Tag: #cannabiseducation

TSC Talks Guest Blaze Therapeutics

TSC Talks Guest Blaze Therapeutics

Nadia Bodkin, CEO and Vincent Crowley, SVP of Blaze Therapeutics, LLC are an incredible team bringing a rich and relevant background of lived and learned experience across multiple special interest groups, including the rare disease community, military & veteran community, as well as health care community and more.

“Blaze Therapeutics exists to offer plant-based solutions to the rare disease, the US Veteran, and professional medical communities that target the improvement of overall health, wellness, and quality of life. We believe in amplifying the beauty of life through the pursuit of wellness. Blaze Therapeutics is comprised of a team of experts concentrated from the healthcare, patient advocacy, nutraceutical and cannabis industries. Blaze Therapeutics is engaged in supporting the open market through Responsible Distribution of plant-based dietary supplements and the Rx market through the pursuit of FDA approved cannabis-based nutraceuticals.”

Nadia is also President at EDSers United for Ehlers Danlos Syndrome and is also a member of the advocacy movement in regards to Blaze. Nadia is a seasoned rare disease patient advocate, born with three main rare conditions herself. Immediately after graduation, Nadia went straight into advocacy through EDSers United, a foundation she founded as a student. Nadia has held leadership positions at several rare disease advocacy focused organizations assisting in everything between nonprofit corporate management to event planning to therapeutic product development. She is also one of the founding members of New Love Ventures LLC and facilitates the coordination of the Rare Advocacy Movement’s activities along with fellow colleagues.

Vincent Crowley, Senior VP, is a medically retired veteran of the United States Army. His past experience in the army was as a dental hygienist. He also studied psychology at the University of Maryland. Vincent is co-founder New Love Ventures. During his years of service, Vincent discovered a heightened awareness for his core values, and beliefs (i.e loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity, and personal courage). Incorporating these core values into his daily life and his passion to help other service members navigate life post-military service and transition back into the civilian sector, spurred an interest to earn a degree in Psychology and Mental Health. As a student of the University of Maryland University College, Vincent makes himself available to veterans seeking guidance through social media platforms and in-person meetings. As the Executive Sales Director at Blaze Therapeutics, Vincent is leading the effort to introduce the military community to Blaze Approved nutraceuticals and therapeutics as alternative options to addressing their health concerns.”

This episode is rich with information. A few pertinent quotes:

“We both connected over our passion for advocacy work. And his focus has always been on advocating for veterans and helping them transition into civilian life. And after meeting and gaining a better understanding of each other’s advocacy work, we learned that both the veteran and rare disease communities are both dealing with very similar socio-economic and healthcare issues.”

Discussing the responsible distribution of CBD:

“Responsible distribution model is a model designed specifically for the healthcare industry for cautions taken to protect customers’ safety and ultimately protect businesses from potential liability issues. And because the cannabis industry is young and vulnerable, unfortunately, most of the products on the market are contaminated with toxins and labeled inaccurately. So products that are responsibly distributed, come with a certificate of analysis that are unbiased third party tests.”

Talking about other products in the holistic industry:

“The overall holistic products industry includes, you know, the spices that we use to season our foods and a lot of our spices have silicone in them. And a lot of our chronic pain is caused by all the different products that have so many toxins that are building up it’s increasing our inflammatory system, our bodies are trying to fight all these toxins. It’s incredible what we found”

Discussing the role of big pharma and the open CBD market:

“Big Pharma and responsible players from the open market industry can collaborate and work together. When it comes to educating the public and the healthcare industry, doctors need to know what options are available to them and the unfortunate risky realities of the open market so that they can best advise their patients. And consumers need to know that they need to consult with their doctors to identify their personal dosage of CBD, what to ask for and what to avoid when navigating the open market in order to avoid purchasing toxic or fraudulent products”

Regarding the controversy with newly FDA approved CBD isolate medication, Epidiolex:

“And so one of the hot topics that has been circulating the rate of the space currently regarding Epidiolex include sucralose as an inactive ingredient. Because of this, we’re seeing some parents and patients with rare epileptic conditions choose to turn to the open market as opposed to taking Epidiolex either on label or off label because of the sucralose, which is an artificial sweetener found in the formulation.”…” sucralose significantly decreased beneficial gut bacteria, negative effects have occurred at a sucralose dosage as low as 1.1 milligrams per kilogram, and FDA acceptable daily intake for sucralose is five milligrams per kilogram, so several individuals with GI issues do their best typically stay away from this artificial sweetener”

Continuing this conversation and discussing how doctors can take advantage of what Blaze Therapeutics has to offer:

“So for those practitioners in states with medical marijuana programs, of course, they can manage medical marijuana patients, they can prescribe Epidiolex to patients with certain types of severe epilepsies or they can choose to responsibly distribute CBD by signing up as a wholesaler at Blaze Therapeutics and selling CBD directly to the patients in the office or they sign up under our referral program, the and they receive they receive a percentage of the revenue per order that’s made.”

