Medicinal purposes

“It felt like there was somebody who took a down comforter that had been warmed in the dryer and surrounded me with it,” said Mary Webber, describing the feeling she’d had after she started using medical cannabis to treat her multiple sclerosis.

Webber is the founder and CEO of Mary Medibles Consulting in Reno, a medical cannabis consulting company. Her services include a “Medicating with Mary” program to help clients fine-tune their approaches to medicating with cannabis and online tutorials. She’s presented at events such as the Reno Cannabis Convention in April, and she has a podcast in the works.

In 2008, after Webber was diagnosed with MS, a disease that impedes the nervous system and can cause a range of symptoms, including paralysis, she began taking pharmaceutical drugs—Ampyra, Enablex, Fluoxetine, Gabapentin, Hydrocodone-Actaminophen, Rebif and Tizanidine. They made her feel awful.

“It is a synthetic feeling,” Webber said. “It is a harsh feeling. It is almost as if someone drops you on shattered glass that is sticking up.”

“Soothing,” was how she described the new feeling she had after finding her cannabis strain, Mary’s Lamb by GG Strains. She said that cannabis helped control a range of ailments, including muscle spasms, inflammation, depression and anxiety.

Medicating with CBD

Since becoming a consultant and advocate, Webber said she has heard several success stories of people who’ve turned from pharmaceutical drugs to cannabis and found relief.

One such story comes from 64-year-old Paulla Comley, who resides outside of Dayton. She was diagnosed with phase-two bladder cancer after she found blood in her urine and underwent multiple tests administered by several different doctors.

In December 2016, Comley’s urologist found a tumor bleeding in her bladder. She underwent surgery in March 2017.

“I have been a cannabis advocate all my life,” Comley said. “Immediately after the doctor said, ’You have a tumor,’ I started taking CBD in a four-ounce bottle.”

CBD, also known as cannabidiol, is a cannabis compound that has medical benefits but does not make the patient feel “high” and instead can counteract the THC or, tetrahydrocannabinol, the chemical that causes a euphoric high.

After the surgery, Comley said, she recovered well and was left without excess bleeding. However, her doctor recommended surgery to remove her bladder and uterus, along with chemotherapy and radiation. Comley refused and continued medicating with cannabis.

“I’m doing this holistic thing with a conventional doctor who doesn’t believe in it,” Comley said.

After a few months of self-medicating, Comley went to see her doctor to take a cystoscopy, a procedure that allows the doctor to examine the lining of the bladder. Comley’s bladder was clear, and she tested negative for cancer cells.

“I really think cannabis is it because we’ve done five cystoscopies, and they’ve all come back negative,” Comley said.

As a proponent of medical cannabis, Comley has some concerns—like the accessibility of medical marijuana cards and doctors with expertise in medical cannabis. Her biggest concern is the cost.

Some local retailers such as The Dispensary, Sierra Wellness, Blüm and others offer discounts to medical patients, seniors and veterans. But Comely noted that additional costs have added up noticeably. She said that she’s asked her doctor twice to sign off on her medical card but that he would not. She said she went to a separate doctor to sign off on her card, which cost an additional $125.

“This isn’t right,” Comley said. “My doctor should learn about cannabis as a cure.”

Supply and demand

One of Webber’s main concerns is that dispensaries currently sell a greater variety of THC products than CBD products.

A spokesperson with Reef Dispensaries, which has locations in Sparks and Las Vegas, said, in a prepared statement, “We at Reef fully believe in the transformative healing properties of cannabidiol, having seen for ourselves the extent to which it has changed lives among our associates, family, friends and customers. With that in mind, we strive to keep at least one high-CBD strain on the shelves at all times.”

Stacy Castillo, Chief Operations Officer with MYNT Cannabis Dispensary, said the dispensary offers a variety of CBD products at different price points.

“Kynd [the cannabis cultivation company behind MYNT] grows a significant amount of CBD, not only for flower sales but also to be processed into chocolates, tinctures, vape pens, dap saps and topical,” said Castillo.

She said Kynd includes CBD in its regular grow cycle to ensure that the company has enough product for dispensaries across the state.

Webber would like to see a wider variety of CBD flower varieties available, as some strains work better than others on different patients. She said that a friend of hers, who was looking to help her son move away from pharmaceutical drugs, could not consistently find the specific CBD flower she was looking for. Her son ended up going back to using pharmaceutical drugs.

Riana Durett of the Nevada Dispensary Association said that her organization supported legislation in the last legislative session to improve the state’s medical cannabis program.

The association supported Assembly Bill 422, which passed in 2017. Durett said that it increased the length of a patient card to two years, cutting the price of the card in half and improving the process to obtain a patient card. Durett also said the bill helped encourage business owners to continue to develop and offer both medical and recreational products. The association also opposed efforts to limit the types of products available to medical patients.

Webber, for her part, has been growing her own strains of CBD flower, and she plans to keep talking with community members, dispensary managers, budtenders and patients, advocating for more options for medical cannabis customers.