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.
I had read in a mainstream magazine about a year ago (can’t remember darnit), about the anti-cholesterol drug based on the italian village where people have little heart disease. The article mentioned there was an herb or other natural product that showed as much promise, and would have been very effective, but was not pursued for the same reasons you mentioned above. It can’t be patented.
Now that I’m 40, was hoping to remember the name of the herb so I could lower my cholesterol, but… now that I’m 40, I can’t remember anything (sigh)
I didn’t know that marijuana was of any interest to Big Pharma. But, it rings true. They are probably considering monetary gains if they succeed in producing a form of pot more acceptable to the general public. That isn’t all bad. In the meantime, as you point out, outlawing medical marijuana for use by people who are now suffering, is not a good thing.
“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.”
Not true. Whole coca leaf and natural opium have long histories as traditional medications. in each case, they’re prohibited, while pharmaceuticalised and/or synthetic preparations are prescribable. The political game is an effort to bring cannabis under the same model.
The battle is now joined, as Sativex, which has a close relationship with German pharm giant Bayer, recently hired former Deputy Drug Czar Andrea Barthwell, best known to readers here as the almost GOP opponent of Barack Obama, to work their PR, ostensibly to work for Federal apporoval of their extract, but by my read, her role is sell the extract as the best way to diffuse pressure for medical acceptance of natural cannabis.
Sativex’ lawyers recently sent cease and desist letters to a couple policy reform orgs seeking to prevent them from public comment on the company’s product, and another to Americans for Safe Access, ordering them to take down http://SativexInfo.org .
Caselaw holds that trademarked brand names may be used outsiders in domain names used for commentary on the underlying business or product. ASA has refused the takedown order, abd the EFF is prepared to defend them if Sativex/Bayer is so foolish as to actually litigate.
Thanks for reposting this response over here, too. You can see the topic generated much less discussion here than at dKos. Glad to have the great info reach both sites.
the typos.
Thank you for a well-thought-out diary. Recommended!
I especially liked your comment to the effect that greed may not be the 100% motivating factor. Like any other human enterprise involving large numbers of people, there are multiple motivations at work. Some upper management types may be primarily motivated by profits and dividends, but I suspect the folks in the lab are motivated more by the technical questions of what conditions can be helped with these compounds, and the challenge of developing the most effective method of delivery with the fewest possible number of side effects.
If it was up to the financial folks alone, they’d probably be lobbying for pot to be available under the same rules that cocaine currently is – but their marketing folks and lawyers told them that this is socially unacceptable in current right-wing America, and – as you astutely point out, it would be far less profitable to market “an herb” than a drug – so they take the more costly approach of encouraging the technical folks to develop THC analogues with more targeted effects. They do this in the hope the drug can be shepherded through the regulatory approval process more easily, with an eye on greater long-term profits.
Sativex is sold in Canada at $15 a day for their recommended dose for treatment of Multiple Sclerosis related spasticity. Early reports from off label users have double that dosage necessary. This puts it slightly higher than the “street” price for top grade indoor cannabis, thus consideraby pricier than the grey market Canadian dispensaries.
With greater enforcement/risk, US dispensaries charge more than in Canada. Get rid of prohibition, move it from indoors under lights to outdoor under sun, and the production cost of medical grade herbal cannabis in nearly trivial.
Fringe benefit: Shut down the growlights, and by my estimate, you can shut down a couple good sized polluting power plants.