The Scoop with Tanya Flanagan

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Good morning, and thank you for joining me for the scoop with Tanya Flanagan. I'm so happy you decided to wake up and start your day with me. Here on the scoop, where we talk about life, joy, funny moments, trending topics, and so much more. We promise to keep you in the know and find out what you know. So let's get started.

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Good morning. Good morning, Las Vegas, and welcome to another fabulous edition of the scoop with me. Tanya Flanagan. I'm so excited to be with you this first Sunday in November to talk with a very dear friend of mine, a colleague and someone I respect greatly. I'm excited to welcome to the show, Dr. Carmen Jones. Good morning, Carmen.

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Good morning, Tanya, good to be with you.

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Thank you for taking some time out of your week into and getting started here with me. I hope you have a nice cup of coffee or you've had some tea and enjoying the fall weather it is it's been so beautiful outside. It's just been amazing.

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It has and yes, it is early. And that is early for me. But here I am happy to talk.

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Thank you. Well, um, some other editions of the show, I've often mentioned to you guys, I love to do kind of what I call a man on the streets or a woman on the streets. And the opportunity with that is to pull for the unsung hero or in our community and to the spotlight and introduce you to someone that you might otherwise not necessarily hear about. But the value of knowing them is priceless. And for me, Dr. Jones is one of those people. She is by degree and practice a pediatrician. And I say by degree in practice, because she's done a number of things, you've done a number of things that are so commendable, so unselfish, and so for the good of humankind in the medical field. And so I just wanted to talk today about how you got started. Why you chose pediatrics, but how that's evolved because you have your footprint in this new cannabis space. And so this morning, I want to tell us a little bit about how you get your career started. So tell us a little bit about who you are. share with the audience, you know your story, who you who you are, who are you?

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All right. Well, as you mentioned, my training is in pediatrics. I actually graduated from medical school in 1991. And the story is very easy of how I became a pediatrician. Just, you know, normal Medical School rounds. I learned very early on that I could speak child and parent and that I was better at it than the other doctors were around me that were working. Even teaching me and I I guess I just learned that I had these good communication skills, not to mention, you know, all of us that are in medical school are very focused and little high bay. And so that combination made a good choice for me, and I enjoy it. I still practice pediatrics even today. However, probably around 2012 I was asked by a colleague. Oh, let me back up just a little bit. I'm originally from Chicago. So I've been here in Las Vegas. Practicing for I've been here for 21 years now actually just made 21 years. So around 2012 I know it's time flies. Yeah, I was actually working still as a pediatrician around that time. 2012 A colleague I ran into ironically at the dentist had been talking to me about work she was doing in the at that time burgeoning cannabis industry. It was approved by the State medically at the time, but this is pre adult use or what we call recreational use so we are still needing to certify people to get their medical cards and this particular doctor friend needed help with coverage. She couldn't make a particular clinic and our and asked if I would be able to fill in forever. And I was intrigued, I wasn't quite sure about it. I knew very liberal, I actually ended up calling my attorney and say, Can I do this? You know, what's the status? How does this work. And as it turns out, in the process that we have in the state of Nevada, not unlike other states, it's, it requires the patience to be seen by a physician, and make sure that they qualify for the conditions set forth by the legislature that would approve a patient to use cannabis as medicine. So I started helping her out, I was doing pediatrics part time and doing this business practice part time. And about a year later, you know, I was still doing it. And at that time, you could have your license for a year, you'd have to come back and renew it every year. And people were returning to the office in tears, literally saying, Thank you for doing this, my life has been changed. Now, mind you, I get a lot of satisfaction taking care of children. And in a lot of people think, oh, pediatrics, oh, that baby's so cute. But pediatrics goes from you know, zero to 18, sometimes 21. And while I found that and still find it, you know, very satisfying, no one's ever said to me, thank you for doing this, my life has been changed. And so I along the way, had been educating myself reading learning. And also, I may say, learning from the patients, because a lot of this was still considered sort of, I guess I want to say underground, even though it was legal in the state, you know, the stigma was still quite there. And I found it interesting that I saw all walks of life coming in, not only I didn't know, at the time, there were people who believed that this was sort of a side door, so that people think just get high. And I found it to be actually the absolute opposite of that. There were people who were coming in who were addicted to opiates and desperate to get off, a lot of them being veterans, a lot of patients who had either adverse reactions to some of their pain medicines, and needed an alternative patients who had horrible, horrible stories of I don't know, just many medical mishaps, medical issues that were serious. And these patients were finding relief, and being able to function a lot more efficiently in their lives with the cannabis than they were without. And so I kind of realized, Hey, this is this is really something I need to keep looking into. And if we fast forward to, you know, a few years after that time, in 2018, I left that practice and started my own business. And I call it wildflower medical consultants. And I have been continuing that work but focusing more on probably patients with pretty, pretty complicated medical conditions. And partly because once the recreational or adult use dispensary opened up, I found that everyone seemed to think that they were an expert in the field. And while patients didn't necessarily realize that it was necessary to continue to see the doctor, they thought they could just walk in and talk to the person behind the counter called a bud tender. They would tell them what to use. I still to this day oppose that notion. Yes, they have some knowledge about the plant and the maybe some of the ways that patients can use it but they are not physicians, those are salespeople and product specialists. So I do not believe that they should be giving advice at all to anyone about that makes

