On April 26th, Walgreen’s posted a blog post on their Tumblr account titled “What is Medical Marijuana?” Dahlia Sulton, the author of the post graduated from the University of Chicago’s College of Pharmacy and is conducting her residency at a Chicago Walgreens.
In the blog post, Dahlia explains the benefits of the cannabinoids within cannabis and how they can be used to treat certain ailments such as: cancer pain management, Parkinson’s disease, Tourette’s syndrome, Alzheimer’s disease, Schizophrenia, Cardiovascular disorders, palliative care, and glaucoma. In addition to some basic information about what is medical marijuana, ways to ingest marijuana, and how marijuana interacts with your body’s own endocannabinoid system, Dahlia also highlights some of the negatives of cannabis which include: dizziness, drowsiness, short-term memory loss, and euphoria. In this succinct blog post, readers are able to gain a high level overview of an emerging medicine that is just beginning to impact the lives of some and hopefully many more as legislative actions are taking place to expand access to those who are in need of medical cannabis.
Overall, it is encouraging to see the largest U.S. retailer of pharmaceuticals acknowledge the medicinal attributes of cannabis. The post even advocates for patients to start a dialogue with their doctors about using medical cannabis by saying “If you’d like more information about the use of medical marijuana, talk with your doctor.” In the last section of the post, the author tells patients they are unable to purchase cannabis from a pharmacy, however, that might not be the case next year. As mentioned in a previous blog post, GW Pharmaceuticals is in Phase 3 of development for Epidiolex, a medication for epilepsy patients that will hopefully be approved by the FDA later this year/early next year and be sold as an insurance covered prescription drug sometime late next year/early 2018. If you want to read the blog post, please visit http://staywell.walgreens.com/post/143131696215/medical-marijuana
