Category: Meds

The cannabis education gap: Why patients are left in the dark

Imagine that you are suffering from chronic pain. The pain keeps you awake at night so you don’t get much sleep. Lack of sleep most nights and the ensuing chronic fatigue causes you some anxiety during the day. Your primary care physician suggests that…

Are doctors ready to discuss psychedelic therapies with patients?

As I’m pre-charting for my primary care clinic, I see Ms. C on the schedule, whom I know well through our nearly monthly follow-up visits over the past two and a half years of residency. We talk in Spanish as it’s her preferred language. Sh…

The rise and dark side of fungi: Exploring health benefits and pathogenic threats

Fungi have a well-deserved surge in popularity. More mushroom varieties have found their way to grocery store shelves, shopping lists, and food blogs. Mushroom foraging is a trending activity as people endeavor to connect to nature. There is a growing …

Advocacy and collaboration lead to major patient safety benefits on sterile pharmaceutical compounding: a review of USP’s revisions to Chapter

In November 2022, revisions to the United States Pharmacopeia’s (USP) General Chapter <797>, a standard for sterile pharmaceutical compounding – defined as the process of “combining, admixing, diluting, pooling, reconstituting, repa…

Counterfeit drugs: a hidden danger lurking in your medicine cabinet

The timing of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration’s One Pill Can Kill campaign is crucial, considering the recent Carrollton teen tragedy in which Fentanyl-laced pills posing as oxycodone were distributed through a “juvenile d…

Telemedicine in the opioid crisis: a game-changer threatened by DEA regulations

In March 2020, I was directing a federally qualified health center in rural New Mexico when the first flashover of COVID ripped through the state. In two days, the clinics transitioned from an entirely in-person model to a near-total remote model. The …

The real cause of America’s opioid crisis: Doctors are not to blame

We’ve all heard about America’s so-called “opioid epidemic.” Nearly 100,000 people died in 2021 of causes that included overdose by one or more narcotic drugs and often alcohol. We also hear assertions from anti-opioid advocates…

Can personalized medicine live up to its hype in health care?

The genius of Henry Ford was in his perfection of mass production. Ford’s assembly lines produced oodles of Model T, with economies of scale so that the cost of each car fell to the point that even those working in those lines could afford them. …

The effects of the nationwide stimulant shortage on a private psychiatry practice

I have a solo outpatient private practice focusing on psychiatric medication management and brief therapy for adults. Early on, I decided to accept insurance to help address the shortage of psychiatrists in this country. Because of the advances in tele…

Why North American medical cannabis can’t compete globally

The United States and Canada started a movement that began as medical cannabis and quickly exploded into adult-use cannabis markets. However, the North American operators failed to properly regulate the processes from growing to manufacturing to compet…