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me

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how to use it.

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I have a I have a Question for you in that space. So is there are you noticing that the medical community is responding to patient's needs? Like, are there enough doctors moving into this area to actually meet, see patients, assess their health, and then point them in the direction before they go off to buy the products, because I know what you're saying, like you can go into a store and talk about what's bothering you. And then the person who's there is helping a client, pick out a product, intended to help them whatever the ailment is. But there's the the missing factor that maybe that person never saw a doctor to really talk about what the correlation should be.

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So what you just brought up is the crux of the whole medical system. Sorry, medical marijuana system. And I want to clarify something when I say the word cannabis, I'm not referring only to what people call marijuana, I'm referring to the entire genus and species of the plant, which includes both the quote unquote marijuana version and the version. And both have medicinal value. But what you asked me is actually part of the confusion. Because, yes, people will ask you, what do you need it for when you walk in there, and then they will offer you an option. What they don't do is know your medical history. So for instance, it's very common for someone to walk in to a dispensary and ask them for, oh, yeah, I have back pain. So the first thing they'll do is Oh, take this for pain. But what they don't know is that patient also has diabetes, kidney failure, and lupus, or something else, and how that would all interact with the current medicines they're taking. Okay, so now with that being said, my colleagues in the medical industry have been very slow, and very reluctant to educate themselves for a number of reasons. One, is very common reasons. They are afraid of their licenses being threatened, they may not have taken the steps that I did to consult with, you know, their attorney to find out what their limitations were. And they are simply, you know, they just don't know that's number one. Number two, any want to talk about it, because they've been so indoctrinated, like everyone in well, many in the world, even not just our country, but have been so indoctrinated to believe it to be bad. And we have come quite a long way, in our society in these last 1012 years, since I've been in the industry to continue to try and dispel that myth. So there are doctors that will just simply say, I'll sign your paper, but they won't teach them because they don't know how. And problem number three is, most of the doctors that are out there just signing a paper that says they can be a medical patient don't know that I exist doing this. And while I have tried different avenues of reaching out to them my colleagues are still very slow to comply. And so my thought is that very soon, people will be recognizing the cannabis medicine physician as a subspecialty just like cardiology gastroenterology into ology we are we believe those of us in the medical cannabis industry are trying to identify ourselves now as something called endo cannabinoid. ologists. And while

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that, in that vein, do you think that it would be? Is it something that people think of from the holistic side of health of health care health care approaches? Because it is based from a plant from an ERP from a is there any correlation there to like it being part of a holistic

