It seems that one of the problems here goes back many years, when (after intensive lobbying by herbal enthusiasts), Congress exempted “natural remedies” from the regulations governing ordinary drugs. Normally, if a company invents a new drug, such as an antibiotic, it must demonstrate its safety and effectiveness, and must isolate the active components, and eliminate (insofar as possible) extraneous matter. No such demand are mad for “natural” treatments. Thus people can market and sell all sorts of dubious, unproven herbs, which would never make it through FDA approval. Drug stores now often have whole aisles devoted to various flowers, roots, leaves and their derivatives, many of doubtful utility.
Marijuana has some components which might conceivably have pharmaceutical use (although probably far surpassed by synthetic drugs), but is now being offered in unrefined state, for dubious purposes. If this were an ordinary drug, the manufacturer would be required to isolate the active part, and prove its safety and effectiveness for specific uses. Marijuana escapes these requirements because it is a “natural” product.
Whether a drug is “natural” or not has nothing to do with is effectiveness or safety. The same principles should apply in either case. It is pure superstition to think that what is natural is necessarily good. Nature is not nice! I know: I just watched a gull tearing apart a robin a few days ago. Nature is cruel and unfeeling. In the 1930s, people used to think that radioactivity was good for people, that it was “nature’s cure” for all sorts of things. It came from the Earth, so it was thought to be good!
If marijuana is to be used as a drug, then it should be treated as a drug, not as a recreational intoxicant pretending to be a drug.
“Thus people can market and sell all sorts of dubious, unproven herbs, which would never make it through FDA approval. Drug stores now often have whole aisles devoted to various flowers, roots, leaves and their derivatives, many of doubtful utility.”
And many flowers, roots and leaves have proven utility (I’m not referring to marijuana). The FDA approves drugs which impair or kill many people every year, while deaths due to naturopathic treatments are extremely rare. The FDA helps suppress competition for the pharmaceutical industry, in part by requiring approx. $1B in testing costs that clearly will not be spent on non-patentable “flowers, roots, and leaves”. In a sane world complementary medicine (using the best of allopathic and naturopathic treatments) would be the norm.
Unfortunately Doc, the synthetic version (Marinol) has none of the nausea-combating properties that the actual smoke has. Having endured 40 days of radiation and 5 months of brutal chemo two years ago, I was given scripts for every anti-nausea med they had and none had any effect at all. At the insistence of a friend, I tried a few puffs of weed and within moments I felt a rush of relief throughout my gut. I was able to drink water and even eat a little.
I asked for a script for Marinol because I didn't like the "stoned" feeling I got from smoking the weed, and all it did was make me feel wasted for 12 hours and had no effect on the nausea.
There is something in the smoke that is not in the synthetic pill (actually it is a gel ball filled with oil). I asked around at Dana Farber and everyone I asked, patients, nurses, and doctors, all said my experience was by far the most common.
If Marinol worked, medical marijuana would not be an issue. But it doesn't. Ask any oncologist or cancer patient. I can't stress that enough.
It is unbelievable to me that some company can't isolate the actual THC and put it in some kind of vaporizer type thing that patients could use without having to smoke the weed after buying it illegally from the creepy guy down the street.
p.s. My scans are still clean. God bless the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.