A rural Canadian doctor starts prescribing cannabis

Canadian ER doctor Tiffany Keenan’s discovery of medical cannabis started with a documentary on TV, something indicative of how many doctors are still uninformed about medical cannabis and the science behind it. She did more research, and soon began prescribing cannabis to patients in her private practice.Most of her cannabis patients are over 50 and they’re not looking to get high, she says. They’re looking to relieve pain and prefer CBD-based solutions.“Especially in smaller towns, the word kind of gets out that people are getting relief from this and then they tell their friends,” Dr. Keenan tells The Cannabis Enigma.Treating chronic pain with cannabis, Dr. Keenan explains, means that patients can sometimes stop taking more dangerous medications. “What I’ve been so encouraged by is that the patient’s when they start even just using CBD based preparations, they’re able to come off of — many times — opioids.”Even in a country like Canada, where cannabis is legal for both medical and recreational use, many doctors still have a lot to learn, particularly about the endocannabinoid system, Dr. Keenan adds, referring to the body system that interacts with cannabinoids.“In Canada now, even though the medical product is legalized there, still many physicians are uninformed that we have this amazing system that has so many receptors all throughout our body with this great potential to help,” she says.This episode was produced by Michael Omer-Man, Elana Goldberg, and Matan Weil, edited by Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man, and Yoav Morder was the sound engineer. Music by Desca.