Daniel Barker
Leave it to Big Pharma to find a way to turn a natural, effective, plant-based healing substance into something patentable and deadly.
That’s right; the guys in the pharmaceutical labs are so desperate to develop a drug that delivers the same therapeutic benefits as cannabis – under their own exclusive money-making patent, of course – that they don’t mind if a few people die along the way.
That’s
what happened last year in France, when a clinical trial involving a
synthesized laboratory drug designed to stimulate the body’s
endocannabinoid receptor system left six people hospitalized, one of
whom was later declared brain-dead.
The pharmaceutical industry has long been in the business of isolating or synthesizing the active ingredients of medicinal plants
and patenting the resulting drugs so that huge profits can be made, and
they often look to governments to aid them in obtaining exclusive
rights and eliminating competition.
From True Activist:
“[W]hen
government-connected industries wish to shut out their competition,
which in this case is a plant, they lean on the state’s ability to
stifle competition through claiming a right to the intellectual property
behind a particular set of ingredients – otherwise known as a patent.
“Since no one can patent a wild plant, pharmaceutical industries turn to their labs and chemistry to recreate nature.”
But
to reproduce the wide-ranging and nearly-miraculous therapeutic
properties of cannabis in a laboratory is no simple task. The effects of
cannabis on the human body are very complex, and there are many active
compounds contained within the plant.
Scientists have only recently discovered what is called the endogenous cannabinoid system (ECS), and it’s the key to how and why cannabis works so well to alleviate pain and even cure many illnesses.
From Reset.me:
“Cannabis
medications work so efficiently because of the endocannabinoid (EC)
system, present in all humans and many animals as well. This system
consists of a series of receptors that are configured only to accept
cannabinoids, especially tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol
(CBD).”
(RELATED: See more news about cannabidiol at CBDs.news)
(RELATED: See more news about cannabidiol at CBDs.news)
The
way this system works is just beginning to be understood, and the death
and hospitalizations that occurred as one drug company rushed to test
its own lab-based synthetic ECS stimulant is a testament to the fact
that we simply don’t understand the endogenous cannabinoid system well enough yet to begin subjecting humans to experimental drugs designed to affect it.
What we do know, however, is that the “whole” cannabis plant delivers all of the therapeutic benefits, without any dangerous side effects.
That
fact scares the hell out of the pharmaceutical industry, because they
are seeing people discarding pain pills and other drugs in favor of a
natural remedy that costs nothing to grow.
That’s also why Big
Pharma is continuing to put pressure on the government to keep marijuana
classified as a dangerous drug and to stifle research into the use of the natural plant as opposed to dangerous, government-approved chemical drug research and development.
Fortunately, the prohibition of marijuana
is failing. As more and more studies confirm the therapeutic benefits
of the plant itself, and the old attitudes and stigma regarding
marijuana begin to fade into the past, it will be difficult to continue
convincing the public that the plant should be outlawed and that only
government-approved chemical cannabis substitutes should be made
available.
But the battle isn’t over yet. We, as citizens, must
continue to demand the right to have access to cannabis and to be able
to grow it at home. Until the federal government completely legalizes
marijuana and removes it from the list of controlled substances, the
fight isn’t over.
Big Pharma’s chemical version of cannabis is not an acceptable substitute for the real thing.
Sources:
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