Meet Your New Pot Dealer: Big Pharma

(while shutting down states legal mmj dispensarys)

Despite the US government's staunch opposition to medical cannabis farms in Oakland and elsewhere, the feds have begun licensing a whole lot of large legal pot grows throughout the country. But this weed is not for cannabis dispensaries and their patients; it's for Big Pharma.

The Drug Enforcement Administration told Legalization Nation in an e-mail last week that 55 unnamed companies now hold licenses to grow cannabis in the United States, a fact that contradicts the widespread belief that there is only one legal pot farm in America, operated under the DEA for research purposes. It appears as if the upswing in federally approved pot farming is about feeding the need of pharmaceutical companies who want to produce a generic version of THC pill Marinol and at least one other cannabis-based pill for a wide variety of new uses.

In other words, if big corporations grow dope with the government and put it in a pill, it's medicine. But if you grow it at home or at a city-permitted pot farm and then put it in a vaporizer, it's a felony.

"They've got to realize, as a political issue, this is going to raise a red flag," said Kris Hermes, spokesperson for medical marijuana lobby Americans for Safe Access. "Here we have companies cultivating marijuana on a mass scale to produce generic Marinol. It's going to force the government to answer more questions than it wants to."

http://www.eastbayexpress.com/ebx/meet-your-new-pot-dealer-big-pharma/Content?oid=2665515

there is a huge difference between the beneficial effects of the naturally grown herb marijuana, and the corporate synthetic chemical drug, marinol.

The natural herb far surpasses in effectiveness and benefit the corporate synthetic prescription 'stuff.'

What part of synthetic do people not understand?

". . . the feds have begun licensing a whole lot of large legal pot grows throughout the country. "

The synthetic part refers to turning it into a pill form.

"and at least one other cannabis-based pill" meaning more than one id assume. just saying

refer to putting it in pill form. Marinol is laboratory-created pure THC. The plant has absolutely nothing to do with it's creation. THC is simply a form of an alcohol.

...(or similar), a part of CDC (IIRC) whose scientists were allegedly "revolting" against cencorship regarding the beneficial properties of pot???

will likely determine how the health benefits of marijuana become legally available -- as with other natural substances that can only be legally obtained with a prescription.

Who knows how many millions have suffered needlessly from cancer trauma, Alzheimer's and other ailments that marijuana use could have remedied, how many have suffered imprisonment or death, in order to allow powerful lobby interest to make their millions how they want, when the want.

capitalist pressure and it will STAY illegal until they can figure out a way to MAKE PROFIT OFF OF IT! As SOON as they figure this out, the Federal opposition to medical marijuana (and eventually recreational marijuana) will magically disappear.

I wish they would just legalize it, even if it's only medical at first, allow the big boyz to make their profit on legal weed and get it over with. Then you could begin to figure out how to get around the legal restriction.

On second thought, they'd probably just make possession or growth of illegal weed a capital felony, so maybe I DON'T hope for that.

...since Marinol/Dronabinol is synthetic. While you can isolate chemically pure THC from the other cannabinoids in natural cannabis, it is industrially cheaper and easier to just synthesize it, which also avoids all the regulatory hassles and costs of using actual cannabis. The only Pharma drug that I am aware of that uses natural cannabis as its starting point is Sativex by Bayer/GW pharm and that is not approved here in the states.

mentions "at least one other" type but doest elaborate

the Democrats have your back on this issue.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................cough.

Grrrrrr. :mad:

i hope people are realizing we are not living in a democracy - we are no longer free - we are slaves to the corporations, big banks, oil, and pharmaceutical industries. we are a corporate fascist state - but people are so distracted they don't quite realize it yet. :(

I want to say I can't believe this but anyone living in this country knows darn good and well that Big Pharma (or Big Anything for that matter) would get their sticky, greedy fingers in there some kind of way.

AmeriCorp, for and by the precious corporations. The American public, not so much.

the only cannabis strain that I know to be federally legal to cultivate (as in the NIDA and NIDA-licensed labs) is a strain which is patented by Monsanto. Given Monsanto's track record of suing farmers for "genetic theft" because Monsanto's own genes escape their licensed farmers, I can just imagine that every bit of weed confiscated at an "illegal" grow by police will soon be tested by Monsanto so they can sue the crap out of the grower if it shares any of the unique genetic material of their strain.