hi I'm Dr. Joe Sirven I'm editor in chief epilepsy dot com
and welcome to the Epilepsy Foundation discussion on cannabidiol for epilepsy
I have several friends and colleagues who are joining me today I’m going to
let them introduce themselves and I’ll start over here - Anup
hi I’m Anup Patel section chief of neurology at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus Ohio
I’m also the medical cannabis editor for epilepsy dot com
hi I’m Barry Gidal I’m professor of pharmacy at University of Wisconsin Madison
and I’m the co-editor of the medication section of epilepsy dot com
Alice - hello I’m Alice Mead I’m the head of US public policy and public affairs for Greenwich Biosciences
Abbey Hi I’m Abbey Roudebush government relations manager at the Epilepsy Foundation
we’re going to be focusing our discussion now on how did we get here
the history of cannabis and also a quick primer on terminology
So to kind of get us started and I’m going to turn to Anup now
maybe can you give us a sense of just some of the preliminary information
that kind of got us down this road
yes I think one of the biggest misconceptions around this area
is this is a relatively new movement
or in the last few years it has really gotten out there
This is actually talking about cannabis or cannabis-related products that could be
beneficial for people who have epilepsy or seizures is really a topic
that has been going on since the dawn of time
there are actual records and Egyptian scrolls of the use of marijuana to treat medical illness
so it dates all the way back there
in our world of neurology and seizures I think what’s interesting is there is some record of one of our
most well-known members in neurology Dr. Gowers and him using this to treat people who have had seizures
and then kind of lapse that occurs and it’s not that the lapse meant nobody was
doing anything there was a lot of work that was undergoing as it relates to CBD
marijuana cannabis etc for seizures and even in other disease states but
then it was really of recent times when documentaries were started to be made around this topic
One was on CNN by Dr. Sanjay Gupta that talked about a young girl who had benefited
from a strain of marijuana that had a higher content of CBD
you know one of the things that the career and profession of epilepsy has taught me
is that language is everything the term seizure disorder epilepsy seizure
and in this particular area of therapy there are a lot of terms that are floating around
that I think to some degree can confuse the viewers out there
So I was wondering if maybe we could of go around and take a couple of these terms
that we hear and maybe define them and kind of just give an answer
as to what exactly does this mean when we’re talking about it
I think where this really started with marijuana
and I think then the term that has evolved over the years
has been we’ve added the term medical in front of it medical marijuana
Now I think where this does add confusion at this point
where we’re at with our understanding of the science is remembering that the cannabis plant
is a very complex plant that contains a lot of these cannabinoids and a lot of other chemicals
By calling it medical marijuana I think leads some to believe it’s one thing
it’s one drug and that’s really not the case
and there's a number of these different drugs
they may or may not interact with each other we simply don’t know
and I think that does add to the confusion
so I think perhaps we’ve gotten to the point we should evolve past
using medical marijuana as a legitimate term and start talking about the molecules
just like we would with any other drug talk about individual molecules
That makes perfect sense and I’m going to take a riff off your answer there
because you mentioned two specific acronyms in there
and maybe we can kind of get those nicely defined so that everyone feels very comfortable
And I’m going to look to Abbey and to Anup
CBD THC either one whoever wants to take it first
I’ll take the THC part I think that one of the things
we know about THC is that’s probably the most common part of the plant that people are familiar with
largely because it’s the psychoactive portion where it binds to the area of the brain
that gives you that euphoria or high which is why people use it for recreational purposes
Completely separate chemical structure are things like CBD and etc
So Abbey with CBD how would we differentiate that
Right so CBD doesn’t have the psychoactive component that interacts with different areas in your body
and so you don’t get that high that you typically think of with cannabis
the cannabis plant has over 100 of these different substances in them
THC and CBD are just two of the most common ones but each one does something different
So when you think of cannabis most people do think of THC
But then you have other compounds that you can isolate like CBD
and then we get medicine and treatments for epilepsy and other conditions that way
and I think the important thing is that they’re not interchangeable
that is a perfect point to lead us to a summary at this time
And what I ask is each of our panelists kind of your main take-home point
in terms of when we’re talking about the history
as well as the terminology and I’ll start with Anup
I think the biggest thing I’d like for us to take away is that this isn’t a new movement
this has been here for a long period of time
we’ve just gotten to now a point where things have really
gotten where we can actually give this to humans
and make a medication that then went through the FDA process
but it obviously took a long time for us to get here
although the studies were done very quickly and the results were interpreted really quickly
and then the DEA in our opinion made a quick determination it has been ongoing
That’s a great great summary Barry
so I think this whole issue of clarifying what we’re talking about
we need to have a common lexicon
we need to have a common language that we all understand
so when we’re talking between patients
between patient providers that we understand what we’re talking about
so again an edible a medical marijuana realize there's a lot of variability in what we're discussing
very very important point as well Alice
well I certainly agree with Anup about we’ve known about historically
the therapeutic potential of these molecules for a long time
but unlike opiates that began to be developed for modern medicine in the 1800s
cannabinoids are hard to research
they’re hard to formulate they’re hard to administer
so there's just been an absence of technology which leads us to sort of a gap of almost 100 years
between the development of opiates and now the development of modern cannabinoids
but technology is here now so I expect to see a lot of these products available in the future
such a good point Abbey
I guess just echoing what everyone else has said that
now that there is an FDA approved medication it went through the same process as other treatments
And this isn’t a new age drug, it’s not that somebody woke up in this century and thought
we’re going to take this illegal drug and turn it into medicine just because I want to use it
and then I would also echo that I think there is a real need for us to have
common terminology when we talk about this
I also think it’s important to touch on specifically cannabis versus marijuana
and the terms used
I know sometimes people think of them as two different plants or two different substances
cannabis is sort of the medical whereas marijuana that’s the dangerous drug
And it’s really important to note that cannabis is part of the name of the plant
it’s part of the genus it’s the scientific name
and marijuana is just a slang term for cannabis
that really came about in the early part of the 1900s
when they were working to outlaw cannabis
as well as other drugs that was part of the marijuana tax
and I think if we start getting everyone on the same terminology that way
then it’s a nice starting point for us to
go into further research and broader conversations about this
Abbey thank you for that wonderful point
and I think this is a perfect time to thank
all of our wonderful panelists that joined us for the discussion today
that included Anup Barry Alice Abbey and you all the viewer
my name is Dr. Joe Sirven editor-in-chief of epilepsy dot com
and you’ve been watching the Epilepsy Foundation’s discussion on cannabidiol for epilepsy
thanks so much for joining us today