Cannabis Health Insider

With the gaining popularity of cannabis, there are guidelines that need to be followed, regarding its use. While cannabis as a medicine, require a framework for the minimization of harm, which standardized dosing may be a cornerstone of.

Currently, the varying levels of medical cannabis programs in some states and none in others, only show consistency in the therapeutic cannabis landscape Clinical research focused on the efficacy of cannabis as a treatment of specific ailments, shows that with a varying difference in the administered dosage of THC and CBD, which makes the deduction of a standard dose, quite tricky.

There is a diverse array of cannabis products and administration methods which include edibles, vapes, flower, concentrates, each with varying THC concentrations. According to a 2019 article that was published in Addiction, it was affirmed that there exists a need for standard units of THC.

Standardized dosage promotes safer use of cannabis, which has been suggested before, which included measurement of cannabis in grams and standard joints.However, neither of them could allow the varying concentrations of THC that are usually present in products such as joints, blunt etc.

In order to overcome this shortfall, the authors of the study had proposed the standard THC unit to be 5 mg, for all cannabis products and administration methods. The 5 mg dose is able to deliver meaningful effects irrespective of the administration method, and also minimizes the risk of any unpleasant or excessive effects for new consumers.

Research suggests that the labels that list the number of doses in a product, has been shown to be more understandable by consumers, rather that listing THC in milligrams alone. The development of standardized units of a dose, has been identified by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Cannabis Policy Workgroup, as one of its top research priorities.  Standardization of THC units could potentially offer greater clarity into the understanding of the current inconsistencies in cannabis research, along with it influence on addiction, brain development, etc.

While adverse effects after a single exposure to cannabis have been shown by some research, other studies have shown that with regular exposure, there were no differences. However, contributions to discrepancies in research can be made due to the lack of information about THC.

According to a cannabis medicine expert at Green Flower Media and Instructor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Jordan Tishler, an ideal unit dose for both research and clinical situations, is 5 mg. H explains how most medicines have a starting dose and, as needed, multiples of that dose are given to the patient, which is based on the research that defines that the initial unit dose is correct and can be multiplied to increase effectiveness.

While Dr Jordan Tishler affirms that according to his clinical experience, 5 mg is a very appropriate baseline, hr also explains how a fixed unit dose would not mean that it would be the only available dose for patients or that there would be any sort of restriction to that dose. Instead, it is an attempt to standardize research or clinical use to increase the predictability and reliability of results.

Standardization of THC units can also lead to the enhancement of the understanding of the effects of other cannabinoids. According to Dr. Jordan Tishler, a constant THC level could cause us to be able to discern what the effects of the medication are and what are not, along with the ultimate goal being the better understanding of cannabinoids, where they will need to be standardized as well.

According to a 2019 Addiction study, standardized CBD doses might also be recommended in future, where the health aspects of CBD are being evaluated currently with its high demand.