Forget the toilet paper! Stock up on cannabis
What a stressful time this is for all of us. The entire globe has been affected by this severe physical illness, COVID-19. While some will be negatively affected by the physical pathology, the overwhelming majority of [...]
Time for Addiction Treatment to Shift Views
The addiction treatment system needs to shift its views on plant medicine and abuse. Plant medicine can be abused like all psychedelics and pharmaceuticals. People misuse antidepressants, anxiolytics, stimulants, mood stabilizers, antipsychotics, and sleep pills. Yet, [...]
Psychedelic Retreats VS Treatment
After working in mental health hospitals and treatment centers for 20+ years, I am excited for the prospect of incorporating psychedelic medicine into mainstream care. It seems like the initial attempt are psychedelic retreat centers that [...]
The Importance of Regulating Psychedelics
I was in Amsterdam recently. They have smartshops there where they - legally and over the counter - sell psychoactive substances, including truffles with psilocybin (magic mushrooms). The truffles are available in doses ranging from 10-30g [...]
Microdosing versus Macrodosing: What’s right for you?
What is microdosing? Microdosing is taking a small amount of a hallucinogenic medicine on a more regular schedule for a specified amount of time. Microdoses range between 1-10% of the dose that would produce a full [...]
Think what federal cannabis legalization would mean?
A bill to remove cannabis from the Controlled Substance Act Schedule 1 list passed a historical House Judiciary Committee vote (24-10) two weeks ago. The Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act is arguably the biggest [...]
Why are we worse off since prozac?
Mental health has changed since prozac hit the consumer market in 1987. Prozac (fluoxetine) was initially marketed as the “happy pill”, with early reports stating the drug eased depression and made patients feel more spontaneous, outgoing, [...]
Growing into wellness
My newest treatment recommendation for depression is growing your own medicinal cannabis. Spending time with plants soothes the soul. When you develop a relationship with cannabis, you make a physical connection with the earth and the [...]
Cannabis should be a first-line treatment for PTSD
Studies say that 6-12% of the world population is diagnosed with PTSD at some point in life, with women experiencing PTSD twice as often as men. With this huge global diagnosis, the American Psychiatric Association recommends [...]
What is cannabis psychiatry?
Cannabis psychiatry teaches patients how to use cannabis as medicine. By utilizing CBD and THC in different ratios, patients can take fewer prescription medications and achieve homeostasis in their endocannabinoid systems. Cannabis psychiatry allows patients with [...]
Dr. Mark Braunstein, The Cannabis Psychiatrist discusses the power of cannabis to combat addiction
https://youtu.be/4DMdkbqLbFE
Daily use is okay, by Dr. B
There’s a lot of prejudice against using cannabis daily. The shame and guilt associated with cannabis use is largely remnant from prohibition and the anti-cannabis messages from our youth. But this is 2019, and we have [...]
What you need to know about vaping cannabis, by Dr. B
About 1000 illnesses have been reported in the past month from vaping cannabis products. What the vast majority of these cases have in common is that most of the cartridges were obtained from illegal sources. Only [...]
Why Medical Cannabis Should Be Covered By Insurance
Wherever you tend to sit on the political spectrum, health insurance is a hot topic. In a world where the left and the right cannot agree on anything, almost everyone is convinced that health care in [...]
How Cannabis Can Improve Your Relationship
When it comes to pursuing solutions to physical and mental health, it is normal to have concerns about personal relationships. Some of the most common questions that doctors and therapists receive from patients concern how treatments [...]
Cannabis Strains to Manage Anxiety
For many people who may not know much about cannabis, the idea of using medical marijuana to treat anxiety seems strange. Doesn’t smoking pot make people some people anxious? It certainly can in some scenarios, but [...]
How Legalizing Cannabis Can Help Decrease Opioid Addiction
For longstanding opponents of marijuana legalization, there is a growing body of statistical evidence that is becoming harder and harder to ignore. Many of the states that have now ended cannabis prohibition in one form or [...]
Cannabis & Post-Partum Depression
The majority of studies suggest that postpartum depression (PPD) affects around 15 percent of all new mothers at some point following a pregnancy. That number may be close to reality, but there are plenty of pediatricians, [...]
How Cannabis Manages Depression Anxiety
One of the greatest benefits to the ongoing rehabilitation of marijuana’s reputation in the Western World is breaking down stereotypes and misconceptions. For years, the general public and the medical community were misled and outright deceived [...]
How Cannabis Combats the Opioid Crisis
With the rise of the opioid crisis and the converse push to legalize substances like cannabis, the use of legal and illegal drugs in America is a topic that has come to head in the last [...]
How Cannabis May Treat Autism
Today, there is perhaps no topic in the medical community that is more divisive than autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Even taking the fringe outcry over standard vaccinations as a separate issue, there is still a tremendous [...]
How Cannabis Treats PTSD
The journey to find better methods of mental health treatment is one that has made significant progress over the past half century, especially the last 10 years. Today, people in Western countries are more understanding and [...]
Five Questions To Ask Your Psychiatrist To Determine If Cannabis Is Right For You
Thanks to all the progress that has been made to repeal cannabis prohibition in the past ten years, more people than ever are experiencing the physical and mental benefits of one of nature’s most important plants. [...]
Cannabis as a gateway to wellness
Whether you have specific questions about cannabis and mental health or are simply curious, welcome to my home on the web. I’m often asked how I became Dr. B, the Cannabis Psychiatrist. It’s a big question. [...]