medical cannabis.

Summarization By: Dr. Trish Hurford MD, MS (MoCann Health Education & Training Committee Chair and Pain Management Specialist) 

What can be offered to patients who seek better treatment of their pain beyond opioids or the myriad of other pharmaceuticals that often have more side effects than benefits?  For many physicians cannabis is often the answer.  The risk and benefits of cannabis are known but until recently it has been unclear if there was a correlation to the reduction in opioid use or other pharmaceuticals in treating pain related conditions.

A recent evaluation of insurance claims showed that medical cannabis resulted in a reduction of opioid prescribing and opioid use in patients with cancer.  This study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and was similar to another recent study that demonstrated reduced use of opioid painkillers, or discontinued use of opioids altogether in patients with a variety of other medical conditions. 

A Public Library of Science report further demonstrated that the pharmaceutical industry takes a serious economic hit after states legalize marijuana—with an average market loss of nearly $10 billion for drugmakers per each legalization event!  

Isn’t it time to educate, discuss, and consider marijuana as a safer and better treatment for the health of patients in America and around the world? 

Sources:

Yuhua Bao, PhD Hao Zhang, PhD; Eduardo Bruera, MD; et al

Russell Portenoy, MD; William E. Rosa, PhD, MBE, APRN; M. Carrington Reid, MD, PhD; Hefei Wen, PhD. Medical Marijuana Legalization and Opioid- and Pain-Related Outcomes Among Patients Newly Diagnosed With Cancer Receiving Anticancer Treatment. JAMA Oncol. 2022 December 1. DOI: 10.1001/jamaoncol.2022.5623

Bednarek Z, Doremus JM, Stith SS. U.S. cannabis laws projected to cost generic and brand pharmaceutical firms billions. PLOS One. 2022 Aug 31;17(8):e0272492. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0272492.

Carolyn E. Pritchett, Heather Flynn, Yuxia Wang & James E. Polston (2022) Medical Cannabis Patients Report Improvements in Health Functioning and Reductions in Opiate Use, Substance Use & Misuse, 57:13, 1883-1892, DOI: 10.1080/10826084.2022.2107673

Philippe Lucas, MA, PhD(c), Susan Boyd, PhD, M.-J. Milloy, PhD, Zach Walsh, PhD, Cannabis Significantly Reduces the Use of Prescription Opioids and Improves Quality of Life in Authorized Patients: Results of a Large Prospective Study, Pain Medicine, March 2021, 22:3, 727–739, DOI: 10.1093/pm/pnaa396

Original Article: Medical Marijuana Legalization Linked To Reduced Opioid Use By Cancer Patients, American Medical Association Study Finds

Snippet: State-level medical marijuana legalization is associated with a significant decrease in opioid prescriptions and use among certain cancer patients, according to a new study from the American Medical Association.

The study, which analyzed data on insurance claims from 38,189 people with recently diagnosed cancer, found that medical cannabis legalization implemented between 2012 and 2017 was linked to “5.5 percent to 19.2 percent relative reduction in the rate of opioid dispensing.”

“Medical marijuana could be serving as a substitute for opioid therapies among some adult patients receiving cancer treatment,” the study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Oncology on Thursday, concluded, though researchers said “future studies need to elucidate the nature of the associations and implications for patient outcomes.”

By:  Emily Tuttle – Springbig  

10DLC stands for 10-digit long code which are numbers that can support the high volume of text messages that successful A2P, or application-to-person, messaging requires. It offers delivery reliability and security for business senders by requiring campaign registrations from the companies, cutting down on campaign approval times and increasing deliverability.

Increasing regulations

All messaging traffic for major carriers like AT&T, Sprint, and T-mobile needs to be fully vetted and approved for 10DLC. Verizon launched its version of 10DLC in early 2020 but did not require a vetting process – just an increase in filtering for spam, scams, and unauthorized content related to SHAFT (Sex, Hate, Alcohol, Firearms, and Tobacco), whcih includes cannabis content.

Now the cost of non-compliance is increasing which affects the cannabis industry directly. Wireless carriers have always enforced regulations like SHAFT guidelines for text message marketing but now the regulations are getting stricter and fees are higher for those who don’t comply with these regulations. We believe this makes it even more attractive than before to keep your communications compliant with regulations!

These regulations are why after 10DLC was implemented, if your text message copy contained cannabis content you may have seen a gradual drop in Verizon deliverability as your messages might have been subject to some level of filtering. Also, in 2021 carriers such as T-Mobile announced that they would be heavily increasing fees on non-compliant messages. These include a pass-through fee of up to $10,000. As 10DLC becomes more prevalent, so do the regulations and fees concerning non-compliance. By not complying you are risking significant additional fees to your campaigns.

That being said, using mass text message marketing is still very much possible for any cannabis dispensary, and from the perspective of sustainable business growth complying with 10DLC is the right call.

Navigating 10DLC guidelines

As it seems 10DLC is here to stay, here are a few tips on how to navigate the new rules while staying compliant:

By ensuring your SMS marketing platform complies with the 10DLC regulations to avoid any unwanted fees. Using evasion techniques such as dynamic routing (gray routing) to go around 10DLC regulations can come with severe sanctions. In a heavily regulated field like the cannabis industry compliance is key, so avoid using platforms that try to evade regulations. Taking risks by not complying can hurt your business in the long run Including links in your copy that direct customers to websites can be a great way to provide customers with more information about for example upcoming events or products. However, make sure that the links landing page is also compliant with the guidelines, instead of sending links directly to cannabis websites.

To learn more or see a demo of our industry leading platform please visit us at springbig.com