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yet? Yes, definitely a correlation. The only problem is with no, there's a couple. So, almost all medications were formed or formulated from a plant. The problem are the differences in how do you scientifically measure the effectiveness of the plant and some plants are straightforward, you know, you break it down and you get this product from it, you know, so so, you know, cause and effect but Some plants like cannabis are very complex, meaning they have multiple chemical profiles, and literally millions of combinations. And so therefore that puts it more on the holistic side because it's so difficult to study and isolate each chemical. Within the plant we know now There's well over 140, what they call cannabinoids. Those are the large molecules. The one you know, most commonly or that people know most commonly is called THC. That's the chemical in the plant that causes the euphoric feeling that people get. Then the most, the next most common one that people have heard of is CBD. And that, of course, became all the rage. When the Farm Bill released, its hold on hemp in 2018. You saw these CBD stores popping up. And now that's the Holy Grail. But it's just not extended the story. Just those two chemicals are only two of many haven't even spoken of the minor cannabinoids called terpenes that also have medicinal value. So there's it's quite complicated. And I will tell you, I am learning still every day, something new because in July of 2022, President Biden signed a bill allowing for cannabis to now be researched more research in the United States prior to that, almost all of our research was coming out of Israel and Canada. So, so to

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me that she said that it's so kind of me that she said that because the question that was on my mind When you said it was how are we going about in the medical community across the professionals who might have an interest? Or maybe we're reluctant at some point to service people, but their doctors like you're so how are they researching to understand, I think you said what 140 cannabinoids, you really research the benefits, who should get it what ailments the person has. And then that brings me to people, because when you see medical studies, people participate in medical studies, so the doctors can draw conclusions. So is there anything happening on that for it?

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That that research aspect is slow to take off. That particular aspect of involving live patience is slow. So right now, the majority of the research is being done in the lab. Because it remains illegal federally, or, more specifically, a schedule one drug schedule one on the VA list classifies it as harmful, addictive, with no medical value. We all know that's not true. The reason that that marijuana was ever placed on a schedule one, along with heroin, LSD, ecstasy, is all very political. And for anyone who's really interested in the history of cannabis in our country, there are a number of easy YouTube videos that they can just pull up just Google History of cannabis in America or period cannabis period. And they will, there will be plenty of explanation. I won't go into that right now. But I will say that there, there are a number of researchers working very hard to uncover the mysteries of this plant in a scientific way that would be expected would be appreciated and relied become reliable to my fellow, you know, medical professionals. And also there are a number of bills going through the Well, theoretically going through the United States Congress now. There are different bills at different stages. And we have actually some leaders right here in Nevada that are helping to push those things through.

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And you are so like reading my mind because my next thought was you've had a front row seat to a lot of you know what's going on and how this is evolving. Your take on how we're doing here because since 2012, and I know you have sat on advisory boards, as we were forming guidelines if you will, around cannabis, businesses use sale, accessibility and all the things that go into into this, this place this this picture, but you've had a front row seat. So how do you think were doing in terms of protocols that we're putting in place? As a state from a political guideline or business guideline? I,

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I would call that a loaded question. And the only reason I say that is because from the inception of the adult use, or recreational use and estate, yes, what you're referring to is I was one of the one of the people who sat on the Green Ribbon Panel to start to initiate recommendations for the state law to be put into place for cannabis to be sold, you know, like, retail store and dispensaries. And I think that what has changed is I don't think that the lawmakers nor frankly, anyone thought that it would be as successful of a venture as it was, I believe, our first year. I don't have the exact numbers. But I believe that the state collected over a billion dollars in terms of sales and taxes for the cannabis industry, which rivaled what happened with Colorado. I mean, I think what happened is, the money got good. And people started making a lot of it. And because of that, the MediCal program that was in place pre dating, this recreational use, started to suffer some numbers on that. Like, for instance, in Florida, they have like 500,000 people in their medical program to our maybe 20,000. Now, so different dates set for different guidelines and laws, based on what they value. And so Nevada has, I think, a little more work to do in valuing the program. Because again, remember, this interviews are long standing stereotypes that we are trying to break. And while there are a lot of people who are using it medically and not in the MediCal program, they gave the impression to the state well, we didn't we don't need this, they can just walk in and buy it, forgetting that there's a component that's necessary, which is the physician patient relationship

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are over. So is it like our own antagonists and protagonist in that here we are, where the state where, medically, we made some strides, and we're having this conversation. But we are a destination that provides entertainment and recreation at a level that in many ways is really unparalleled anywhere else. So now you add the cannabis industry to the mix. And there could be the balance of recreational access because of the legalization and medicinal need regulation management, if you will, in the same space. And the bumping of heads because we talked about earlier walking into a store and just saying hey, sure, on the one hand, there's the recreational purchaser. And on the other hand, there's the person who has back pain or leg pain or migraine or whatever. So we're our own contradiction.

