Cannabis Edibles and Drink Review had the pleasure of sitting down with Dr. Benjamin Caplan….
CEDR: Dr. Caplan, can you please share your background and how you pivoted to cannabis?
Dr. Caplan: I’m a family doctor, licensed, registered, board-certified, mostly normal non-quacky primary care doctor. I trained in Massachusetts and practiced here in some of the major urband and suburban hospitals. I come from a family of doctors and clinicians. My upbringing was unusual, in that I was taught to listen to people and to really respect individuals as unique. These days, especially, that priority in Medicine seems missing all too often. That’s really not taught in medical school, unfortunately. I think sometimes it’s a difficult thing to teach, and is not always easy for some academically gifted students to learn.
One of the things that came about when I was listening to patients, as their primary care doctor, was noticing that most of my patients felt like their cannabis use was helping them with essential medical concerns. I was taught well to inquire about everything that patients are doing in non-judgmental terms and I have been fortunate to have patients who share their experiences openly with me. With respect to cannabis consumption, those responses were largely very positive. During those early years, I knew nearly nothing about cannabis. I was taught the same truckload of misinformation that we all grew up understanding or were taught outright in schools. But, I was lucky to be able to listen through what my patients were saying to me, and to realize that the problem in the scenario was that I didn’t know. So, I spent some good time in introspection, recognizing what was missing from my education, and reading and learning. And what I absorbed from books and the available research was different than what I learned from other clinicians.
I learned from the books that basically everything I had been taught about cannabis was incorrect. The literature out there supports the medicinal uses of cannabis very strongly. There’s actually a tremendous amount of research. We, in this culture, often hear the notion that there isn’t enough research about cannabis. “We need more research, we just don’t know enough.” Well, yes of course, this is always true. The scientific culture is always learning and building on the past. But, there’s ten times more literature on cannabis than there is on the common cold or Lyme Disease. Human clinical trials are surely limited, but there’s still a massive archive of data from which to draw reasonable conclusions. And then, of course, there is what we can learn from one another, outside of books and research.
I’ve curated that literature and placed it into a public Google Drive which anyone who wants to learn can read and search for free. The link is through my website. These barriers that we have in our culture are getting in the way of commonsense and human health, and I’m trying to do my part to lift away some of the hurdles.
From the published literature, it became clear that cannabis was not the destructive, addictive, stepping-stone-to-death substance that I was led to believe. And then, I asked many doctors outside of cannabis, at the time, what their thoughts were about medical cannabis. Most of them expressed similar sentiments as what I had been taught in medical school, that cannabis was about addiction. It was about a problem. It was a steppingstone to crack and death and a package of trouble just waiting to spoil someone’s life.
I also traveled around the US, and I spoke to clinicians out in California and in Colorado where cannabis was legal medicinally at the time. To my surprise, I heard a story from these doctors which was very different than what I thought it should have been. The common theme that I heard from doctors was the equivalent of them throwing up a peace sign, saying, “well, you know, free love, man, this is your life. You should do whatever you want with it.” The typical story I heard from the medical cannabis medical professionals was one of empowering patients to learn on their own, if that was their desire.
To me, this cavalier approach was the opposite of the rigorous, data-driven, professional approach to medical care that I was taught in medical school, and in which I believe deeply. The path for meaningful change was clear, and as someone who thinks of himself as an agent of positive change, I created a foundation called CED Foundation.
Part of CED Foundation is the literature archive, to bring accessible information freely to the public, and part is educating clinicians and doing the speaking rounds at different lectures and conferences . And I also started a company that could bring lessons learned directly to individuals who want it for their own practical use. I started CED Clinic because it’s not just the scientific culture and cannabis industry that needs knowledge. Our medical leaders and people like you and me are also hungry to learn. All of these different critical elements were tied up in this foundation where I could have an organized structure to engage in patient care and education and research and outreach and formulation development, under one adaptable, learning center.
CEDR: Can you share insights on the effect of edibles vs. smoking or vaping?
Dr. Caplan: One of the interesting things about cannabis with respect to consuming it, is its nutritional value in eating it. Even purely within just the seed, cannabis offers tremendous nutritional value that is a near perfect match for what humans need, in terms of the ideal proportions of good fats that we should be eating for optimal health, as well as a balance of protein, carbohydrates, fiber, and various micronutrients and minerals. The cannabis industry is still learning about its nutritional value as food, but hopefully soon, we will see it being used for its nutritional value to help feed animals, humans and non-humans alike, a role it once served for the earth in days gone by.
Smoking and eating have different effects, both in terms of timing, when they start working and for how long they act, and also in terms of the way that they interact with the body. For generations, many people have found inhaled cannabis, either smoked or heated without burning it, to be a source of instant gratification, It works relatively quickly. Edibles, on the other hand, come with a different method of action and absorption. It takes a little bit longer to begin working, because the process of absorption takes a different path in the body. The unfortunate mistake that all too many people make is expecting instant results when they eat cannabis, because they don’t often realize that cannabis won’t begin to have noticeable affects until about 60-90 minutes. And for someone who is inexperienced, they may think that if one didn’t work, perhaps two or more might. Then, as time passes, and the effects ultimately begin, they have taken an strong dose, with perhaps quite uncomfortable, albeit temporary, effects and sensations.
I think that is one of the core problems to be solved with cannabis these days, sorting through misinformation and re-educating a culture that historically used to be expertly familiar with cannabis. One of ways that medical cannabis is different than recreational cannabis or adult use is the guidance that is received with the product. With recreational or “adult use” as it’s called in some states, a consumer is left to his/her own luck, with minimal information. Medicinal cannabis, on the other hand, is the provision of expert medical advice and personalized guidance, which helps people avoid pitfalls and hopefully supports a much better experience.
CEDR: Can you talk at all about how edibles and drinks are evolving to be strain specific and where you see that heading?
Dr. Caplan: There is no such thing as Indica and Sativa. These are colloquial terms which help inform the public about potential effects. The terms are partly helpful marketing, but also partly trying to help people understand what to expect. They don’t always track to genetics, nor do they necessarily track to growth or sunlight or nutrition. They are more related to the terpene and flavonoid content of a plant, which imbue cannabis with certain effects; namely, something that’s energizing / stimulating (what the industry has historically called “Sativa” or or something that’s more calming or sedating, or “Indica.”
CEDR: Thanks so much for sharing your story and insights!
