Can cannabis treat chemotherapy side effects?

What should you do if your neighbor smokes stinky cigarettes in your yard? Why aren't there any legally licensed consumer lounges in the city of Los Angeles but somehow there are four in West Hollywood? And what do I need to know about using cannabis to combat chemotherapy side effects?

Those are some of the burning questions that have been popping up in my inbox lately.

And just in time for the upcoming April 20 rush, I got answers to these burning cannabis questions — and more — from knowledgeable experts.

I live in the hills on a large plot of land. My neighbor's tenant occasionally smokes weed outside his residence and the smell drifts into my yard. The back of the neighbor's house is next to my front yard. When I walked my dog ​​around the yard, the smell was terrible and I had to go inside. What can I do? Tell the landlord or any other way? I'm also concerned that when I put the house on the market in two years, potential buyers who come to view the house might smell a foul odor. – THEREFORE

I posed this question to Craig and Marc Wasserman, attorneys based in Stanton, California. Pot brothers in law. “If the landlord does not allow marijuana use, a complaint could result in eviction. The complaining neighbor could file a nuisance complaint, which would most likely be unsuccessful,” Craig Wasserman wrote in an email to The Times.

“However, cannabis patients with a doctor's recommendation will be protected under the Bill[osition] 215 and can smoke marijuana anywhere except 5 locations: within 1000 feet of a school or youth facility, a non-smoking area (such as a homeowner's policy), in an operating motor vehicle, while operating a boat, and on a school bus.

“We would ask the complaining neighbor to discuss the matter politely and perhaps an amicable solution involving the use of [a] nice air freshener.”

In a follow-up phone call with The Times, Marc Wasserman said that in more than two decades of focusing on cannabis-related legal issues, Pot Brothers at Law has made about a dozen calls addressing the issue. It stings when neighbors complain, and the brothers always recommend trying to talk face-to-face — neighbor to neighbor — before getting the homeowner involved and risking someone being evicted.

“In this case, it seems there is no landlord involved yet so there is still a chance for an amicable resolution,” he said. “I had a client whose neighbor smelled it [cannabis smoke]and they found a way to avoid the odor. [The answer] It could be as simple as going to another part of the house and closing the windows, or it could be turning on a fan to blow the smoke in a different direction. … There is no need to jump straight to ‘I will sue you’ or ‘I will report you.’”

I am a big wax enthusiast and I was looking for a new brand. The most important thing to me is lung health, so if I'm trying something new, I want to make sure it's nice and clean. — BB

The world of clean weed is certainly difficult to navigate, something I discovered firsthand while researching a story about California's weed-free landscape. For those looking to consume cannabis concentrates like wax, there are essentially two options for separating the sticky, sometimes semi-solid substance that gets you high from the plant material.

What I learned is that the most common (and cost-effective) method uses chemical solvents – usually butane, sometimes carbon dioxide or ethanol – which are then discarded. (All concentrates sold legally in California are tested to ensure they are below regulatory levels of these chemicals.) Another alternative is to not use any solvents at all – just the combination. combination of temperature, agitation and pressure. This is often what people refer to when talking about “clean grass”. To find concentrates made this way, look (or ask your supplier) for products labeled “solvent-free.”

Two of the brands' longevity in the solvent-free space makes them the ideal place to start exploring clean weed based in Oakland Wharf extractwas introduced into the game in 2016 and Laboratory 710brought its solventless expertise to the Golden State (from Colorado) the same year.

[My friend’s mom] currently undergoing chemotherapy and trying to find some more ways to deal with anorexia. Do you know any reliable sources? — SB

Unlike many claims about cannabis' therapeutic value, its ability to help relieve the severe nausea, vomiting and loss of appetite that often accompany chemotherapy treatment is undisputed, he said. Dr. Peter Grinspoon, a Boston-based physician and 27-year medical cannabis expert. Even so, he still warns your friend (or your friend's mom) to talk to a doctor.

