Video Transcript:

Voiceover: In nine states and Washington, D.C., both medical and recreational marijuana are legal. Thirty-seven more states have legalized the use of medical marijuana. Out of the 50 states, only 4 uphold federal policy and prohibit marijuana use of any kind.

Of major importance not only for cannabis medications but all therapies is delivering the right dose. Are you getting the right amount and is it being effectively used by your body? A new technology has been developed to make taking this medicine easier and safer. Jessica Rousset, Chief Operating Officer of CURE Pharmaceutical in Oxnard, California, introduces us to thin film technology.

Jessica: We believe it’s time to change the way people take their medications. We envision a future in which swallowing pills, taking painful injections is replaced by dissolving, pleasant tasting and discreet films. We envision these films being taken noninvasively, orally or on the skin and dosed very precisely so as to enable truly individualized dosing of medications.

Robert: CURE film technology allows us to deliver a multitude of actives very effectively and efficiently. With cannabinoid molecules, they’re very difficult to deliver into the blood. They get destroyed in the gut. So the film allows us to put the actives, the cannabinoid molecules, into the thin film matrix that allows it to get absorbed into the blood without getting destroyed in the gut.

Voiceover: CURE is working in conjunction with the expanding research and development community based in Israel.

Robert: CURE is focused on its research on cannabinoid molecules and the endocannabinoid system in Israel because Israel is really at the forefront of that research.

Man 1: One of the reasons that we decided to work with companies like CURE was because we wanted to make sure that we have a very accurate delivery of the technology. If you give a pill orally, for example, most of it gets broken up in the liver before it reaches the bloodstream. That’s kind of what we’ve been focusing on is not only developing the right drug but also the right formulation for the right patient.

Jessica: So it is likely that the future of pharmaceutical cannabinoids is going to be a combination of molecules, not just one, not just CBD or just THC. So we need a delivery system to be able to administer that combination of compounds in one dose, and CURE film allows us to do that.

Robert: It’s really a paradigm shift, we believe the thin film is, in how people take medicine. I mean, more convenience. You don’t need water. Logistically, it’s lightweight. You can ship it easily to third world countries, emerging markets. So yeah, I think we’re really at the ground floor here.

Jessica: Prior to joining CURE Pharmaceutical, I ran innovation at a large children’s hospital where I saw, firsthand, patients, children suffered from cancer and other illnesses take cannabis and benefit from it. I met the CEO of CannaKids, Tracy Ryan, because her daughter is a patient at the hospital where I ran innovation.

Tracy: My daughter Sophie at eight and a half months old was diagnosed with a very rare brain tumor, it’s called an optic pathway glioma. It’s a 90% survival rate but an 85% recurrence rate. So a lot of times these children, like my daughter, have to be on chemo or clinical trials for years and years and years of their lives. Through a chain of events on social media, I was actually put in touch with Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein and it was these ladies that brought medicinal cannabis to me and my husband. Showed us the research that had already been done and led us on this path of using cannabis for our daughter to help her not only with side effects but also with her tumor.

Voiceover: CannaKids focuses on supplying medical cannabis products to patients looking for relief for serious health conditions, specializing in pediatric cancer.

Tracy: When we look at each patient, we look at them as an individual at CannaKids. We do that full medical intake. We look at the western medicine that they’re on. We look at the side effects that they’re having. And our nurses, they provide them with a plan that helps them to understand how to use this medicine in conjunction with what they’re already taking. By doing so we then track the data of those patients and we start to really look for trends in usage. So for example, if we have a cancer patient that all of a sudden is miraculously doing much better than doctors would have ever suspected by adding the cannabis to their Western medicine, we track that information very closely so that we can help patients in the future that have the same ailments.

Voiceover: Cannabinoids are now being studied for not only helping cancer patients but treating the cancer itself.

Tracy: The science is really evolving in medical cannabis, especially just since we got into this five years ago. With the research that we’re doing in Israel, we’re seeing some profound results in how cannabis is killing cancer. We’re now also studying my own daughter’s incredible immune system and her response to cannabis. My child heals very, very fast, ways in which most of her doctors just cannot explain, and we’re really working towards getting to the bottom of that. So, we’re hopeful that through these discoveries, through the research in Israel and now through the research that’s happening at UCLA, we will continue to make some profound discoveries that will help us not only understand this plant better but help people heal faster.