By Jay Jay O'Brien
Certified Cannabis Wellness Coach and Educator

Pain was the number one symptom I had before being given a stage 4 lung cancer diagnosis. The cancer had long since metastasized to the bones which is what made it really hard for doctors to pinpoint what was going on. I had pain in my chest, my lower back, my legs, and my hips. Each time I went to the doctor, the pain was in a different location which was just as confusing for them as it was for me. To manage, I was maxing out on daily doses of over-the-counter pain relievers known as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like acetaminophen and ibuprofen. 

The diagnosis came after the pain impacted my breathing so much that it made it almost impossible for me to take a full breath. I spent an agonizing hour and a half in an emergency room before the doctors tried to tame my pain with Torodol, which did absolutely nothing, then Hydromorphone, another dud, before finding something that worked to reduce my pain, Percocet. It worked, but only for a week or two before it stopped doing anything at all. That sent me back to maxing out on daily doses of over-the-counter NSAIDS, as well as on daily doses of Percocet trying to get relief. I was completely out of it. I was drowsy, constipated, and the pain was becoming unbearable. 

Laid up one night unable to walk because of the pain, I found myself watching a documentary called “Weed the People”. The documentary featured stories of parents using a potent form of Cannabis Oil that they referred to mostly as “Pheonix Tears” and what I now call FECO (Full-Extract Cannabis Oil). They were giving this oil to their young children with cancer. Some still in diapers. It helped ease their pain, supported them through the harsh conventional treatments, and for some, it was even reversing their disease! They were using it as a way to heal, and it was working!

I became convinced that I needed to start taking this oil as well, so I dove into the research of learning what I could about the oil, how to take it, and where I could get my hands on some.

Chance and Trust

I live in Canada where Cannabis has been federally legal since 2018. I ordered my first batch of FECO off a website run by a group of Rastafari (It no longer exists). Their reverence for the plant encouraged my trust in them, so I took a chance and ordered. Not something I would recommend others do. I grow and make my own medicine now, and if you’re legally able to, I recommend you do the same.

After my very first ingested dose of the oil, approximately 20-30 mg of what we refer to now as Full-Extract Cannabis Oil (FECO), the deep bone pain that I was experiencing was completely eliminated, permanently! (I got lucky that the oil I ordered was of good quality and potency with no residual solvents left behind, as far as I could tell.) Close to 4 years later, I have not endured a single day, a single hour, or a single moment of cancer-related pain. Not only am I pain-free, but I’m happy to announce that I’m also cancer-free as well!

Snowball Effect

Pain affects 50%-90% of all cancer patients. (1) Whether physical or emotional, pain can greatly reduce one's quality of life if not well managed. For me, the reduction in pain symptoms improved my sleep, mood, and appetite. It reduced the anxiety and depression I was battling due to the diagnosis (and the pain I was in), and it allowed my body to focus on other things rather than the all-encompassing pain. When you’re in pain, all you can think about is getting relief. Once my pain was eliminated, I could focus on more important things like healing, family, and just living my life. Cannabis was giving me my life back.

Options

My oncologist called me one evening and asked if I was interested in a treatment that could possibly help reduce my pain and strengthen my bones.
They mentioned an infusion known as Zoledronic acid. (2) The name alone was enough to put me off it, but when the oncologist started rhyming off the side effects (3), I quickly made a judgment call that it wasn’t for me. Renal failure, weakness and lethargy, seizures, musculoskeletal pain, and the mention of an untimely death were enough for me to respond with a hard no. 

I’m so grateful I made the choice to decline that ‘treatment’ as a month after I started on FECO, the bone metastasis began to heal and the pain was subsiding as a result. I was told by the doctor at diagnosis that the bone metastasis would only begin to heal if the primary cancer was healing. The success I was having was more than encouraging. Cannabis was definitely the better option, and so far, it was all I was using.

We're Suffering

Pain is part of the human experience. It’s also one of the main reasons why patients talk to their doctors about Medical Cannabis. According to the Cannigma, (4) over 50% of people who spoke to their doctors about Medical Cannabis in Colorado, Oregon, Michigan, and New York inquired about treating some form of severe or chronic pain.

Cancer pain comes in a variety of shapes and sizes arising from various causes and can severely impact quality of life. (5) Whether from disease or treatment, pain is an inflammatory response to ongoing damage to the body. These responses can be categorized into many types.

Types of Cancer Pain

‘Nociceptive’ pain is one type. Nociceptive pain is described as both visceral and somatic. (6) Visceral is the felt sense of an internal injury to an organ such as a lung tumor, and somatic, as relating to the body, like the deep bone pain I experienced from the metastasis. Nociceptively, I can still sense the spots where they were.

Neuropathic pain is another type. (7) Also known as ‘nerve pain’ often described as “stabbing”, “electric”, or “burning”. I experienced this at the tumor and metastasis sites. Another common cause of this type of pain among the cancer crowd is the neuropathy that often results from chemotherapy treatment.

Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy (CIPN) occurs in 30%-50% of all patients who undergo chemotherapy. (8)

Acute pain is another type and tends to arise after surgery and other procedures. This type of pain is often short-lived, but without proper management, acute, neuropathic, and nociceptive pain may lead to chronic pain. (9)

Chronic pain is persistent pain that lasts beyond 2 or 3 months.

Analgesic Effects of Cannabis

The usage of Cannabis for pain dates back over 5000 years (10), but why? How does it work?

What we know today is that the cannabinoid receptors inside our brain and spinal cord and throughout our peripheral nervous system, known as CB1 and CB2 receptors, are upregulated when pain signals fire, increasing their response. (11) These signals also stimulate the production of our body's own endocannabinoids, like Anandamide. (12) Anandamide is a neurotransmitter very similar in structure and effect to THC. (13) That’s part of the reason it’s known as the “bliss molecule.” Anandamide is part of our reward signaling centre.

