Hello, needing advice for elderly couple

[Diogenes]

Hello,

I am the guardian for two elderly relatives that live in an Assisted Living Center (ALC). Let me share some background.

HIM= He is nearly 90 and has cardiac issues being dealt with with a pacemaker. He has dementia due to Alzheimer's. He is pleasant company for the most part but is psychically frail. He can remember me and works a special phone pretty well. He is kind by nature and doesn't typically anger easily.
He is very aware of his mental decline, when it started I told him I would always be honest about his condition. His short term memory is gone and due to this frequently grieves when he realizes his parents passed on decades ago. He has memories of his only son but they deal with the times that his son took advantage of him and did him financial harm.
He is married to the second person of this post, who lives down the hall from him in the same ALC.

He does not suffer from chronic pain but he has serious bouts of soul killing depression. More than once I have found him in his room crying to himself.

HER= She is his spouse of 7 years. She is in early stages of Alzheimer's but seems to be holding her own mentally or is maybe much slower in the decline rate. She doesn't suffer from the same level of depression but sometimes gets upset with perceived slights shown her in the family. She feels she is not engaged in the family as she use to be, which is the normal course of life.
She has chronic pain from various ailments such at arthritis and neuralgia.

We have applied for and will receive the needed documents so they may avail themselves to medicinal cannabis, either as THC or CBD.

I need advice. I want to help him with his depression and her with her chronic pain. The ALC cannot be involved in dispensing them THC or CBD for legal reasons. It falls to me.

Neither of them wish to smoke as they have respiratory issues and the ALC does not allow smoking on the premises.
I understand that strains of cannabis such as ACDC and Girls Scout Cookies (GCS) seem to alleviate pain. Not sure what strain is best for depression.

Can anyone suggest to me brand name products and methods for treating these two under the conditions I have outlined?


Thanks,

Diogenes.....

 

[Old Salt]

First, to the forum. I'm sorry it's not under better circumstances.

I have problems keeping my lungs where they belong when smoking, so I switched to capsules. I make my own by using a rosin press for extraction, and then mix the rosin with coconut oil to get the strength I need. This is then put into the capsules. Edibles are another smokeless method of taking cannabis. Food in almost any form can contain the medicine.

The book "CBD, A Patient's Guide to Medicinal Cannabis" has suggestions as to both THC and CBD use for various conditions.

 

[Diogenes]

Thanks, Old Salt. I will see if I can find a copy of the book.

 

[skirk]

ProjectCBD.org

 

[Silverfox125]

Welcome to the community.

I am not knowledgeable on the subject so I will just send positive vibes your way.

I hope you find the medicine to best help your patients

 

[Diogenes]

The book "CBD, A Patient's Guide to Medicinal Cannabis" has suggestions as to both THC and CBD use for various conditions.

I ordered this book and received it the next day. I like it. Within about 20 minutes I was able to start formulating some ideas. For her I will get a topical blend of CBD and ACDC in a 4:1 ratio for her to spread on where she hurts. For him I will likely go with an sublingual of some sort. Hopefully one of the local dispensaries can handle compounding this mixture for me. Any suggestions?

 

[Old Salt]

I can't afford the dispensaries, or Licensed Producers as they are called here in Canada. On top of the pricing issue, is spotty availability. Therefore I grow my own. After harvest and drying, I use a rosin press for extraction, decarb the rosin, and mix it with coconut oil before putting it into capsules. Amortizing the equipment used, it's costing me less than $1.50 USD to produce a gram of dried flower, and $0.10 USD per capsule.

If you can afford it, and the dispensaries keep the strains you want in stock, they can be a good choice.

 

[Diogenes]

I'm in Oklahoma. We have medicinal but not recreational. I went to a doctor that is set up to do the necessary paperwork. I had two elderly, proper citizens in his office and he swears like a sailor. When I tried to ask specific questions about dosage and such all he could give was vague advice. He sat us and others down to watch a video for training that was useless. I asked several questions and got little out of him. One of the other participants thanked me for broaching some of the subjects. His staff was great but all he could do was talk about himself and how "magical" cannabis was. The book you suggested is very practical. At one of the dispensaries I went to I was explaining to the clerk what I was trying to achieve. I told her it had to be non-smoking. All she could do was point at some buds and tell me that when she smoked this it made her real relaxed. Really disappointed by the Cannabis community so far, only one person has had answers and reasoned suggestions taking into account what I am trying to do.

 

[Old Salt]

I'm in Oklahoma. We have medicinal but not recreational. I went to a doctor that is set up to do the necessary paperwork. I had two elderly, proper citizens in his office and he swears like a sailor. When I tried to ask specific questions about dosage and such all he could give was vague advice. He sat us and others down to watch a video for training that was useless. I asked several questions and got little out of him. One of the other participants thanked me for broaching some of the subjects. His staff was great but all he could do was talk about himself and how "magical" cannabis was. The book you suggested is very practical. At one of the dispensaries I went to I was explaining to the clerk what I was trying to achieve. I told her it had to be non-smoking. All she could do was point at some buds and tell me that when she smoked this it made her real relaxed. Really disappointed by the Cannabis community so far, only one person has had answers and reasoned suggestions taking into account what I am trying to do.

I'm sorry to say that's normal. The vast majority of the evidence supporting its use is anecdotal due to prohibition. It's hasn't been taught at medical schools, and very few doctors have the necessary experience to prescribe it properly. It's worse in the USA, as most if not all medical schools are funded at least in part by the federal government. They'd lose their funding if they were to teach the medical use of cannabis.

