Cancer patients and other patients with debilitating conditions are successfully using cannabis products to help with their or their child’s nausea and vomiting, appetite loss or pain as an adjunctive therapy alongside pharmaceutical medications.
It has been well documented that the combination of cannabis and pain medications is well tolerated and reduces the side effects and overuse of opioids.
Medical cannabis users are happy with the control of pain and anxiety they obtain with the combination of cannabis and pharma meds. That is until they enter an assisted living, hospital, skilled nursing facility or hospice setting. Then they cannot continue to use their cannabis products in those settings. This is because of the facility's concerns about violating federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) guidelines. That is so even if they have been prescribed cannabis products under medical cannabis authorization in their state and have been using them as an outpatient.
To control pain in cancer and other debilitating conditions the standard medical approach is to use ever increasing doses of opiates like morphine, oxycontin, and fentanyl combined with anti-anxiety drugs like Ativan. While these are extremely helpful and clearly reduce suffering, they also mainly put people to sleep and make them unavailable to spend time with family and friends.
Now California Governor Gavin Newsom just signed SB 311, Ryan’s law, named after Ryan Bartell, a California native and US Coast Guard veteran who tragically passed away in 2018 after a brave battle with pancreatic cancer.
Ryan spent his final weeks in the hospital, where he was given morphine and fentanyl for his pain, which mainly put him to sleep. When his family tried to introduce medical cannabis to his treatment plan so he could stay awake and visit with family and friends in his remaining days, they were told it was not allowed. Ryan’s family had to search for weeks before finding a facility that would allow the use of medical cannabis. Sadly, Ryan only lived a few more weeks, but he was able to have quality of life in his remaining days that he did not have in the first hospital.
Speaking about the bill, Senator Ben Hueso (D-San Diego) described the bill as “expanding end-of-life treatment options for Californians by requiring that hospitals and certain types of healthcare facilities in the state allow terminally-ill patients to use medical cannabis for treatment and/or pain relief.”
Ryan’s father, among others, launched a campaign for this bill saying:
“Medical cannabis is an excellent option for relieving pain and suffering in those who are terminally-ill, but most importantly it serves to provide compassion, support, and dignity to patients and their families, during their loved-ones’ final days. Looking at each other, holding Ryan’s hand and telling him how much I loved him during his final moments would not have been possible without the medical cannabis. And will ensure that no patient, or family, must go through that pain and heartbreak again.”
A friend of mine in WA state who passed from cancer in 2018 experienced the same challenges when entering the hospital, skilled nursing facility and hospice in the final months of his life.
Lets hope WA and other states follow California's lead in providing compassionate support and dignity for people in the final days of their lives.
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