Big Pharma Is in a Frenzy to Bring Cannabis-Based Medicines to Market

By Paul Armentano, AlterNet. Posted July 5, 2008.



While the the American Medical Association claims pot has no medical value, Big Pharma is busy getting patents for marijuana products.


The US government's longstanding denial of medical marijuana research and use is an irrational and morally bankrupt public policy. On this point, few Americans disagree. As for the question of "why" federal officials maintain this inflexible and inhumane policy, well that's another story

One of the more popular theories seeking to explain the Feds' seemingly inexplicable ban on medical pot goes like this: Neither the US government nor the pharmaceutical industry will allow for the use of medical marijuana because they can't patent it or profit from it.

It's an appealing theory, yet I've found it to be neither accurate nor persuasive. Here's why.

First, let me state the obvious. Big Pharma is busily applying for -- and has already received -- multiple patents for the medical properties of pot. These include patents for synthetic pot derivatives (such as the oral THC pill Marinol), cannabinoid agonists (synthetic agents that bind to the brain's endocannabinoid receptors) like HU-210 and cannabis antagonists such as Rimonabant. This trend was most recently summarized in the NIH paper (pdf), "The endocannabinoid system as an emerging target of pharmacotherapy," which concluded, "The growing interest in the underlying science has been matched by a growth in the number of cannabinoid drugs in pharmaceutical development from two in 1995 to 27 in 2004." In other words, at the same time the American Medical Association is proclaiming that pot has no medical value, Big Pharma is in a frenzy to bring dozens of new, cannabis-based medicines to market.

Not all of these medicines will be synthetic pills either. Most notably, GW Pharmaceutical's oral marijuana spray, Sativex, is a patented standardized dose of natural cannabis extracts. (The extracts, primarily THC and the non-psychoactive, anxiolytic compound CBD, are taken directly from marijuana plants grown at an undisclosed, company warehouse.)


More Here

the irony is that the AMA was against cannabis prohibition back in the 30s. That was before Dupont and better living through chemistry though. A friend with weed is a friend indeed!

There was a very popular OTC remedy for menstrual miseries back in the 30s, called Lydia Pinkum's Ladies' Formula. It was also used to quiet colicky babies by rubbing it on their gums. It was nothing but pure concentrated extract of cannabis sativa flavored with brown sugar and caraway.

I recall my mother complaining about it being made illegal. She said it was a very effective tonic for all sorts of minor ailments.

(Mama was a stoner.)

The vilification and subsequent prohibition of cannabis is a testament to the lack of education and the ability of the few to brain wash the many through the media. Thanks to William R. Hurst and yellow journalism aka Faux News we now have the hysteria that drives the current campaign of marijuana prohibition lunacy.



http://www.electricemperor.com/enter/eersrch/page4.htm

They realize, with the onset of Marijuana vending machines , that national medical Marijuana is inevitable.
So in come their greedy little hands.

The good news? Grow it in your closet and never give big pharm a dime for it.
This is some of the easiest, and most fun, civil disobedience one can engage in.

A man who has spent his life advocating for the legalization and responsible use of cannabis, Gatewood Galbreath, once warned against letting companies such as Big Pharma or Big Tobacco get into the manufacture and distribution of cannabis because they would bastardize it like they do everything else they touch.

For my money Just Say Grow -your own!

Absolute truth!

Problem is the labs molest the remedy in the plant when they isolate an active ingredient and make a chemical version of that element of the plant. Herbal remedies work as whole plant doses, just as nutritional elements work best. Brewer's yeast has a perfect balance of B vitamins, if B vitamins are taken individually it disrupts you're B vitamin balance, for instance. Most cancer patients don't tolerate Marinol very well, many don't tolerate it at all,and it tends to not improve their tolerance for food. However, those who smoke the herb or drink the tea tolerate both their food and chemotherapy quite well. But don't hold your breath (lol), the pharmaceuticals prefer to offer an addictive dose. After all, there's an entire addiction industry in the U.S. now...can't let all those rehab centers go out of business now can we?

Ahhh... the good old days.

Marianol I believe they call it. They will never learn that it's nature that has the best idea. They can concoct a pill to do one thing but when it goes too far they have to concoct another to reverse it. Leave Mother alone, she knows best!

My house until reframed after Katrina had a small doorless closet space in the bedroom. A relative who had come into posession of a nice closet grow system begged me to let him set it up in there, which I denied. I explained that I had no intention of risking seizure of my house for a few plants that might not even yield worth the trouble, while he insisted nobody would ever see it in there.

A couple weeks later I was at the end of my overnight work shift when my aunt called to get an update on the fire at my house. I totally freaked out as nobody had called me yet (but my aunt said my elderly dog had been rescued, so I was much calmer as I raced home).

I was lucky that it hadn't actually progressed to a blaze, but an electrical short had caused smoldering (no structural damage). I was even luckier that the cops and firemen didn't have cultivation a mere 2 foot glance from where they were working. That's right... it happened in the bedroom, right by that freakin' wide-open closet.

There are always risks when you engage in civil disobedience. The laws need to be changed so you don't have to worry about situations like that.

amen

Norml has a web site that tells you what your state laws are concerning cultivation. Trust me knowing what you can and cannot do in your state can mean the difference between a felony and a misdemeanor.

Well. in Mississippi the top fine is $1,000,000 and the longest sentence is life. Nothing I care to mess with
http://www.mapinc.org/newsnorml/v08/n006/a05.html - a local couple each charged wirh one count of cultivation, each facing $1,000,000 and 30 years.

First of all we're talking Mississippi second they have over inflatted the yield.
2.2 pounds? give me a break. Last, this is exactly why we need the laws changed.

Which is exactly why I've yet to allow weed to be grown on my property
I'd much rather get caught with posession under 30 grams bought from someone else than charged with cultivation of an arbitrary amount that doesn't and never will exist.