“It's always important to talk to your oncologist [first] because of the potential for drug interactions,” Grinspoon said. “Oncologists are becoming quite knowledgeable about this because a high percentage of people are [undergoing] Chemotherapy is using cannabis.”

Assuming your friend's mother understands the problem, the next step is to choose the right consumption method. Grinspoon says that while edibles are often preferred (“No doctor recommends lung irritation from inhalation,” he says), using a dry herb vaporizer heats the ingredients plants to release cannabinoids but do not burn it. may be more appropriate unless there are lung health problems.

“If you feel like you're getting bored with chemotherapy, you won't want to eat an edible and you won't want to wait an hour for an edible to take effect,” he says. “I think one situation where you can really make an argument for using inhaled cannabis is when someone is enduring chemotherapy.”

On the herbal front, Grinspoon doesn't have any specific recommendations for cultivars, terpenes or cannabinoids to support appetite, just a ratio to keep in mind. “In a perfect world, people would use something like 15% THC and 5% CBD instead of 22% THC and 0% CBD, but that's not always easy to find. … That's the THC in marijuana [that’s key]and a little bit of CBD helps because it mitigates some of the side effects of THC.”

Then the last thing to figure out is the right dosage, which is especially important for those with little or no experience with this plant. Grinspoon recommends the “start low and go slow” approach. Therefore, start with a small amount, wait to see how the pot and the patient interact and then adjust if necessary. “With any medication, you want to use the lowest effective dose,” he said. “But also, if you've ever smoked too much, you know what that feels like, and it's the last thing you want if you have cancer and [are undergoing] Valence.”

As for the last part of your question about trustworthy sources (about cannabis in general or medicinal cannabis in particular), that's not something you can easily find online. As Grinspoon said: “Online information is very conflicting. Everything tends to fall into two camps: It's either a miracle cure or it's the devil's lettuce.” He knows what he's talking about: These two warring factions — and how to reconcile them — happen to be the subject of his 2023 book, “Seeing Through the Smoke: A Doctor Who Brightens the Light” Revealing the truth about marijuana”. While it is not a guide per se, it is written with the scientific rigor you would expect from a medical doctor and is filled with information that will appeal to anyone with a perspective about marijuana. I always have a copy in the corner of my desk and cannot recommend it highly enough.

Why do cities like West Hollywood, Palm Springs and San Francisco have many legally licensed cannabis consumption lounges, but Los Angeles has none? – IN

OG Cannabis Cafe is one of four legally licensed consumption dispensaries in West Hollywood. The city of LA doesn't have one.

(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)

Full disclosure, this is not a reader-submitted question but one that I have been asked dozens of times over the past few years. That's what comes to mind every time I write about the opening of a new consumer department in West Hollywood, which despite being just a 1.9 square mile city is now four people (with one part five is underway), or visit places where on-site public smoking is allowed, from cities (San Francisco and Palm Springs) to small towns (Ukiah and Philo) in California.

So why not LA? Are there any plans to allow consumption rooms to open in the city? And if so, what will the timetable look like?

“The City of Los Angeles has a saturated cannabis market with thousands of non-compliant entities,” Mayor Karen Bass's press secretary, Clara Karger, said in an email response to my question. “The Cannabis Administration's priority is to support existing businesses, especially social equity partners, and help more businesses comply. Additionally, with the potential for more input from Sacramento regarding dining room service, it may be premature for the City to draft a policy for this business model.”

In other words, most of the blame is placed on LA's illegal pot shop problem — and a small part on Gov. Gavin Newsom October 2023 vetoed bill allowing on-premises food and beverage sales in consumer lounges, The latter problem appears to have been resolved — legally — by at least two West Hollywood lounges that also serve food. (The workaround involves keeping the food and cannabis concerns as separate business entities. At joyMede.g. the kitchen is in a completely different – but very close – building.)

Karger didn't give a specific timeline, but she really didn't need to. Anyone familiar with the LA cannabis scene will tell you that if opening legal dispensaries depends on solving the city's remaining cannabis problems first, then Vatican City seems more likely to open a weed lounge before LA does.