Why can a pharmaceutical company make a synthetic THC pill, but we can’t have the real thing?
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0000403
According to this, symptoms include “sudden warm feeling, feeling like you are outside of your body, elevated mood, strange or unusual thoughts, and sleepiness.” Huh. Sounds a lot like being high to me.
In some ways, I guess we should be thankful. If you could patent a plant, then marijuana would be legal and we’d be paying through the nose at the pharmacy just so the money could flow into the hands of swindling fat cats.
Some of the most successful drugs of all time come from plants. Look at morphine.
Where there are profits, there will be laws to keep them.
It has a lot to do with the paper industry and potential for abuse. Paper industry is afraid of hemp paper taking over wood and cotton. Potential for abuse is high and it is easier to control and dispense pills instead of plants.
When a big company is trying to make a buck, none of the normal rules apply. This is crapitalism, they view profit as a God, so they think freedom of religion protects their right to make money by any means. It doesen’t matter if your or I would go to jail for doing the same thing.
If you don’t want your money to go to the “fat cats” there is a simple solution. Don’t buy it. This obviously sounds like a pill that is not necessary for life, so don’t claim that argument. Just because you want a certain feeling, doesn’t mean you are entitled to it.
Same reason they can make Methadone. Methadone is synthetic heroin, and its legal for the pharmaceutical companies to manufacture, but REAL heroin of course, is not.
I don’t know why Marinol is legal while MMJ is not legal in all states. Synthetic THC has been proven to be less effective than natural THC. Here’s some info on it.
I. Marinol Lacks Several of the Therapeutic Compounds Available in Natural Cannabis
Chemical compounds in cannabis, known as cannabinoids, are responsible for its numerous therapeutic benefits. Scientists have identified 66 naturally occurring cannabinoids.
The active ingredient in Marinol, synthetic delta-9-tetrahyrdocannabinol (THC), is an analogue of one such compound, THC. However, several other cannabinoids available in cannabis — in addition to naturally occurring terpenoids (oils) and flavonoids (phenols) — have also been clinically demonstrated to possess therapeutic utility. Many patients favor natural cannabis to Marinol because it includes these other therapeutically active cannabinoids.
For example, cannabidol (CBD) is a non-psychoactive cannabinoid that has been clinically demonstrated to have analgesic, antispasmodic, anxiolytic, antipsychotic, antinausea, and anti-rheumatoid arthritic properties.
Animal and human studies have shown CBD to possess anti-convulsant properties, particularly in the treatment of epilepsy. Natural extracts of CBD, when administered in combination with THC, significantly reduce pain, spasticity and other symptoms in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients unresponsive to standard treatment medications.
Clinical studies also demonstrate CBD to be neuroprotective against glutamate neurotoxicity (i.e. stroke), cerebral infarction (localized cell death in the brain), and ethanol-induced neurotoxicity, with CBD being more protective against glutamate neurotoxicity than either ascorbate (vitamin C) or alpha-tocopherol (vitamin E). Clinical trials have also shown CBD to possess anti-tumoral properties, inhibiting the growth of glioma (brain tumor) cells in a dose dependent manner and selectively inducing apoptosis (programmed cell death) in malignant cells.
Additional cannabinoids possessing clinically demonstrated therapeutic properties include: cannabinol (anticonvulsant and anti-inflammatory activity); cannabichromine (anti-inflammatory and antidepressant activity); and cannabigerol (anti-tumoral and analgesic activity). Natural cannabis’ essential oil components (terpenoids) exhibit anti-inflammatory properties and its flavonoids possess antioxidant activity. Emerging clinical evidence indicates that cannabinoids may slow disease progression in certain autoimmune and neurologic diseases, including multiple sclerosis (MS), Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease) and Huntington’s Disease.
Clinical data indicate that the synergism of these compounds is likely more efficacious than the administration of synthetic THC alone. For example, McPartland and Russo write: “Good evidence shows that secondary compounds in cannabis may enhance beneficial effects of THC. Other cannabinoid and non-cannabinoid compounds in herbal cannabis … may reduce THC-induced anxiety, cholinergic deficits, and immunosuppression. Cannabis terpenoids and flavonoids may also increase cerebral blood flow, enhance cortical activity, kill respiratory pathogens, and provide anti-inflammatory activity.”In an in vitro model of epilepsy, natural cannabis extracts performed better than THC alone. In human trials, patients suffering from multiple sclerosis experienced greater symptomatic relief from sublingual natural cannabis extracts than from the administration of oral THC. In 2005, Health Canada approved the oral spray Sativex — which contains precise ratios of the natural cannabinoid extracts THC and CBD, among other compounds — for prescription use for MS-related symptoms.