Cannabis is good medicine for treating people with autism, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, and multiple sclerosis with fewer side effects than traditional pharmaceutical treatments.

That was the message from internationally recognized Drs. Laszlo Mechtler and Jennifer Williams McVige, of the DENT Neurologic Institute in Buffalo, NY. The doctors, well-versed in pain management, presented their analysis of in-house cannabis studies on January 9 at the 2024 Cannabis Conference at Niagara County Community College.

The federal government's continued suppression of cannabis is hurting efforts to treat neurological disorders and other medical problems, they said. Despite data showing its healing value, Mechtler said, “the federal government doesn’t want to talk about cannabis.” 

New Yorkers want to talk about cannabis, judging from the full house at the sold-out conference, the first of its kind in New York State. In attendance: cannabis merchants, consultants, and the head of the New York State Office of Cannabis Management. 

“I jumped on board because a lot of my families were coming in with babies with horrible intractable epilepsy. They were using CBD and the kids were getting better,” said Dr. McVige.

The conference included sessions on marijuana plant genetics, cannabis cooking, and developing your dispensary business, but the subject on everyone's mind was what will it take for cannabis to get the respect it deserves as medicine.

According to studies of Mechtler and McVige’s patient data from 2016 to 2023, medical cannabis positively affected adults and children suffering from a slew of debilitating neurological disorders.

A study of 132 patients with epilepsy showed 82-percent reported improvements in pain, mood and reduced seizure severity with average daily doses of cannabis containing 14.4 grams of THC and 27.8 grams of CBD.

Another study of 101 patients, who took cannabis tinctures for anxiety and depression, found eighty-eight percent of them reported significant reductions in their symptoms. Nearly 35-percent significantly reduced their consumption of benzodiazepines.

A similar reduction in benzodiazepines was noted in a study evaluating medical cannabis use on patients with Fibromyalgia. Mechtler’s presentation cast medical cannabis as an alternative neurological treatment to a variety of opioids including benzodiazepines, which pose risk for addiction as well as death. The brain stem, which controls involuntary functions like breathing and heartbeat, is riddled with opioid receptors. High-dose opioid treatments can slow those vital functions to a stop. There are no receptors for cannabinoids in the brain stem, making medical cannabis a much safer alternative, Mechtler said.

The pattern repeated in a study of sixty-two patients with Parkinson’s Disease treated with medical cannabis at DENT. Fifty-six percent of opioid users with Parkinson’s significantly reduced their opioid consumption. Seventy-eight percent of the total patient population reported better motor functionality, Mechtler said. This study appeared in the Journal of Clinical Neuropharmacology in May 2023.

That same month, another published study evaluated 77 multiple sclerosis patients. Fifty-five percent of them reported a reduction in pain; 43-percent reported reductions in spastic symptoms. Thirty-four percent decreased or discontinued other medications.

Four multiple sclerosis patients reported that the cost of medical cannabis forced them to discontinue treatment after the study. A trend Dr. Mechtler says is all too common. “Our studies routinely examine the cost of cannabis therapy and have found cannabinoid treatments are largely cost-prohibitive, especially among communities of color who appear to be disproportionately affected.” This study was published in the peer-reviewed International Journal for Multiple Sclerosis Care (IJMSC).

Though marijuana has been legalized for medical use in 40 states, it’s still classified as a schedule I drug federally, alongside cocaine and heroin. Schedule I distinction means federal research facilities like the National Institute of Health (NIH) can’t conduct clinical trials for marijuana-derived cannabis treatments without a license from the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration). It also means most health insurance cannot subsidize the cost of medicinal cannabis therapies.

Between 2016 and 2020 Dr. McVige, a pediatric neurologist, evaluated data from 20 children with autism who used medical cannabis tinctures. Results showed significant improvements in self-harming activity as well as quality-of-life measures like sleep, mood, and aggression across the population. McVige also noted that autism patients suffering from seizures saw significant reductions in seizure frequency and severity.

“I would argue … (autistic children) have Adderal sitting there, Toradol, Tramadol —some pretty hefty drugs. But most of these kids aren’t getting the medicine they need,” McVige said.

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