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Asian Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences | Volume 8
March 26-27, 2018 | Orlando, USA
World Summit on
Healthcare & Hospital Management
&
International Conference & Exhibition on
Biologics and Biosimilars
H
arm reduction is a public healthmodel that serves to accept
people as they are and provide education and services or
treatments that can reduce negative health effects related to
their behaviors, especially for those with drug abuse problems.
The concept of harm reduction can be broadened to include
interventions that help a person reduce negative health effects
from a wide range of treatments and/or behaviors.
Cannabis
is
a healing herb that can be an effective harm reduction agent in
health care practices. While the U.S. may be lacking in double-
blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials on the medical use of
Cannabis
; the long history of its use, the remarkably wide
margin of safety, and the discovery of the endocannabinoid
system (ECS) provide clear evidence to support the innumerable
anecdotal reports of
Cannabis
as a safe and effective medicine
for a wide variety of indications. This presentation will provide
a broad overview of the ECS and its role in health maintenance
and healing and explain how
Cannabis
can supplement the ECS.
Nurses play a key role in theoverallmanagement of patient care,
including the administration of medications and treatments
and monitoring the subsequent effects of those interventions
as well as educating patients on health promotion and health
maintenance behaviors. The federal prohibition of
Cannabis
is
baseless and the source of most, if not all, harms related to the
use of
Cannabis
. In states where medical
Cannabis
has been
available to patients there have been a decrease in healthcare
costs, a decrease in opioid overdoses, and a decrease in
crime and domestic violence. This presentation will present a
paradigm shift in recognizing the potential value of
Cannabis
as
a therapeutic harm reduction agent rather than its exaggerated
harms as a drug of abuse.
Speaker Biography
Mary Lynn Mathre is the President and Co-founder of Patients Out of Time, a national
non-profit organization dedicated to educating health care professionals and the public
about the therapeutic use of
Cannabis
. She is Editor of “
Cannabis in Medical Practice:
A Legal, Historical Pharmacological Overview of the Therapeutic Use of Cannabis
”
(1997) and Co-editor of “
Women and Cannabis: Medicine, Science and Sociology
”
(2002). She received her BSN from the College of St. Teresa in Winona, MN in 1975
and began her Nursing career in the US Navy Nurse Corps until 1979. Her specialty was
Medical Surgical Nursing. She began teaching at the University of Virginia School of
Nursing, but changed her focus to Addictions Nursing in 1987 and returned to clinical
practice first on the Addictions Treatment Unit at UVA, then as the Addictions Consult
Nurse for the UVA Health System and from 2004-2007 she was Executive Director
of an opioid treatment program in Charlottesville. Currently, she is an Independent
Addictions Consultant. She has authored
Cannabis
resolutions for several organizations
including the Virginia Nurses Association, the National Nurses Society on Addictions
(now the International Nurses Society on Addictions), and the American Public Health
Association; written numerous articles and chapters on medicinal
Cannabis
; and
served as an expert witness. She is a Founding Member and President of the newly
created American
Cannabis
Nurses Association.
e:
mlmathre@hughes.netMary Lynn Mathre
Patients Out of Time, USA
Cannabis
and harm reduction: A nursing perspective