As waiters served us dish after dish of sushi, noodles and dumplings, the discussion began with Dragonfly Wellness Chief Growth Officer, Narith Pahn stated that Utah has some of the highest testing standards for medical cannabis in the nation.
“You know when you’re purchasing here in a regulated market, you know exactly what you’re getting on the label,” said Pahn.
Pahn got involved with Dragonfly Wellness, Utah’s first medical cannabis pharmacy, after his brother was hit by a drunk driver going about 40mph as he was crossing the street and spent nine months recovering using only edible cannabis —not a single pain pill.
Based on ongoing research in Utah by physicians and point-of-sale data gathered by Dragonfly on the impact of cannabis on opioid prescriptions in chronic pain, data demonstrates that states with medical cannabis laws have observed reductions in opioid prescription rates and opioid-related mortality. Lobbyist and advocate for medical cannabis Desiree Hennessy said people can ask their doctor to recommend medical cannabis instead of opiates for up to six weeks.
“So it is an option, and we’re not saying that it’s a panacea, it’s for everybody, or it’s a miracle drug, but it is a medication, and it should be treated like a medication. It should have never been treated like a street drug,” said Hennessy.
While this growing body of evidence about the role of cannabis as a viable alternative for pain management is hopeful, everyone agrees that a key issue is cannabis’ bad reputation as a gateway street drug. Hennessey, whose lobbying efforts in 2020 helped bring medical cannabis to Utah through Proposition 2, says this social stigma is preventing many people from finding pain relief. She calls this hyped-up opposition ‘reefer madness’ and as the executive director of Utah Patients Coalition (UPC) created to pass the ballot initiative here in Utah, educating the public is her number one priority.
There needs to be a lot of education about what cannabis does and doesn’t do, the cleanliness of cannabis on the street versus what’s in a medical market, You stop believing that it’s just a recreational drug that gets you high or has you know, people will say that it causes psychosis and all these things, but the truth is, is that has medical benefits, and all of the contra-indications can usually be avoided if it’s managed well with a medical provider and a pharmacist
Dr. Brandon Forsythe was also at the table that evening. He is the Director of Medical Cannabis and Laboratory Services at the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food.
“So our laboratory does the testing for products in the medical cannabis program, as well as testing for the hemp, industrial hemp and kratom, and other programs around the state for food stuffs as well, mostly looking for contaminants as well as components. And in the case of cannabis, those components that we’re looking for would be the THC and the terpenes,” said Dr. Forsythe.
Dr. Forsyth is in charge of making sure that medical cannabis is guaranteed to be free of dangerous contaminants like heavy metals, pesticides, residual solvents, mycotoxins, and foreign matter in general, all of which are commonly found in products available on the black market or even in medical cannabis in other states. Utah ranks high on the national totem pole for quality and safety when it comes to cannabis.
“We’re one of the few states where the state lab is actually actively participating in the medical cannabis testing and ensuring that the results are accurate,” said Dr. Forsyth.
He said there are incentives, including financial ones, in other states for operators to inflate those numbers.
“We’ve seen rampant Miss testing of cannabis throughout the United States of inflating those THC numbers to increase the market value, but really it’s hurting the value of that product to patients and to consumers. And so we’re really in a lucky spot here in Utah that the program was set up from the beginning to have the state labs involvement in the program and make sure it’s safe and contains what it says it does,” said Dr. Forsythe.
With these checks and balances in place in Utah, advocates for medical cannabis are lobbying for more pharmacies and to normalize it as a medication that you can get with a prescription from your regular care physician.
“I really think that the focus of this year needs to be on that, like this is going to put medical cannabis back into the hands of the medical community, and that’s a huge win,” said Hennessy.
Hennessy, is also a mother who was once desperate to help her son, Estevan, who had cerebral palsy and was having intense nerve pain. She said the gabapentin and valium the doctors were giving him weren’t working and causing all kinds of other health risks.
“He was still screaming. He was still not sleeping. We did nine months of absolutely no pain control, I would go and I would beg, and I would say, ‘Can we, can we talk about cannabis?’ And they wouldn’t give me the time of the day.”
And that was when Hennessy began working to pass prop 2 which would serve as a law that allowed medical cannabis in Utah. This took gathering upwards of a hundred thousand signatures across Utah counties. It was then that she realized this great need.
“People would just grab me and hug me and they’re like, ‘I’ve been giving this to my child. He has seizures, and I’m so afraid somebody’s gonna find me out. I’ve been using this because I have hormonal migraines.’ I mean, it was time and time again, And I realized then that although my story was serious, it was a drop in a bucket, it was a drop in the ocean, compared to what was happening in the state, you know, undercover and in people’s basements and in people’s, you know, secret parts of their lives that they didn’t even tell their family members or their friends,” said Hennessy.
They managed to pass Prop 2, and Hennessy was finally able to give Estevan, her son with cerebral palsy, medical cannabis by mixing it with water and injecting it into a port leading to his stomach.
“It was almost like an immediate fix for his pain and and I did not intend on his him reacting as well as he did. I would just draw it up in a regular syringe and put it in his G-tube, and it was absolutely amazing. By the time he died, he was completely off of his seizure medication and his muscle relaxers, because he just didn’t need him anymore.”
Industry leaders including researchers, advocates, and growers held a five-year anniversary party this month for the beehive state’s medical cannabis industry. Read More
