Cannabis Lozenges Effective For Pain & Opioid Dependency Study Says

Cannabis Lozenges Effective For Pain & Opioid Dependency Study Says

Research shows that you don’t always have to smoke pot if you need to treat pain.

A new study published in Frontiers in Neuroscience revealed that patients who eat cannabis-infused oral lozenges reported a decrease in chronic pain and opioid use.

The researchers, from the Netherlands, United States, and Spain administered the Trokie brand of lozenges to patients located in California. The lozenges all contained a standard quantity of THC and/or CBD.

The researchers wrote: “[T]he use of Trokie® lozenges is associated with a self-reported pain reduction in chronic, non-cancer pain patients. ... [T]he proportion of participants reducing or discontinuing opiate analgesics was ... 84 percent, similar to what has been previously found in a study based on patient self-reports. ... [T]he findings support the need for conducting a phase 1 clinical trial to formally characterize the pharmacokinetic profile of Trokie® lozenges in humans."

Why Sublingual Cannabis Is Best For Chronic Pain

Sublingual cannabis products such as lozenges, candies, and tinctures may be the remedy that chronic pain patients are looking for. There are several benefits to using this kind of administration method over others, especially for patients who are already sick or who don’t want to engage in smoking to treat pain.

Taking cannabis sublingually through these products results in a much quicker absorption time because of higher bioavailability and permeability. When you consume lozenges and other similar products, it bypasses the digestive tract and goes directly into your bloodstream through the oral cavity, which is highly permeable. The human mouth is made up of different areas, all of which have varying permeability levels. But the area under your tongue is the most porous, and this means that when you consume cannabis sublingually, when the cannabinoids come into contact with this area, this translates to much quicker results. It’s not uncommon to experience effects in as little as just a few minutes, but even if you accidentally swallow the lozenge, you will still feel its therapeutic properties – it will just take a little longer.

Additionally, sublingual cannabis administration has a bioavailability of as much as 75% in some cases. When you smoke pot, 50% or more of the therapeutic cannabinoids in it go up in smoke.

What this means for you as the consumer is that you’ll need much less pot to experience relief or its effects, and this saves you both money and time. Many patients, especially those with chronic pain, also prefer to take sublingual doses of pot because dosage is more accurate, and it works so quickly. It reduces the guessing game involved with other kinds of edibles especially when it’s homemade, reducing the risk of consuming too much, resulting in an uncomfortable sensation that can last for hours. In other words, it’s easy for things to go wrong when you consume too many edibles.

Sublingual cannabis products such as lozenges are available in the market in varying potencies, flavors, and cannabinoid profile. However, if you have chronic pain, you may be surprised to find relief by taking just as little as 2mg of it compared to edibles that have to pass through your digestive tract, requiring at least 10mg to take effect.

Taking your medicine orally is one of the safest and most effective methods because it doesn’t introduce irritants or carcinogens to your lungs. It also provides long-lasting and powerful relief, which is necessary in the case of debilitating chronic pain. It’s no surprise that for many pain patients, sublingual cannabis is superior to other forms of administration.

As a bonus, it’s a very discreet way of medicating. You can literally medicate anywhere and there’s no way for people to know – unless you start acting high, of course. Simply put, there are no harmful side effects associated with direct sublingual application of cannabinoids and instead you can expect rapid relief.

So when you find yourself at a dispensary next time, you might want to check out the range of lozenges and other sublingual edibles to see for yourself just how well and quickly they work. Try them in varying formulations and potency to see which suits you best.

Have you tried oral lozenges in the past? How did you find the experience?