CDC Chief Endorses Cannabinoids
June 1st, 2009 by Russ
Center for Disease Control heir-apparent, Thomas Frieden, voiced his support for THC in his last budget meeting as New York City Health Commissioner. When asked about treating chemotherapy patients with persistent nausea, Frieden noted that smoking weed provided relief a great deal faster than a Marinol pill, the synthetic and regulated equivalent.
Frieden implied that a spray form of Marinol might be a benefit to patients, as it’s still inferior to its natural cousin. Perhaps he had had Sativex on the brain. A new and as yet unapproved THC spray, Sativex hopes to enter into the medical marijuana debate upon FDA approval.
In the meantime, one wonders whether medical weed will be brought to bare on Swine Flu or Ebola during the tenure of the new CDC chief.
Big Pharma Developing Ersatz Weed Treatment
May 29th, 2009 by Russ
Large conglomerates and multinational corporations seem to be intent on sucking the fun out of just about everything. It seems that they’ve now set their sights on doing this to weed. English Pharma Behemoth, GW Pharmaceuticals, is now seeking approval of Sativex, a marijuana-based nasal spray.
GW Pharma has assured investors that they have meticulously extracted only the finest, most potent cannabanoids from “proprietary” strains of gourmet marijuana grown in the richest most fertile soil, lovingly drawn from the moist nether regions of mother Earth. The company is very quick to congratulate itself on creating a drug that provides all of the benefits of weed with few of the undesirable ’side effects.’ In other words, GW claims to have developed a medicinal form of weed that doesn’t get you high.
As with the pharmaceutical industry at large, this medicine wasn’t developed with any societal good in mind. This is merely an attempt to seize as much market share as possible from a medical marijuana gold rush that appears to be in full frenzy. As we have learned from an industry that spends two-thirds of its research budget on copycat drugs, Big Pharma isn’t out to help anyone other than its own investors.
Unfortunately for GW, a cold corporate mindset can’t accurately wrap itself around weed culture. No self-respecting weed connoisseur will spend 10 to 20 times the price of natural herb for a product that is peddled as ‘refined.’ There is already a whole spectrum of refined greenery.
For instance, anyone with a passing familiarity with weed already knows that vaporization allows the ingestion of THC without inhaling particulate matter and allows for a much more mellow high. Sounds a lot more pleasant than shoving a dispenser up one’s nose.