On New Love Ventures, LLC:

“So a little plug in there for new love ventures and basically what we’re doing with new love ventures. It’s a new love culture, it’s a social movement to help people bring awareness to themselves and being human, you know, looking out for their, their fellow person, regardless of what they’re doing in their lives and what they believe in”

There is a large amount of detailed but well-explained information contained in this episode. A final quote on how we as patients can ask doctors to enter the conversation which is of utmost importance:

“Can you please reach out to blazetherapeutics.com and the people there or just call that company and then we will help educate them in an expedited, then we understand their busy schedules, we will provide them with the materials in order for them to learn what they need to do in order to help their patients. Right now the stigma within the health care community has dwindled. There’s enough clinical evidence out there for cannabis. So now doctors are actually learning ”

Thanks for listening! For more information, see the following links:

Website: https://www.blazetherapeutics.com/
Website Resources: https://www.blazetherapeutics.com/resources
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/blazetherapeutics/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blazetherapeutics/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/blazetherapy
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/blaze-therapeutics/
New Love Ventures: https://www.newloveculture.com/
Nadia on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nadiabodkin/
Vincent on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vincent-crowley-a87a1a55/
Nadia Bodkin Rare Advocacy Movement: https://www.rareadvocacymovement.com/nadia-bodkin

Thanks for tuning in!

TSC Talks Guest Ricardo Rivera-Acevedo

In this episode, my guest is Ricardo Rivera-Acevedo, Chief Science Officer and Director at Ecovita Health Corporation, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada working to initiate and manage a medical cannabis extraction facility and guide research and development of new therapeutic products. Ricardo is host of the Cannabis Science Podcast, the first weekly Canadian radio show focused entirely on cannabis and he is also a Scientific Consultant at ACGT, where he works to provide the skill and knowledge necessary to comply with the regulations set forth by Health Canada’s Cannabis Act.

Born and raised in Puerto Rico, he attended City University of Puerto Rico. One of his college professors was from Canada and encouraged him to check out Vancouver where he ended up coming and starting his Ph.D. at the University of British Columbia in the Department of Pharmacology with a fantastic mentor. “That’s kind of where I started my path of not just drug development, medical research, but also my introduction into the science of cannabis.”

While preparing for his Ph.D. comprehensive examination, he mentions, “while studying the capsaicin receptor (the spicy hot feeling when eating a chili pepper) that receptor is actually activated and interacts with cannabinoids. And that receptor is also directly involved in pain sensation, noxious pain sensation. So I began to prepare this document for this examination. And I began to realize, Oh, you know what, there’s a lot more to cannabis than I had previously considered in terms of like these molecular interactions because I always thought cannabis just had its effects on you know, on CB 1 receptor, cannabinoid receptor one and CB 2, and that’s it. But it’s much more complex than that and much more dynamic. And so that kind of began to push me in that direction”

Ricardo discusses being involved in the first clinical trial with dried cannabis on the island of Puerto Rico. “We were able to do the hard work and effort to initiate the first clinical trial with dried cannabis on the island of Puerto Rico, one of the first of its kind to any US territory.” He describes some of what he learned from this research; “So the basis by which you should really guide your therapeutic use is through the ratios of cannabinoids, CBD and THC. Now there are a bunch of other cannabinoids and they have some very interesting effects. But the main cannabinoids that are well studied right now are the THC and CBD. We’ve definitely established this conclusively, but it’s also something that other groups and other labs have seen and many people have known for a long time, which is that when it comes to cannabis, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. So what does that mean? That means that when you have for example, CBD by itself, it is not as effective as CBD with THC, and then CBD with the other constituents in cannabis. But the issue is that, sadly, people have been focusing on CBD and THC for a very long time. So there’s a lot of other chemical constituents that are now being explored but because they occur at such low levels in the plants, they’re very difficult to get at levels too, to do a lot of these scientific experiments, particularly in smaller sort of academic environment. So what we’re trying to do is to isolate them, purify them and then begin to introduce them back into a formula that reproduces what’d in the plant, but then we can also add or remove these different cannabinoids and see what happens. Because, honestly, to be just like open with you right now, it’s kind of interesting and novel information that we’ve discovered. It’s not just CBD and THC, that are doing this stuff, we’re seeing effects that we can’t describe just by looking at the THC and CBD that are very beneficial for a patient. And it has to do with the other cannabinoids that are actually present. And some strains have some of these cannabinoids like CBC for example, or, or even CBN that people have said, Oh, that’s the degraded products of THC. They do seem to have benefits for patients that are now only being teased apart.”

Ricardo also discusses his podcast; “Cannabis Science Podcast is exclusively dedicated to discussing the most up-to-date science on cannabis and cannabinoids, from an industry insider’s perspective”. He decided to start this labor of love to educate and inform anyone and everyone on the science of cannabis. What he had assumed was common knowledge even among the scientific population was not necessarily so. The podcast was launched in an effort to get everyone on the same page to inform and education on the science of cannabis.