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With right, we behaved as we behave. So Nevada leaned into the entertainment portion of this complicated system. I believe that we will, as a country gets to the place where it is no longer on the schedule. There are plenty of interests meaning Big Pharma, big business, who want to control that industry, and the little guy, the artisan, the small mom and pop, if you will, are trying to hang on by their fingernails. But, you know, that's that's just the way the world works. And so we will continue to navigate that. But if I may, I would like to move on to what my current day focuses as we are. I understand, you know, under a time constraint here, I was we

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were I think I want to Have you, I would love to extend an invitation for you to come back and talk some more, because I don't want to. We are about to approach, believe it or not having only a few more minutes left to talk about five. And I want to invite you to come back and continue talking about this, and then going into what you're into now. So can we tease them? And can we talk about it some more live? Yes. Yes, I can. I'd love to have a little tease. I would love to have you back. And we'll just continue the conversation. Next Sunday. So peace away. Okay, you are in.

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Yeah, so as I am doing my best to educate not only patients one on one, but I've given lectures I've given. I've been invited to speak at conferences, etc, about educating people about cannabis and its medical benefits. The the focus started to shift when I got a call about a patient who had gotten into some legal trouble, because they use cannabis. And so when I was asked to consult with that patient, it literally made my soul glow. Because I realized that there's probably a lot of people out there who have had a negative interaction with the criminal justice system in our country, regarding cannabis. So I am in the process of creating another business model to literally be an expert witness, in cases for patients who have found themselves tangled up in the criminal justice system. So that cities, I have a couple of cases I can present to you when we talk again. And I hope to begin to develop relationships with the attorneys in this city, and state and country on how to help those people. So that the stigma that remains does not continue to impact people who are using this medicine legally.

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You heard it here, folks. We've talked about the first part of this conversation. But Dr. Carmen Jones, join us next week. Do not miss out for part two of this extremely dynamic and interesting conversation, Dr. Carmen Jones on cannabis and we're gonna move into her efforts to work as an expert witness to criminal cases involving people where cannabis is part of the charge or the issue that they're facing in the criminal justice space. Come on, we have a couple of minutes left. Before we sign off. Do you want to share any social handles and where people can find you follow you here tidbits from you?

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Oh, yes, thank you for that. So I am on Facebook, Instagram, and Instagram, as wildflower medical consultants. And the website that I have is called wildflower medical.com. And people who might need my one on one consults. And or even if you need a medical card, I can help you at the Wildstar medical.com website. People can log on and initiate their own appointments just like any of the other systems now we do this virtually. And then, like I said, Facebook and Instagram as well for medical consultants. And I'm on a couple other places with that those are the most important. Thank you.

Unknown Speaker 28:52
Okay, why? This has been fascinating, really interesting to me. And I hope everyone has enjoyed hearing so much about it. And I hope you will tune in next week to hear a bit more. So it'd be a great conversation as we continue to talk about cannabis. Dr. Carmen Jones, thank you for joining me this morning. Everyone have a great week. wonderful rest of your Sunday. Thank you

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I want to thank you for tuning into the scoop with me Tony Flanagan and I want to invite you to get social with me I'm on Facebook and Twitter. My name is my handle ta NYFLA na GA N You can also find me on Instagram at Tanya almond eyes Flanagan and if you have a thought and opinion or a suggestion, don't hesitate to shoot me an email to tanya.flanagan@unlv.edu Thanks again for joining in. Stay safe and have a great week.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai