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Medical Marijuana In Mississippi: A Journalistic View Of Physician Opinions And Patient Education, Michael Pitts

Honors Theses

Medical Marijuana in Mississippi: A Journalistic View of Physician Opinions and Patient Education is an in-depth investigative journalism project examining aspects of the Mississippi Medical Cannabis Program. Specific areas of interest were Mississippi physician opinions on the use medical marijuana and their views on the application of the state’s program as well as an examination into how patients are receiving education on medical marijuana. This project involved interviews of healthcare providers, dispensary staff, and patients, in addition to background research that was used to formulate interview questions, determine areas of interest and add necessary context. This project occurred during the …

The Effect Of Cannabinoids And Terpenes On The Activation Of Hmc3 Microglial Cells, Mohamed Marzouk

Honors Theses

Life expectancies of people living with HIV have significantly lengthened due to the availability of antiretroviral therapies. Despite their ability to increase survival, these treatments do not “cure” HIV, nor do the stop the onset of neurological symptoms associated with infection, termed neuroHIV. NeuroHIV describes a myriad of neurological impairments including mood disorders (depression and anxiety), cognitive impairment, neuropathic pain, and motor disinhibition that reduce quality of life for people living with HIV. Mechanistically, the neurological impairments may involve actions of neurotoxic proteins directly produced by the virus. One of these proteins that has been well-characterized is the HIV trans …

Medical Cannabis In Mississippi: Practitioner Education And Continuing Research, Andrea Cleveland

Honors Theses

Use of medical cannabis in Mississippi was legalized in February 2022 following many years of cannabis research at the University of Mississippi. Issues immediately became apparent, beginning with the lack of education about medical cannabis among providers. A 2017 study showed that the majority of physicians are not exposed to information about medical cannabis despite its legalization in 37 states. Another issue with Mississippi’s medical cannabis program is the cost of the product itself. The most effective way to decrease spending on medication is for patients to have access to medication that is guaranteed to work. Further research on cannabis …

Effects Of Cannabichromene On Pain And Neuroinflammation In Hiv-1 Tat Transgenic Mice, Sydney Wheeler

Honors Theses

HIV-1 TransActivator of Transcription (Tat) is a vital regulatory protein involved in HIV replication and implicated in development of HIV-associated pain and neurocognitive deficits. Tat is thought to contribute to these pathologies through proinflammatory pathways. Developing mechanisms to curb Tat-mediated inflammation is a key step in improving the quality of life of those living with HIV. Both recreational and medicinal cannabis use is prevalent among many people living with HIV; given this prevalence and the perceived anti-inflammatory benefits of cannabis use, it is important to investigate how chemical constituents of cannabis may impact HIV. In the present study, the effects …

The International Cannabis Toolkit (Icanntoolkit): A Multidisciplinary Expert Consensus On Minimum Standards For Measuring Cannabis Use, Valentina Lorenzetti, Chandni Hindocha, Kat Petrilli, Paul Griffiths

Faculty and Student Publications

Background: The lack of an agreed international minimum approach to measuring cannabis use hinders the integration of multidisciplinary evidence on the psychosocial, neurocognitive, clinical and public health consequences of cannabis use. Methods: A group of 25 international expert cannabis researchers convened to discuss a multidisciplinary framework for minimum standards to measure cannabis use globally in diverse settings. Results: The expert-based consensus agreed upon a three-layered hierarchical framework. Each layer—universal measures, detailed self-report and biological measures—reflected different research priorities and minimum standards, costs and ease of implementation. Additional work is needed to develop valid and precise assessments. Conclusions: Consistent use of …

Efficacy Of Δ-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol For Hiv-Related Neuropathic Pain, Kaia Horne

Honors Theses

Despite the availability and success of antiretroviral therapeutics, ~30% of patients living with HIV experience neuropathic pain that is often intractable. The mechanisms are not known, but there is evidence to support a role for the HIV virotoxins, Tat and/or gp120, which can damage or degenerate neurons and peripheral nerves. One mechanism by which Tat and gp120 promote nerve damage involves the stimulation of proinflammatory cytokine production from immune cells which can damage or kill bystander cells. Notably, compounds found in Cannabis exert anti-inflammatory effects and many studies report HIV patients to consume more marijuana than seronegative individuals. When people …

Going Green – The Relationship Between Medical Marijuana Policy Implementation And Opioid Prescribing Patterns, Tyler James Dunn

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Objectives

The objectives of this dissertation are: 1) To measure the prevalence of medical marijuana use in the U.S. and to identify predictors of medical marijuana use; 2) To measure opioid prescribing patterns among Medicare beneficiaries within states following the implementation of medical marijuana policies and to compare opioid prescribing patterns among Medicare beneficiaries residing within these states compared to individuals within states without medical marijuana policies in place; and 3) To determine if racial disparities exist in the effect of medical marijuana policy implementation on opioid prescribing patterns among Medicare beneficiaries.

