder. They do, however, experience mild symptoms of mood swings and other symptoms of dysregulated moods. For them, cannabis can also help.
A 2020 review from researchers at The University of New Mexico involving the analysis of real-life information taken from the Releaf App found that cannabis was effective in treating the symptoms of depression. “One of the more interesting findings from this study, is that cannabis flower with relatively high levels of tetrahydrocannabinol or THC is particularly associated with immediate reductions in the intensity of depressive feelings,” explains researcher Jacob Miguel Vigil. “With no end to the depression epidemic in sight, and given the limitations and potential severe negative side effects of conventional antidepressant medications, there is a real need for people to be able to treat mood disturbances with natural, safe, and effective medications, and the cannabis plant checks off all three boxes,” said Vigil.
Boosting the endocannabinoid system with the use of cannabinoid-based products has been shown to positively impact the neuroendocrine, neurotransmission, and neuroimmune systems. These systems are all greatly affected by those who suffer from depression and other mood disorders such as bipolar disorder.
In a 2006 study out of Montreal, researchers found that increasing the amount of endocannabinoids produced by the brain is effective in improving one’s mood. Investigators from the McGill University Health Center revealed that using the synthetic URB579 agent resulted in “potent anti-depressant-like effects” in animal models because it was successful in preventing cannabinoids from degrading.
It was the first study to ever prove that something external can help boost cannabinoids and overall mood.
According to lead researcher Gabriella Gobbi, “This is the first time it has been shown that a drug that increases cannabinoids in the brain can improve your mood,” she said.
Additionally, a 2020 report from BMC Psychiatry found that whole plant cannabis and plant-based cannabinoids are effective in improving moods and sleep while reducing anxiety and psychotic disorders.
Conclusion
While the body of research on cannabis for bipolar disorders is fairly young, the studies and anecdotal evidence is promising. If you or a loved one struggle with bipolar disorder and want to use cannabis or CBD products, be sure to do so with the guidance of your physician.
New Mexico regulators fined a cannabis operator nearly $300,000 and revoked its license after the company allegedly created fake reports in the state’s traceability software.
The New Mexico Cannabis Control Division (CCD) accused marijuana manufacturer and retailer Golden Roots of 11 violations, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Golden Roots operates the The Cannabis Revolution Dispensary.
The majority of the violations are related to the Albuquerque company’s improper use of BioTrack, which has been New Mexico’s track-and-trace vendor since 2015.
The CCD alleges Golden Roots reported marijuana production only two months after it had received its vertically integrated license, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Because cannabis takes longer than two months to be cultivated, the CCD was suspicious of the report.
After inspecting the company’s premises, the CCD alleged Golden Roots reported cultivation, transportation and sales in BioTrack but wasn’t able to provide officers who inspected the site evidence that the operator was cultivating cannabis.
In April, the CCD revoked Golden Roots’ license and issued a $10,000 fine, according to the news outlet.
The company requested a hearing, which the regulator scheduled for Sept. 1.
At the hearing, the CCD testified that the company’s dried-cannabis weights in BioTrack were suspicious because they didn’t seem to accurately reflect how much weight marijuana loses as it dries.
Company employees also poorly accounted for why they were making adjustments in the system of up to 24 pounds of cannabis, making comments such as “bad” or “mistake” in the software, Albuquerque Business First reported.
Golden Roots was fined $298,972.05 – the amount regulators allege the company made selling products that weren’t properly accounted for in BioTrack.
The CCD has been cracking down on cannabis operators accused of selling products procured from out-of-state or not grown legally:
- Regulators alleged in August that Albuquerque dispensary Sawmill Sweet Leaf sold out-of-state products and didn’t have a license for extraction.
- Paradise Exotics Distro lost its license in July after regulators alleged the company sold products made in California.
Golden Roots was the first alleged rulebreaker in New Mexico to be asked to pay a large fine.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/new-mexico-cannabis-operator-fined-loses-license-for-alleged-biotrack-fraud/
Four marijuana companies, including a multistate operator, have filed a lawsuit against U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in which they allege the federal MJ prohibition under the Controlled Substances Act is no longer constitutional.
According to the complaint, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, retailer Canna Provisions, Treevit delivery service CEO Gyasi Sellers, cultivator Wiseacre Farm and MSO Verano Holdings Corp. are all harmed by “the federal government’s unconstitutional ban on cultivating, manufacturing, distributing, or possessing intrastate marijuana.”
Verano is headquartered in Chicago but has operations in Massachusetts; the other three operators are based in Massachusetts.
The lawsuit seeks a ruling that the “Controlled Substances Act is unconstitutional as applied to the intrastate cultivation, manufacture, possession, and distribution of marijuana pursuant to state law.”
The companies want the case to go before the U.S. Supreme Court.
They hired prominent law firm Boies Schiller Flexner to represent them.
The New York-based firm’s principal is David Boies, whose former clients include Microsoft, former presidential candidate Al Gore and Elizabeth Holmes’ disgraced startup Theranos.
Similar challenges to the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA) have failed.
One such challenge led to a landmark Supreme Court decision in 2005.
In Gonzalez vs. Raich, the highest court in the United States ruled in a 6-3 decision that the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution gave Congress the power to outlaw marijuana federally, even though state laws allow the cultivation and sale of cannabis.
In the 18 years since that ruling, 23 states and the District of Columbia have legalized adult-use marijuana and the federal government has allowed a multibillion-dollar cannabis industry to thrive.
Since both Congress and the U.S. Department of Justice, currently headed by Garland, have declined to intervene in state-licensed marijuana markets, the key facts that led to the Supreme Court’s 2005 ruling “no longer apply,” Boies said in a statement Thursday.
“The Supreme Court has since made clear that the federal government lacks the authority to regulate purely intrastate commerce,” Boies said.
“Moreover, the facts on which those precedents are based are no longer true.”
Verano President Darren Weiss said in a statement the company is “prepared to bring this case all the way to the Supreme Court in order to align federal law with how Congress has acted for years.”
While the Biden administration’s push to reschedule marijuana would help solve marijuana operators’ federal tax woes, neither rescheduling nor modest Congressional reforms such as the SAFER Banking Act “solve the fundamental issue,” Weiss added.
“The application of the CSA to lawful state-run cannabis business is an unconstitutional overreach on state sovereignty that has led to decades of harm, failed businesses, lost jobs, and unsafe working conditions.”
Alabama regulators are targeting Dec. 1 to award the first batch of medical cannabis business licenses after the agency’s first two attempts were scrapped because of scoring errors and litigation.
The first licenses will be awarded to individual cultivators, delivery providers, processors, dispensaries and state testing labs, according to the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC).
Then, on Dec. 12, the AMCC will award licenses for vertically integrated operations, a designation set primarily for multistate operators.
Licenses are expected to be handed out 28 days after they have been awarded, so MMJ production could begin in early January, according to the Alabama Daily News.
That means MMJ products could be available for patients around early March, an AMCC spokesperson told the media outlet.
Regulators initially awarded 21 business licenses in June, only to void them after applicants alleged inconsistencies with how the applications were scored.
Then, in August, the state awarded 24 different licenses – 19 went to June recipients – only to reverse themselves again and scratch those licenses after spurned applicants filed lawsuits.
A state judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by Chicago-based MSO Verano Holdings Corp., but another lawsuit is pending.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/alabama-plans-to-award-medical-cannabis-licenses-dec-1/
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