Ruth Fisher

In this research overview, Ruth Fisher, PhD, explores how cannabis has shown promise in helping individuals reduce opioid use, potentially decreasing overdose deaths. Though its impact on chronic pain and opioid reduction remains evident, limitations exist and flaws in methodologies in ecological studies complicate conclusions.

The current framework for the lab testing of cannabis products enables product suppliers to use more favorable testing results to misrepresent less favorable products. This article presents an alternative framework that increases the costs, and thereby decreases the incentives to engage in such misrepresentations.

In this research overview, Ruth Fisher, PhD, examines studies on various aspects of cannabis use and pregnancy, including effects and outcomes, risks, reasons for use, and the challenges inherent in the studies themselves.

Given the fast and furious mobilization of the global healthcare community to understand the nature of the coronavirus, how to treat it, and, eventually, how to prevent it, the sheer volume of research on COVID-19 is not at all surprising. What is, perhaps, surprising, especially given how recently it’s been since the COVID-19 breakout, is that there are so many research publications on the potential for cannabis to be used to treat the virus. On the other hand, perhaps the abundance of research on cannabis for COVID-19 is not so surprising. After all, it is a virus that causes an immune response, which may escalate into a virulent inflammatory reaction. And an enormous body of research on cannabis—and cannabidiol (CBD) in particular—has shown cannabis to induce strong anti-viral and anti-inflammatory effects. It is still early days, so no clinical studies establishing the efficacy of cannabis for COVID-19 have yet been conducted, but studies have established several clear mechanisms of action for using cannabis to treat COVID-19.

In this blog installment, we take a deep dive into research on how cannabis affects neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and Parkinson’s disease.

This blog installment looks at the use of cannabis for pets. Topics covered include the history of cannabis use in veterinary medicine, current laws on cannabis for pets, market size and segment, reported experiences from both pet owners and veterinarians, and pet toxicology.

This blog installment takes a look at the mind-body connection and how the endocannabinoid system (ECS) plays a key role. Topics covered include the gut, the vagus nerve, the gut-brain axis, and more.

This blog installment takes a look at autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and how the endocannabinoid system (ECS) plays a key role. Topics covered include the characterization of ASD, ECS dysfunction in ASD patients and comorbidities, and how cannabis addresses ASD symptoms.

While placebo-controlled randomized trials are lacking, a few early studies show promise for cannabis and arthritis, and surveys show that many arthritis patients are already finding relief using cannabis to treat their symptoms.

Cannabis provides a conundrum for treating pediatric oncology: While preclinical research provides clear mechanisms of action for cannabis’s potential to treat pediatric oncology, clinical studies are difficult to conduct, due to the associated ethics. Here, we take a closer look at the state of current research.

In this article, Ruth Fisher, PhD, presents some of the research being explored with cannabis and autoimmune disorders.

In this article, Ruth Fisher explores the prominence of cannabis being used to treat chronic pain patients and data from studies detailing how beneficial it can be.

To date, clinical evidence supporting the efficacy of cannabis for PTSD has been positive in nature but weak in power; hopefully stronger clinical evidence will be forthcoming.

Scientific research on breast cancer is still in its early stages, but here we take a look at what we have learned about cannabis to treat breast cancer thus far.

Society’s ability to treat medical conditions is intimately tied to the extent of its knowledge and use of science and technology. No doubt, we’ve come a long way over the millennia. On the other hand, we still have so far to go.

An overview of the history regarding medical cannabis as a treatment option for epileptic disorders.