Dr. Carlie Bell: Clearing Misconceptions In Cannabis Medicine

In this episode of the Green Standard podcast, we sit down with Doctor Carlie Bell, a naturopathic doctor and a passionate advocate for cannabis education and holistic health. As a key member of the Veriheal team, Dr. Bell brings a wealth of knowledge about the evolving landscape of medicinal cannabis, particularly in light of potential federal rescheduling from Schedule I to Schedule III. She shared her thoughts on the implications of this change on research opportunities, patient access, and the importance of whole plant use. Read a snippet of our conversation below:

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Clearing Up Misconceptions About Natural Medicine With Dr. Carlie Bell

Kymberly Drapcho (KD): So you kind of did tell us a little bit about your role as a cannabis educator. What are some common misconceptions that you find yourself educating against?

Carlie Bell: Yes. Let’s say a big one would be that, you know, the highest THC product is the best. You know, I have a lot of patients who are like, you know, seeking out the highest THC percentage. And for the majority of patients that is not going to be the best medicine for them because we know that THC has a biphasic effect. So I find myself teaching a lot around the biphasic effect of THC, you know, how at lower levels it can actually help with pain. It can help reduce anxiety, like the bell curve, you know, over here—once you get to that peak, once you get on the other side of that, then we start seeing some of the negative side effects we can see from THC, such as it can make some types of pain worse, especially post-operative pain and at too high a level. And it can obviously induce anxiety, which we see a lot of people with the paranoia and things like that. And so that’s one of the main things is the more THC, the better. That’s one of the main misconceptions that I have to teach you about.

Another one is, you know, just the stigma around it. I’ve had several patients who, you know, I had a gentleman come into the office or I was doing education and, you know, he said, I got M.S. I really want to use this. I know it’s going to help me, but my wife is really against it, and she doesn’t want her husband to be a pothead, and so I don’t really want to use it because I don’t want conflict in the house. And I invited his wife to an education session, you know, so that she could understand, you know, why he needs to use the medicine. You know how it’s neuroprotective. You know how it’s going to be able to decrease the inflammation and really help him with his symptoms. And it’s not about how he’s just, you know, trying to, you know, get high.

Carlie Bell: And then the other thing is teaching about different consumption methods. A lot of people only think about smoking. And smoking is actually probably the last consumption method as a physician that I recommend, just because you’re inhaling carcinogen, you know, particulate, right? Even though inhaling cannabis, there’s no correlation with lung cancer at all. There can be a correlation with bronchitis and chronic cough and things like that if someone does smoke a lot.

And so, but there’s other ways to inhale other than smoking, such as a dry flower vaporizer. Most people have never heard of that before. You know, they don’t know they can take suppositories, you know, and all of these things. And so there’s, you know, that piece that the different consumption methods is a big piece, you know, and then, you know, there’s, you know, the start low and go slow. There’s, you know, the different percentages, it’s, there’s, you know, the different effect that the different consumption methods can have. You know, if someone is cannabis naive, for example, I do not recommend edible. Most people who have a bad experience with cannabis is usually through an edible route. And, you know, that’s because how the liver converts that delta nine THC to 11 hydroxy THC, and it crosses the blood-brain barrier so much more easily and can cause so many other effects. But 11 hydroxy THC is also better at pain relief than delta 9. And so, you know, it’s depending on the patient. So also that cannabis can be, you know, very patient-specific, you know, and that all cannabis is not created equal.

Carlie Bell: There’s actually at my, the school that I went to, Sonoran University, in the lab there, they have a research facility, did some research there on cannabis, and what they found out was that certain strains of cannabis actually have more of an affinity for, like the immunological markers, whereas some have more of an affinity for, like the markers that might, the receptors that are in the brain. Right. And so who are we talking about? Oh, we can help with the immune system. Okay. Not every strain, you know. Oh, I can help with pain or these and that. There are certain strains that are better at these things than others. And we can get to that level of research of knowing these particular molecules within the plant are reacting with these particular receptors within the body. Now we have really specific targeted medicine that can be even more effective than just, you know, I’m just going to have some cannabis and hope that, you know, it really helps my lupus.

KD: Right, and there’s kind of like two things that I want to comment on there…. I kind of want to pick your brain a little bit about the future of cannabis medicine. Like, I just saw an article today that legislators are putting pressure on the government to reschedule cannabis in a more timely fashion than maybe it’s been, to reschedule cannabis quickly. Once cannabis is rescheduled, how do you see the world of cannabis medicine changing?

Carlie Bell: Absolutely. Wonderful question. So it looks like they’re wanting to reschedule it for schedule one. Which, you know, schedule one means it has no medicinal value and it’s highly addictive. We know both of those statements are not true. We know that coffee is actually more addictive than cannabis, scientifically proven from studies in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Now, you know when we put it from schedule one to schedule three. Now what happens is it allows for more research. That’s going to be one of the primary things because when a drug is on Schedule One, it’s very hard for universities and research institutions to be able to get the product to even be able to do studies on it. And at a schedule three, it just opens the market to research. And I think that is going to be the biggest change that we see in the industry—it’s just the amount of clinical research that is done.

Carlie Bell: And really being able to get down into, you know, these are, you know, the parts of the plant that really are, you know, causing that cancer cell apoptosis and, you know, whatever it may be, these are the ones that are really helping with infertility because that’s a whole other, you know, plate. So I think we’ll see the research just kind of come wide open with opportunity there. I think that’s the main thing.

Also, they will see more access, you know, more patient access, because now that it’s not federally illegal. And so I feel like a lot more practitioners will be comfortable prescribing it. You know, a lot more of if they keep it on the state level, you know, a lot more states that are not that don’t quite have a program yet will be more comfortable in having, you know, a program. And so just opening up to more patients, having access to the plant as well.

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The Green Standard podcast strives to elevate real, lived experiences within the cannabis industry — whether that’s testimonials from our patients and practitioners or commentary from our staff and partners. By telling these stories, we attempt to strip away the veil of secrecy, shame, and stigma that surrounds the cannabis industry with the effort of advocating for more transparent conversation and easier, more dignified access to cannabis across the globe.

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