Full disclosure: I am not a pot-head. I have never smoked a joint or taken a hit off a bong. Heck, I don’t even drink. But I did work in a pharmacy as a tech for 11 years.
Do you think the backlash against medical marijuana has something to do with the war on drugs? Do you think it is because moral high-grounders think pot is inherently evil? Do you think it is because there is no science supporting marijuana’s medicinal properties? If you think these things, I have a hunch you are wrong.
Want to know the real story? Check out this tidbit: In 1992, the annual meeting of the International Cannabinoid Research Society drew zero pharmaceutical company representatives. This year, not only did every drug company send someone, but 22 drug companies helped fund the event. Want more? This year’s Society for Neuroscience conference featured 200 papers on cannabinoids; 10 years ago, there were none.
Gee, do you think maybe Big Pharma might be behind the push to outlaw medicinal marijuana?
Within the last decade, researchers have deciphered the chemical process by which marijuana works and how it effects so many of the body’s systems. The brain contains a previously unknown chemical signaling system packed with receptors that respond to the chemical compounds in marijuana known as cannabinoids. Not surprisingly, the researchers also found that the body produces its own varieties of cannabinoids, known as endocannabinoids. endocanabbinoids may be active outside the brain as well. Science is still trying to decipher the full range of processes cannabinoids impact, but it immediately became clear that the cannabinoid system holds incredible promise for treating a wide variety of disorders.
Last Spring Canada became the first and only country to legalize Sativex, a whole-plant derivative of marijuana. Sativex is an oral spray that contains all 60+ cannabinoids found in the plant, and is indicated to treat the pain of multiple sclerosis. The mouth-spray delivery method slows the absorption of THC into the body, thereby lessening the psycho-active properties of the compound. Suddenly, the cannabinoid system of the body stands to be a very big business for the pharmaceutical companies.
Drug maker Sanofi-Aventis has applied for approval in both the U.S. and Europe for Acomplia, a marijuana derived drug for heart disease. Cannabinor, an intravenous injection (an oral version is under development) for post-op pain, is set to enter human safety trials in Europe later this year. Upwards of 20 other marijuana drugs are currently in development. Big pharma hopes to make drugs targeting the cannabinoid system to treat nearly everything you can think of:
- mood/anxiety
- appetite disorders/nausea
- pain
- memory
- obesity
- heart disease
- Parkinson’s
- cancer
- brain injury
It has seemed weird to me that medical marijuana has been resisted so hard since I worked in the pharmacy and saw cocaine listed in the wholesaler’s catalogue. If cocaine can still be used for medical purposes, it seems absurd that pot can not. Likewise, opioid drugs are common prescription pain killers. The difference is that cocaine and the opioids, while derived from plants, must be processed before they can be used, where as pot does not. Processing means a pharmaceutical company can stand between the consumer and the product.
Marijuana is a plant, an herb. Herbals are generally not regulated by the FDA and cannot be patented. If patients are allowed to use pot instead of the patented drugs the companies are developing, it could cost Big Pharma billions of dollars. Big Pharma, as one of the most powerful lobbies in Washington, is not just going to sit by and let that happen. We all saw what went down when the prospect of reimporting drugs from Canada came up: Big Pharma made sure it was specifically forbidden under the MediCare bill.
Playing devils advocate for a moment, I can understand that the drug companies motivation may not be 100% greed. The drug companies may be able to make marijuana derivatives that don’t have as many side effects as smoked pot or are more targeted to the condition needing treatment. Likewise, delivery through pill, liquid, suppository, oral or nasal spray, inhaler, and intravenous injection all avoid the carcinogenic byproducts produced and inhaled while smoking the weed. However, until those drugs are developed and approved, blocking use of medical marijuana may be causing unnecessary suffering.
At this point, this is simply a theory; I have not yet done any further research to confirm my suspicion that Big Pharma is the main force behind banning medical marijuana. Maybe some of you educated folks know more (Plutonium Paige)?
*Some info for this article comes from Popular Science 8/05 and Scientific American 12/04. CP @ DKos.
