About - Ananda Medical Practice

About Ananda Medical Practice

“Ananda” is the Sanskrit word for bliss. Anandamide is the name of N-arachidonoylethanolamine (AEA), the first endocannabinoid discovered. It was coined by the Israeli scientist Dr. Raphael Meschoulam and his team in 1992. It is called our internal bliss molecule.

Ananda Medical Practice and Consulting (AMP) was founded by Dr. Leigh Vinocur in 2016, shortly after medical cannabis was legalized in Maryland. It is a cannabis medicine-focused consulting practice dedicated to educating the corporate, medical, and patient communities using the most up-to-date evidence-based science in this new emerging field of medical cannabis science and therapeutics.

As of 2023, there are approximately 5.5 million people in the US legally using medical cannabis. Education of the basics and a foundational knowledge of cannabis science is imperative for any organization. As more states continue to legalize adult-use and medical cannabis, companies and their human resource departments are unprepared to deal with their employees legally using both cannabis and medical cannabis. In today’s world there needs to be some basic level of cannabis science competency.

In such a fast-growing cannabis industry there is a still a dearth of scientific understanding and knowledge as individuals from other economic sectors enter the industry without understanding the basics in cannabis science. These professionals whether they will be working in the c-suite, or the dispensary floors, all need to have this foundational understanding and a minimum of cannabis science competency.

Even in the adult use-recreational market, often customers come into purchase cannabis for medical reasons. A recent study has shown that over 54% of these customers are relying on dispensary staff to answer questions about medical cannabis use and how to select a cannabis product, while only about 3% of those patients have asked for input from their medical professionals.

But the problem is that most medical professionals are not educated in medical cannabis science and therapeutics. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges only 9% of medical schools teach anything about medical cannabis, while over 60% of medical students cite, they are unprepared to deal with medical cannabis patients. Additionally, if changes occur on the federal level, taking cannabis off the schedule 1 list, this could require doctors to prescribe medical cannabis and they are unprepared. They too need a basic understanding of the science to safely care for their patients.

Lastly, today many cannabis certification clinicians are merely certifying patients for medical use but then leave them on their own to sort out what type of cannabis products and dosing to use for their specific conditions. Patients need a basic education too.

At Ananda Medical Practice and Consulting we address all this and the huge knowledge gap. Now is the time to prepare your organization and get ahead of this curve. Our focus is to tailor these educational and training programs specifically for your patient’s and your organization’s needs with both live and/or virtual courses.