Innovative Holdings Alliance, Inc. and Synaptic OTC Sciences Innovative have announced a joint venture to develop "nutraceutical products and therapies aimed at providing relief for a number of diverse ailments and maladies, including but not limited to chronic pain, sleep disorders, depression, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Social Anxiety Disorders (SAD)."
Through this JV, Innovative will provide managerial, financial and marketing expertise to license Syanptic's portfolio of cannabidiol (CBD) and hemp products, with an initial focus on treatments for chronic pain. Cannabis sativa has been used for thousands of years to control pain and several recent systematic reviews have found its use safe and effective.
In addition to the enormous cost to the health care industry and patients, there is has been an enormous societal toll to increased access to opioids, particularly in certain states like New Mexico and West Virginia. Medical cannabis can treat all types of pain and offers a much lower safety profile than opioids -- the only other course of treatment for chronic pain -- and with little risk of developing tolerance. In fact, a 2015 case report described the remarkable siutation of a man who, after getting a new liver, weaned himself down from 30-40 milligrams of opioids per day to 6-8 milligrams per day with the help of medical cannabis to control his severe post-operative pain.
These CBD-based treatments will be a boon to sufferers of chronic pain, which in many cases, include our nation's veterans, who only have partial access to medical cannabis due to federal restrictions on its use.