ISSUES:
Dr. Love is a part-time family physician and tireless advocate for medical cannabis patients. She co-founded Harvest Medicine, is invited to speak around the globe, and, during the pandemic, started a cannabis training program for nurse practitioners in Alberta.
Dr. Love is a part-time family physician and tireless advocate for medical cannabis patients. She co-founded Harvest Medicine, is invited to speak around the globe, and, during the pandemic, started a cannabis training program for nurse practitioners in Alberta.
What was your experience with cannabis before becoming a physician?
None. I never tried it. I was one of those super keen kids, you know, from drilling and winning a bunch of scholarships, I wore glasses and never did anything wrong. Cannabis was not even an option.
What made you an advocate for medical cannabis?
I have rheumatoid arthritis and I go through flare ups. About six or seven years ago, I had a flare up so bad that I was walking with a cane and taking nine pills a day, and it just seemed like whatever I did, I wasn't getting better. I had a patient who was 86 years old, and she had come to me a few months before asking me to prescribe cannabis for her. My immediate response was to say cannabis is a drug, we have no evidence to show that it actually does anything, and I'm not going to prescribe it. I remember that interaction, which is kind of the standard response that I think still a lot of physicians are still giving. I called her up and she had found someone else to prescribe cannabis for her and she said she was doing great. She was walking better than ever. She's doing activities. That was a really humbling moment. So I realized that I needed to try it for myself. It took a few months of CBD oil before I could start getting my mobility back, but then my pain was gone and I actually managed to ween off all the arthritis medication I was taking.
Is the broader healthcare industry changing with you?It's slowly changing. I felt fairly ostracized when I first started. People really thought that I was selling my soul for a quick buck. But we knew absolutely nothing about the endocannabinoid system—that word didn't exist in medical school when I went through, so it was really surreal to find out that there is a whole body system that exists and medical school wouldn't cover it. That's where a lot of the skepticism came from. Now that there's more research and we're starting to understand the endocannabinoid receptors and how the different cannabinoids may affect them. It's gaining legitimacy but we kind of did cannabis backwards. We had something that worked, but we didn't know why. We didn't understand the biology of it. Now we still have the evidence that it works and we're starting to think about why and how. I spent hours every week reading up on cannabis research and it still blows my mind how much new stuff is coming out. We’re learning I think doctors are getting on board, but it's slow moving.
Has legalized cannabis made things easier or harder for you?It's a little bit of both. It's great that access is easier, but without the education background for both healthcare providers and patients, we don't have context. You can go to a dispensary and just buy whatever—you can ask, “Hey, what do I take for my arthritis” and they're not allowed to give you advice. So legalization has improved the access, but the barrier to understanding what, when and how it should be used is is still there. The onus is on healthcare providers to make that better.
What was your experience with cannabis before becoming a physician?
None. I never tried it. I was one of those super keen kids, you know, from drilling and winning a bunch of scholarships, I wore glasses and never did anything wrong. Cannabis was not even an option.
What made you an advocate for medical cannabis?
I have rheumatoid arthritis and I go through flare ups. About six or seven years ago, I had a flare up so bad that I was walking with a cane and taking nine pills a day, and it just seemed like whatever I did, I wasn't getting better. I had a patient who was 86 years old, and she had come to me a few months before asking me to prescribe cannabis for her. My immediate response was to say cannabis is a drug, we have no evidence to show that it actually does anything, and I'm not going to prescribe it. I remember that interaction, which is kind of the standard response that I think still a lot of physicians are still giving. I called her up and she had found someone else to prescribe cannabis for her and she said she was doing great. She was walking better than ever. She's doing activities. That was a really humbling moment. So I realized that I needed to try it for myself. It took a few months of CBD oil before I could start getting my mobility back, but then my pain was gone and I actually managed to ween off all the arthritis medication I was taking.
Is the broader healthcare industry changing with you?
It's slowly changing. I felt fairly ostracized when I first started. People really thought that I was selling my soul for a quick buck. But we knew absolutely nothing about the endocannabinoid system—that word didn't exist in medical school when I went through, so it was really surreal to find out that there is a whole body system that exists and medical school wouldn't cover it. That's where a lot of the skepticism came from. Now that there's more research and we're starting to understand the endocannabinoid receptors and how the different cannabinoids may affect them. It's gaining legitimacy but we kind of did cannabis backwards. We had something that worked, but we didn't know why. We didn't understand the biology of it. Now we still have the evidence that it works and we're starting to think about why and how. I spent hours every week reading up on cannabis research and it still blows my mind how much new stuff is coming out. We’re learning I think doctors are getting on board, but it's slow moving.
Has legalized cannabis made things easier or harder for you?
It's a little bit of both. It's great that access is easier, but without the education background for both healthcare providers and patients, we don't have context. You can go to a dispensary and just buy whatever—you can ask, “Hey, what do I take for my arthritis” and they're not allowed to give you advice. So legalization has improved the access, but the barrier to understanding what, when and how it should be used is is still there. The onus is on healthcare providers to make that better.
What was your experience with cannabis before becoming a physician?
None. I never tried it. I was one of those super keen kids, you know, from drilling and winning a bunch of scholarships, I wore glasses and never did anything wrong. Cannabis was not even an option.
What made you an advocate for medical cannabis?
I have rheumatoid arthritis and I go through flare ups. About six or seven years ago, I had a flare up so bad that I was walking with a cane and taking nine pills a day, and it just seemed like whatever I did, I wasn't getting better. I had a patient who was 86 years old, and she had come to me a few months before asking me to prescribe cannabis for her. My immediate response was to say cannabis is a drug, we have no evidence to show that it actually does anything, and I'm not going to prescribe it. I remember that interaction, which is kind of the standard response that I think still a lot of physicians are still giving. I called her up and she had found someone else to prescribe cannabis for her and she said she was doing great. She was walking better than ever. She's doing activities. That was a really humbling moment. So I realized that I needed to try it for myself. It took a few months of CBD oil before I could start getting my mobility back, but then my pain was gone and I actually managed to ween off all the arthritis medication I was taking.
Is the broader healthcare industry changing with you?
It's slowly changing. I felt fairly ostracized when I first started. People really thought that I was selling my soul for a quick buck. But we knew absolutely nothing about the endocannabinoid system—that word didn't exist in medical school when I went through, so it was really surreal to find out that there is a whole body system that exists and medical school wouldn't cover it. That's where a lot of the skepticism came from. Now that there's more research and we're starting to understand the endocannabinoid receptors and how the different cannabinoids may affect them. It's gaining legitimacy but we kind of did cannabis backwards. We had something that worked, but we didn't know why. We didn't understand the biology of it. Now we still have the evidence that it works and we're starting to think about why and how. I spent hours every week reading up on cannabis research and it still blows my mind how much new stuff is coming out. We’re learning I think doctors are getting on board, but it's slow moving.
Has legalized cannabis made things easier or harder for you?
It's a little bit of both. It's great that access is easier, but without the education background for both healthcare providers and patients, we don't have context. You can go to a dispensary and just buy whatever—you can ask, “Hey, what do I take for my arthritis” and they're not allowed to give you advice. So legalization has improved the access, but the barrier to understanding what, when and how it should be used is is still there. The onus is on healthcare providers to make that better.
So how do we get there?
I think it's education for everybody—for physicians or nurse practitioners, for patients, for people to understand that this isn't something new, this is something that has been around for thousands of years. It's been part of healing and medicine in almost every culture in the world, even in western medicine it was part of traditional medication until the 1920s. Making it illegal was a political decision, which was reversed for similar reasons.
Have you spent much time in the wider cannabis community?
I did not grow up a cannabis user, but recently I went to Nelson and it was fascinating. I thought I would see more of the recreational side, but I was astounded to hear stories of how people, even back in the 60s and 70s, were using cannabis to medicate, but it was an underground culture. It wasn’t people looking to get high, it was war veterans and people with PTSD. If we could harness that data—it’s decades and decades of brilliant information about people having successful, peaceful lives, in large part thanks to cannabis.
So how long until your work is done and cannabis is accepted as a legitimate medicine?
You know what they say about prejudice—that it takes a generation to die out. I hope it’s not that long. I’ve seen improvement in the last five years, so hopefully it’s soon that we have appropriate testing and products suited to specific genetics or health conditions. We need to bring down the barriers and add this to medical curricula—it needs to be taught. The endocannabinoid system is not a fictional system.
So how do we get there?
I think it's education for everybody—for physicians or nurse practitioners, for patients, for people to understand that this isn't something new, this is something that has been around for thousands of years. It's been part of healing and medicine in almost every culture in the world, even in western medicine it was part of traditional medication until the 1920s. Making it illegal was a political decision, which was reversed for similar reasons.
Have you spent much time in the wider cannabis community?
I did not grow up a cannabis user, but recently I went to Nelson and it was fascinating. I thought I would see more of the recreational side, but I was astounded to hear stories of how people, even back in the 60s and 70s, were using cannabis to medicate, but it was an underground culture. It wasn’t people looking to get high, it was war veterans and people with PTSD. If we could harness that data—it’s decades and decades of brilliant information about people having successful, peaceful lives, in large part thanks to cannabis.
So how long until your work is done and cannabis is accepted as a legitimate medicine?
You know what they say about prejudice—that it takes a generation to die out. I hope it’s not that long. I’ve seen improvement in the last five years, so hopefully it’s soon that we have appropriate testing and products suited to specific genetics or health conditions. We need to bring down the barriers and add this to medical curricula—it needs to be taught. The endocannabinoid system is not a fictional system.
So how do we get there?
I think it's education for everybody—for physicians or nurse practitioners, for patients, for people to understand that this isn't something new, this is something that has been around for thousands of years. It's been part of healing and medicine in almost every culture in the world, even in western medicine it was part of traditional medication until the 1920s. Making it illegal was a political decision, which was reversed for similar reasons.
Have you spent much time in the wider cannabis community?
I did not grow up a cannabis user, but recently I went to Nelson and it was fascinating. I thought I would see more of the recreational side, but I was astounded to hear stories of how people, even back in the 60s and 70s, were using cannabis to medicate, but it was an underground culture. It wasn’t people looking to get high, it was war veterans and people with PTSD. If we could harness that data—it’s decades and decades of brilliant information about people having successful, peaceful lives, in large part thanks to cannabis.
So how long until your work is done and cannabis is accepted as a legitimate medicine?
You know what they say about prejudice—that it takes a generation to die out. I hope it’s not that long. I’ve seen improvement in the last five years, so hopefully it’s soon that we have appropriate testing and products suited to specific genetics or health conditions. We need to bring down the barriers and add this to medical curricula—it needs to be taught. The endocannabinoid system is not a fictional system.
Please increase the height of your browser to see all content.