On the latest Marijuana Business Podcast, host Benzinga’s publisher Michael Pryor interviews Dr. William Courtney, President of Alternative Medicine Partners Inc., a company that works closely with licensed medical and adult-use cannabis facilities to provide cannabinoid therapy for the endocannabinoid system. The following is an excerpt of the conversation. We’re going to discuss what’s going on with the opioid crisis and how it might relate to this. Because we’ve been at this for a while, some of us a little longer than others, and it seems to me that a lot of cannabis-based products are out there as ways of managing chronic pain. That’s correct, because I’ve been asking a lot of questions in my own mind about, why do people end up on opioids for chronic pain? I think it has a lot to do with the culture and the atmosphere in which they live. Pain is all around. There are chronic conditions that we are all experiencing. I don’t know if it’s more prevalent than it was 10 years ago, but it seems like it’s at least as prevalent. When you have people who have chronic pain, there’s a lot of misinformation. There are many people who are being left in pain. I’m all for medical marijuana and I think it has a lot of possibilities, and I think it helps a lot of people. But is that actually the answer? No. You might get some people off of opioids. I’m an advocate for medical marijuana, but that doesn’t mean that it’s appropriate to go right off of one opioid and onto another one. We need to look at what the long-term effects are. Some studies show that medical marijuana has effects that are similar to those of opioids. It’s not better or worse, but it can be helpful in some cases, and they’re different approaches. You’ve got to look at the long-term effects of that. To me, I’m not a fan of opioids. In terms of managing chronic pain, I’m in favor of medical marijuana. It has some uses, I’m not gonna argue that. But the fact that these products don’t work so well for so many people—it’s a very difficult situation. And we need to consider that, that the science has not caught up yet. I think we will. The science has been around. There are enough studies being done. At the end of the day, it’s gonna be a combination of things that actually helps people. Can you be more specific? What do you think the science is saying? What do you think it can do? How does it interact with the opioid crisis? We know that the use of opioids is going up, and this is not happening in all sectors, and obviously it’s going up in the treatment of chronic pain, and it’s going up in addiction. We’re also seeing deaths in the overdose, not just opioids, but from all over the world. The US, obviously, is the largest part of it. We have a lot of deaths occurring here. I don’t think there’s been a lot of research into what we might be missing or might have missing. The one thing that I think is clear in all of this is that I think the medical community needs to sit up and take notice that this is not really happening in a way that it seems like it’s supposed to be happening. So there are two parts here, as we’re talking about this. Let’s just get the drugs out there. Let’s make sure we know what we’re using, and let’s figure out how to reduce the issues. It’s as much about education as anything else. We know that marijuana helps with pain in the short term. It doesn’t help with the long-term effects. How do we find out what are the long-term effects, and how do we deal with them? Let’s do that first, and let’s do that right now. Let’s get this under control. Let’s get the science going. That’s just my personal opinion. We need to be more scientific in the way that we approach this. That’s a big part of the problem as well. If I just said, okay, we’re gonna do this by ignoring what the science says, that’s not helping anyone. What I do want to say is that, for people who are really suffering from chronic pain, it can be difficult to make the best decision. I know that we all want to make good decisions. But there are a lot of people, like me, who are just desperate to find a treatment that actually works. Here is a point of agreement and disagreement: As you mentioned, because we’ve had opioids for a long time now, the idea of something being safer is pretty ingrained. People in general have a hard time thinking about addiction as something that can happen. It’s all around, but it’s not like that’s the only thing out there. That’s just the only thing that’s had that conversation for so long. I’d love to get to a point where we start thinking about things like this: addiction is a symptom, and this is what we should be thinking about. Agreed, and that is very insightful. One thing we have to remember is that addiction is a symptom of something deeper. I do think that you’re on to something here. There is a very high correlation between medical conditions that include certain drugs and addictions to those drugs. The reason why I say that is there are quite a few patients who are using cannabis, but when they first started using it they didn’t have chronic pain, and then they started having chronic pain. There are a lot of people that get really enthusiastic about medical cannabis and then they start having pain. I think that’s really important because a lot of people are using cannabis for the wrong reasons, and if we can get to a place where cannabis can be used in a medical way, for pain and other conditions, then we can avoid that. You can’t use cannabis like opioids. You can’t take it to treat conditions. There are a lot of people that are doing that in my office. And I’m not putting anybody down or anything like that, but there are some cases where they are trying to use cannabis for the wrong reasons. I understand that. I think that is one of the most important things we have to keep in mind with regards to all of this. Now, I agree with you that you have to treat people like people. But we also have to take people’s experiences into account. And I do believe that we need to take scientific facts and results into account as well. At the same time, I think we need to approach this with an open mind and keep an open mind to all of the possibilities that are out there. I’m all for that. When you’re talking about pain management, I think there’s a lot of science that is being done and studies being done, but there’s a lot of things that still need to be done. A lot of these studies that need to be done are not being done. There’s still a lot of questions out there that need to be answered. I think we’re still in the dark on a lot of these things. But you just hit the nail on the head. I think you did. I was getting a little emotional about it, because I am a fan of what you’re saying and where you’re going with this. I think that, as we move forward with this conversation, that’s something that is really going to help us. It’s almost like a puzzle. You need to have some of those pieces to be able to put everything together and understand it in its totality. Yeah. We really do, and that’s what I love about cannabis and why I think the industry is so great in this respect. This industry creates jobs, creates opportunities, creates health and wellness, and it does all of those things. It’s the industry of the future. If you like this post, please check out our cannabis YouTube channel to watch more content like this. Are you a cannabis or CBD entrepreneur? We are currently accepting submissions for the new issue of Benzinga's Cannabis Capital. Submissions will be reviewed by an independent advisory board and the top submissions will be featured in the new Cannabis Capital issue. 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