In his own words; “I am a scientist and entrepreneur working to help biotech companies find better ways to solve poorly managed health conditions. To do this, my areas of expertise include drug chemistry and pharmacology, extraction, formulation, product development, facility design and operation, project management, regulatory consultation, as well as designing, organizing and directing clinical trials. I also strongly believe in science education and communication as valuable tools to improve people’s lives by empowering them to make well-informed decisions for themselves and society. At this moment, I provide the training, knowledge, and skills necessary for organizations to successfully achieve their product and research goals”

From his website bio: Dr. Rivera-Acevedo is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology & Therapeutics at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. He is also cannabinologist and consultant for various pharma companies around the world.

With a BSc from the University of Puerto Rico – Cayey and PhD in Pharmacology from the University of British Columbia, he has extensive knowledge and expertise researching cannabis and its derivatives. In 2015, he established the first laboratory for cannabinoid research in the Department of Pharmacology at UBC, which is dedicated to understanding the therapeutic uses of different cannabis strains and formulations to treat different diseases.

He also teaches various undergraduate courses within the department including Introduction to Pharmacology, Statistics in Science, Drug Development, Natural Health Products, and Pharmacogenomics.

As former Director of Chemistry for Cannevert Therapeutics Ltd, he lead the chemistry team conducting R&D, QA/QC, and manufacturing research to improve cannabinoid extract formulations and development of new delivery methods. He also helped organize and supervise one of the first internationally recognized clinical trials with cannabis in Puerto Rico.

When not in the lab, he can be found in the dojo practicing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, teaching mindfulness to high school students with the Vancouver Crisis Centre, co-hosting the shows Cannabis Science Podcast, Cannabis Con Ciencia Podcast, and El Bus De Las 7 on Vancouver Coop Radio 100.5 FM.”

Thank you, Ricardo, for providing us with a glimpse of your ongoing research, work and projects in the area of cannabis science! There’s a lot more within this rich, informative episode that will be helpful for anyone wanting to increase their scientific knowledge on cannabis and gaining more of an understanding of the vast untapped potential of this plant.

Ricardo’s Links:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ricoriver/
Website: cannabisconciencia.org  (Cannabis Science and Research)
Podcast: https://cannabisconciencia.org/podcast/
Email: ricardo.rivera@ubc.ca
Twitter: CannabisFaculty, payme4science
The Univ. of British Columbia: https://www.grad.ubc.ca/alumni/profile/ricardo-rivera-acevedo
Press Release: https://apnews.com/7fa52c472c1092fdcb22ca734d4e449b
Research Gate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ricardo_Rivera-Acevedo

TSC Talks: https://tsctalks.com

TSC Talks Guest Tiffany Watkins

TSC Talks guest Tiffany Watkins is a “Cannabis Enthusiast”. She’s been an activist for 20+ years and has done a lot of work to bring awareness to health care and proper distribution of Medical Cannabis as well as paving the way for Recreational Cannabis.

She has marched the Capital (CA), to help bring a voice to those in need of the protection of the Compassionate Care Act. Additionally, she has attended and spoken at City Council meetings and delivered talks as a keynote when invited.

She states, “Cannabis is my passion and I am driven to assist this industry in becoming the standard when it comes to treatment plans, revenue achievement, and sales models.
My intent is to continue helping, building and growing within the Cannabis industry. ”

We discussed her early years getting involved as an activist and what drew her to get involved in the industry; “what drew me in was during that time in the early 90s, we were really coming off the scare of the 80s with HIV and AIDS and there were plenty of my friends whose lives had been touched. They either had a family member or they were personally affected and at that time they were noticing that cannabis was very helpful in easing side effects from some of the very heavy medications that they were on to try to help with the HIV and sometimes full-blown aids. Cannabis helped stave the wasting away. They were using cannabis to increase appetite and lift the mood and just have a better quality of life. They were treated like criminals.”

We go on to discuss the timeline of her life and career, after early activism, exploring other options as there was not an opportunity to build a career in cannabis. Eventually, Tiffany delved into agriculture distribution which “just kind of steamrolled into me making a choice, leaving behind the mainstream and just going head headfirst back into cannabis.”

She talks about her work at Old Pal the home mantra and an ethos of the company is “it’s just weed”. It’s for the people and it’s accessible to everyone. And we spend some time discussing her new business called “Lady Canna”; “when I first developed the concept of Lady Canna, it was geared towards women. It was geared towards the forgotten voices. And as cannabis has really become more mainstream, it is very much so dominated by males….so that’s where it kind of was born. But where it’s ended up is being a platform for education, change of stigma, and overall approach to usage of cannabis”

“I think that that really is where is the fire burning underneath is that I just want everyone to understand we have another choice out there for help for relaxation for all a multitude of things that happen in our lives. We have another thing out there that can help us and we need to listen and stop making a villain out of it.”

Tiffany is full of wisdom, inspiration and demonstrates the kind of longevity and tenacity that will make Lady Canna a success. There’s much more in this episode to educate, inform and empower all who listen. Check out Tiffany’s links:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tiffany-watkins-9910a5176/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ladycanna101
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ladycanna101/
Old Pal: https://oldpal.com/