Therefore, anandamide has the ability to interrupt pain signals by giving us more hits of that ‘bliss’ state once stimulated by the notion of pain. (14) The activation of cannabinoid receptors is believed to have antinociceptive effects by modulating the perception of pain as well. (15) Antinociception is the ability of the endocannabinoid system to collaboratively block the detection of pain signals.

Conclusion

Many studies have been done showing that modulation of the Endocannabinoid System (ECS) is a desirable mechanism for the treatment of pain. 

“Over the last years, considerable progress has been made in understanding the role of the ECS in the modulation of pain. Endocannabinoids have been shown to behave as analgesics in models of both acute nociception and clinical pain such as inflammation and painful neuropathy. The framework for such analgesic effects exists in the CB receptors, which are found in areas of the nervous system important for pain processing and in immune cells that regulate the neuro-immune interactions that mediate the inflammatory hyperalgesia.” (16)

As always, more quality studies are needed so that we can truly comprehend the healing capacity of this incredible plant!

ECN Editor’s note: Individual responses to cannabis can differ due to variations in each individual's endocannabinoid system (ECS). Therefore, the responses and experiences with cannabis may differ from person to person. Experimentation with cannabis is a personal journey, and the best way to understand its effects for yourself is through direct experience. To learn more about cannabis, you can explore the material on the Effective Cannabis Newsletter site, or consult with a cannabis professional.

References: 

1. Gorzo, Alecsandra et al. “Practical Considerations for the Use of Cannabis in Cancer Pain Management—What a Medical Oncologist Should Know.” Journal of Clinical Medicine 11.17 (2022): 5036. Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jcm11175036.

2. Greear EL, Bankole A. Zoledronate. [Updated 2023 Apr 12]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2023 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK585053/

3. “Zoledronic Acid (Intravenous Route) Side Effects.” Mayo Clinic, 1 Feb. 2023, www.mayoclinic.org/drugs-supplements/zoledronic-acid-intravenous-route/side-effects/drg-20066951

4. Hartman, Ben. “The Top 5 Reasons People Use Medical Marijuana.” The Cannigma, 31 May 2021, cannigma.com/treatment/the-top-5-reasons-people-use-medical-marijuana/.

5. Gorzo, Alecsandra et al. “Practical Considerations for the Use of Cannabis in Cancer Pain Management—What a Medical Oncologist Should Know.” Journal of Clinical Medicine 11.17 (2022): 5036. Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jcm11175036.

6. “Causes of Cancer Pain.” Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Accessed 30 July 2023 www.mskcc.org/cancer-care/diagnosis-treatment/symptom-management/pain-management/pain

7. “Causes of Cancer Pain.” Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Accessed 30 July 2023 www.mskcc.org/cancer-care/diagnosis-treatment/symptom-management/pain-management/pain

8. Answers to 8 FAQ about Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy (CIPN).” Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, 23 Aug. 2022, www.mskcc.org/news/answers-faq-about-chemotherapy-induced-peripheral-neuropathy-cipn.

9. Answers to 8 FAQ about Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy (CIPN).” Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, 23 Aug. 2022, www.mskcc.org/news/answers-faq-about-chemotherapy-induced-peripheral-neuropathy-cipn.

10. Hill, Kevin, et al. “Cannabis and Pain: A Clinical Review | Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research.” Maryannliebertincpublishers, May 2017, www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/can.2017.0017.

11. Anthony, Adarsh Thomas et al. “Cannabinoid Receptors and Their Relationship With Chronic Pain: A Narrative Review.” Cureus vol. 12,9 e10436. 14 Sep. 2020, doi:10.7759/cureus.10436

12. Malek, Natalia, et al. “Alterations in the Anandamide Metabolism in the Development of Neuropathic Pain.” BioMed Research International, 2 Sept. 2014, www.hindawi.com/journals/bmri/2014/686908/.

13. NIDA. "How does marijuana produce its effects?." National Institute on Drug Abuse, 13 Apr. 2021, https://nida.nih.gov/publications/research-reports/marijuana/how-does-marijuana-produce-its-effects Accessed 31 Jul. 2023.

14. Clapper, Jason R et al. “Anandamide suppresses pain initiation through a peripheral endocannabinoid mechanism.” Nature neuroscience vol. 13,10 (2010): 1265-70. doi:10.1038/nn.2632

15. Anthony, Adarsh Thomas et al. “Cannabinoid Receptors and Their Relationship With Chronic Pain: A Narrative Review.” Cureus vol. 12,9 e10436. 14 Sep. 2020, doi:10.7759/cureus.10436

16. Zogopoulos, Panagiotis et al. “The role of endocannabinoids in pain modulation.” Fundamental & clinical pharmacology vol. 27,1 (2013): 64-80. doi:10.1111/fcp.12008

  *(This content was not generated using AI) 

About Jay Jay O’Brien:

Jay Jay is the founder and creator of naturalisticallynow and the Canecdotal Collective, where she educates and assists people with cancer, implementing Cannabis into their protocols. As a stage 4 lung cancer survivor and caregiver to her type 1 diabetic son, Jay Jay has learned that you truly do "get what you give", and with Cannabis, she believes we have the opportunity to give our bodies the opportunity to truly heal rather than just masking our symptoms. Through her own experience of healing, she has now made it her mission to share the capabilities of Cannabis with all who will listen.

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Effective Cannabis Newsletter is a platform to educate on the vital role of the Endocannabinoid System (ECS) in one's health. The information is not intended or implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. All content, including text, graphics, images, and information contained in or available through this newsletter is for general information purposes only. It is not medical advice; it is health awareness.