Methods

A retrospective secondary database analysis was conducted …

Reconceptualizing Cannabis, Julia Peoples

Honors Theses

Inflammatory rhetoric and increasingly punitive drug policies dominated marijuana politics in the past. Today, as 36 have legalized cannabis in some form and 17 states have legalized recreational marijuana, the federal government continues to perpetuate policies of the past. The following analysis investigates rhetoric and policies that led to the War on Drugs as well as their outcomes, the dramatic shift in public opinion as states began to legalize marijuana, and the successes and failures of state cannabis programs to identify gaps within the MORE Act, the ideal policy, and politically viable incremental change. State programs are incapable of …

Screening For More Than 1,000 Pesticides And Environmental Contaminants In Cannabis By Gc/Q-Tof, Philip L. Wylie, Jessica Westland, Mei Wang, Mohamed M. Radwan

Faculty and Student Publications

A method has been developed to screen cannabis extracts for more than 1,000 pesticides and environmental pollutants using a gas chromatograph coupled to a high-resolution accurate mass quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometer (GC/Q-TOF). An extraction procedure was developed using acetonitrile with solid phase extraction cleanup. Before analysis, extracts were diluted 125:1 with solvent. Two data mining approaches were used together with a retention-time-locked Personal Compound Database and Library (PCDL) containing high-resolution accurate mass spectra for pesticides and other environmental pollutants. (1) A Find-by-Fragments (FbF) software tool extracts several characteristic exact mass ions within a small retention time window where the compound …

Impacts Of Embryonic Exposure To Cannabidiol Or ∆9-Tetrahydrocannabinol On Zebrafish (Danio Rerio) Frailty In F0 And F1 Generations, Anika Faruque

Honors Theses

Exposure to cannabinoids during critical development periods has increased with epileptic children being commonly prescribed CBD for seizures and pregnant women taking it recreationally. Many studies have been done on the possible benefits and drawbacks of cannabinoid exposure on the human brain, but not much is known about how it can affect the developing brain long-term. To see the potential adverse effects of cannabinoid exposure during critical stages of development and discover potential developmental origins of disease in consuming cannabinoids during embryogenesis, zebrafish embryos (6-96 hours post fertilization) were exposed to varying concentrations of CBD (0.02, 0.1, 0.5 µM), THC …

Behavioral Chronopharmacology Of Cannabinoids In Young And Aged Mice, Erik Lewis Hodges

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The overarching goal of this research is to explore the biological mechanisms of aging and formulate novel therapeutic approaches to mitigate age-related impairments. The presence and pervasiveness of ~24 hour (circadian) rhythms in molecular and behavioral dynamics suggests that the mechanisms regulating these rhythms are integral to biological aging and possibly amenable to therapeutic interventions. Based on evidence presented in this dissertation, we conclude that the endocannabinoid system is a mediator of both central and peripheral circadian physiology. Additionally, the hormetic pharmacological properties of the synthetic cannabinoid CP55940 suggest that bidirectional modulation of circadian rhythms via cannabinoids is possible. Chapter …

Characterizing The Developmental And Reproductive Toxicities Of Cannabidiol And Δ9-Tetrahydrocannabinol, Dennis Ray Carty

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Medical marijuana is legal in twenty-nine of the United States and an additional nineteen states have passed legislation for cannabidiol (CBD) treatment of drug-resistant epilepsy, such as Dravet Syndrome (DS) which is diagnosed in children as young as two months. While CBD has shown anecdotal and recently clinical trial efficacy in reducing seizure frequency in DS patients, little is known about the potential adverse side-effects on child physiology, brain development, adult disease, or subsequent generations. Moreover, CBD is rarely administered without including low concentrations of Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). The goal of this project is to characterize the relative morphological, behavioral, reproductive, …