BY LEA HOLZ
CANNABIS CHRONIC PAIN AN INTERVIEW WITH DR. GREGORY SONN OF THE IONA CANNABIS CLINIC
I found myself sitting in a room of twenty or so recently-hired budtenders in Boulder, Colorado, listening to a lecture from our new managers on qualifying conditions for medical marijuana patients. “Who in this room has experienced chronic pain?” asked one of the trainers. To my surprise, nearly all hands in the room shot up into the air, and most of those hands belonged to women. It may have been shocking at the time, but chronic pain—medically-defined as pain that lasts longer than three months—is no stranger to the vast majority of Americans. And just like that room full of newlyhired employees, over half of Americans struggling with pain that lingers are female.
UNFORTUNATELY, THE WAY DOCTORS TREAT MOST AILMENTS IS BASED ON UNDERSTANDINGS OF MALE PHYSIOLOGY4, AND WOMEN THUSLY EXPERIENCE A HIGHER RATE OF MISDIAGNOSIS. Chronic pain affects about 100 million people or one third of the population.1 Combine those in the United States suffering from diabetes, cardiovascular 42
disease, and cancer, and their numbers still aren’t as great as those suffering from this common condition. Of those with chronic pain, a whopping 70% are women.2 On top of this, an estimated and staggering 80% of our population suffers with some form of depression and anxiety, which is often associated with the coping of physical pain. And, you guessed it, from the age of puberty to the age of menopause, a woman is twice as likely to have an anxiety disorder as a man.3 It’s no wonder, then, that a 2017 report found that of the 813, 917 registered cannabis users in the United states, 62.2% were using it to treat their enduring pain.4 This represented the largest group of people using cannabis for evidence-based conditions in the study and appears to mirror what we see in dispensaries and doctor’s offices around us. It seems that across the board, chronic pain has become an epidemic. Thankfully, medical cannabis offers a viable option for relief, and healthcare professionals in the cannabis space are here to help guide the way for patients seeking help.
I sat down with Dr. Gregory Sonn of the Iona Cannabis Clinic to get a better idea of what chronic pain means, involves, and what new patients should keep in mind during treatment with cannabis products. Chronic Pain is the number one diagnosis that Dr. Sonn treats in his practice. He defines chronic pain as any type of physical and or emotional pain that has extended past the normal period of time. Of course, what is considered normal often varies person to person.
