Federal Government in Bed with Big Pharma on Marijuana?

By Letitia Pepper  |  July 20, 2011

The federal government continues to persecute people for using “medical marijuana,” claiming that “marijuana” has no medical value.

This is one of the biggest lies ever sold to the American public via the use of billions of dollars to spreading lies and rumors about an herb.

The proper name for this herb is cannabis.

Two species, indica and sativa, are used as medicine.

Within these two species there are as many strains as there are of roses and heirloom tomatoes, each of which may work better  than others for certain illnesses.

Since 1996, increasing numbers of Californians have discovered that cannabis is a whole herbal remedy that treats autoimmune diseases like lupus and multiple sclerosis,  Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Diseases, HIV and AIDS, anxiety, migraines, insomnia, bi-polar disorders and more.

The plant can be smoked, vaporized, eaten, and its leaves can be juiced and drunk raw, all to good medicinal effect.

And it can be used without getting “high.”

One reason that this herb can treat so many different illnesses is that it contains at least 61 different cannabinoids, chemical compounds that are naturally produced by the human body. Many illnesses now appear to be cannabinoid deficiencies, which can be treated with phyto (plant-produced)-cannabinoids, much as estrogen deficiencies can be eased with phyto-estrogens.

But cannabinoids are not the only important medicinal compounds; the whole natural herb also produces other compounds, e.g., terpenes and flavonoids, which also add to the medicinal effect of the cannabinoids.In 2003, employees of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services were awarded (and then assigned to the U.S. Government) U.S. Patent No. 6,630,507 on cannabinoids as anti-oxidants and neuro-protectants.

This patent actually lists autoimmune diseases, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Diseases, HIV and AIDS and more as illnesses that can be treated by cannabinoids.

Now that the government holds the patent of cannabinoids as medically valuable, it can license such patent to Big Pharma to begin making synthetic cannabinoids and profiting by selling them to sick people at pharmaceutical drug prices.  Big Pharma has already profited from whole herbal cannabis being made illegal by the federal government.

Big Pharma has been allowed to produce (in China) synthetic THC.

THC is one of the cannabinoids that helps control nausea, and at one point synthetic THC, “Marinol,” was selling for $250 per pill (if you had no insurance).

But sick people who’ve been able to compare whole herbal cannabis with Marinol almost always prefer the natural herb.

It works better, and smoking it is a better delivery system for nauseated patients who can’t keep food or oral medications down. And it can be less expensive, since Californians can legally grow cannabis for their own or a loved one’s medical use.

Once you know the big picture and where the profits lie, it becomes clear that one reason the federal government continues to lie about the medicinal value of this plant – a plant which many, many people could grow like zucchini in their backyards – is to protect the potential profits that Big Pharma will lose as people recognize the value of cannabis as not only a natural, whole herbal remedy for many illnesses, but also as a natural cancer preventative and cancer cure.

Research has now shown that whole herbal cannabis – especially the THC in “entourage” with the other cannabinoids, terpenes and flavonoids – causes cancer cells to commit “autophagy.”

That means cancerous cells self-destruct while leaving healthy, noncancerous cells unharmed.

And since the pharmaceutical industry makes some 40 percent of its profits from cancer-related pharmaceutical medications, the ready availability of a plant that can prevent and cure cancer is a very scary prospect for Big Pharma.

That, no doubt, is one reason that the pharmaceutical industry has made sure that there are two paid lobbyists for each Congress person and each Senator in Washington, D.C.

Prescription medications are now the second-leading cause of death in the U.S; cannabis has never killed anyone.

Natural remedies versus synthetic chemicals?  Everyone should have the freedom to choose, and in California, because of Prop. 215, we do have that right.