There is a large section of this forum devoted to the medical use of cannabis. Some of it must be taken with a grain of salt. That's why I directed you to the book before mentioning it. You can find the appropriate section under 'Medical' on the green menu bar above. SweetSue has an excellent thread: Cannabis Dosing: Delivery Methods & Dosing Guidelines and another on resetting your cannabis tolerance levels. We can't forget her Cannabis Oil Study Hall which has lots of information for medical users.

 

[Diogenes]

Ok, the book recommended by Old Salt has proven to be useful. I know now that I do not need a strain of Cannabis that is heavy with THC. This is good, both of these folks are elderly and have balance issues.
For him it looks like a Valentine X would be a good choice, it is recommended for depression and has a ratio of 25:1. A daily dose for him would be around 6mg per day. This is a micro dose as suggested by the book.

For her it looks like the best choice is AC/DC with a ratio of 20:1 and a daily starting dose of 5mg.

Here is my problem. I will need to make my own edibles for them. I would like the edibles to contain one daily dose that so they could be cut in half.

Can someone direct me to information on how to make edibles in the proper formulation?

How do I determine how many mg of the desire CBD is in a ounce of the tincture?

Once I know how many mg of CBD is in an ounce I can then follow a recipe that gives the ratios needed to achieve my dosing goals of either 5 or 6 mg per edible.

Anyone care to earn some cosmic karma and mentor me?

Or does anyone know of a source of edibles that list the variety used and the dosage level per unit?

 

[Old Salt]

Edibles are usually made with an extract. Some use oil, such as RSO, CCO, or FECO. I use rosin. There are good recipes to be found here for gummies, hard candy, and other traditional edibles. I chose a different route - capsules.

Before I got the rosin press, I decarbed flower and ground that up. I didn't know the concentration of the various cannabinoids, and had to experiment to find the correct dose. I found that a size 2 capsule would hold 150mg, and the size 0 holds 250mg of the decarbed flower. I also found that this was not consistent as some capsules held more trichomes than others.

With the rosin press, I weighed the flower, and rosin I pressed from it. That gave me a method of determining how much rosin I needed for each capsule. I mixed the appropriate amount of coconut oil in with the decarbed rosin before filling the capsules. You'll note that up to this time I had no idea of the cannabiniod content of the capsules. I just knew from experience what I needed.

If you buy lab tested cannabis, you'll be able to gauge fairly accurately the amount needed for 6mg of CBD. Another method is to get a test kit and measure the cannabinoid content. Cannalytic Supply sells one in the USA. Let's use for example flower with a CBD content of 18%. That means a gram of flower contains 180mg CBD. That amount is good for 30 doses. You would mix either the flower, or the extract from 1 gm into whatever you made to contain that many doses.

RSO: Rick Simpson Oil
CCO: Concentrated Cannabis Oil (often winterized by removing waxes and lipids)
FECO: Fully Extracted Cannabis Oil

Although some will argue, in my opinion FECO and CCO are forms of RSO. RSO is extracted using a liquid solvent.

Ensure that if you ever buy a concentrate that you know how it was extracted. Some on the black market are extracted with naphtha, isopropanol or other undesirable chemicals. Some of any solvent is left behind in the extract. In my opinion ethanol is the safest liquid solvent, and CO2 is the safest gaseous solvent. I like my press, as I use no solvents at all.

Here's how I made my first rosin capsules:

 

[zeroday]

Edibles are usually made with an extract. Some use oil, such as RSO, CCO, or FECO. I use rosin. There are good recipes to be found here for gummies, hard candy, and other traditional edibles. I chose a different route - capsules.

Before I got the rosin press, I decarbed flower and ground that up. I didn't know the concentration of the various cannabinoids, and had to experiment to find the correct dose. I found that a size 2 capsule would hold 150mg, and the size 0 holds 250mg of the decarbed flower. I also found that this was not consistent as some capsules held more trichomes than others.

With the rosin press, I weighed the flower, and rosin I pressed from it. That gave me a method of determining how much rosin I needed for each capsule. I mixed the appropriate amount of coconut oil in with the decarbed rosin before filling the capsules. You'll note that up to this time I had no idea of the cannabiniod content of the capsules. I just knew from experience what I needed.

If you buy lab tested cannabis, you'll be able to gauge fairly accurately the amount needed for 6mg of CBD. Another method is to get a test kit and measure the cannabinoid content. Cannalytic Supply sells one in the USA. Let's use for example flower with a CBD content of 18%. That means a gram of flower contains 180mg CBD. That amount is good for 30 doses. You would mix either the flower, or the extract from 1 gm into whatever you made to contain that many doses.

RSO: Rick Simpson Oil
CCO: Concentrated Cannabis Oil (often winterized by removing waxes and lipids)
FECO: Fully Extracted Cannabis Oil

Although some will argue, in my opinion FECO and CCO are forms of RSO. RSO is extracted using a liquid solvent.

Ensure that if you ever buy a concentrate that you know how it was extracted. Some on the black market are extracted with naphtha, isopropanol or other undesirable chemicals. Some of any solvent is left behind in the extract. In my opinion ethanol is the safest liquid solvent, and CO2 is the safest gaseous solvent. I like my press, as I use no solvents at all.

Here's how I made my first rosin capsules:

Tellin it like it is...

 

[BeanTownFan420]

 

[Diogenes]

Is it possible to purchase hemp oil or extract that is from a particular strain, such as Valentine X or ACDC?

 

[Old Salt]

It may be possible in your area, you'll need to check around.

Here in Canada it's not available from any Licensed Producer. The only way to get it here is for the patients to grow their own or designate someone to do it for them. They then need to acquire the required licence from Health Canada. It takes about a year from the time a patient gets their prescription until their first legal harvest is dried and cured. It takes about six months for Health Canada to issue the licence once they receive the application.