Cully Stimson
/Alexandra Seymour
Many marijuana substitute drugs have been around since the 1980s. (Photo: Juan Luis Martinez GDA Photo Service/Newscom)
States have passed so-called “medical marijuana” laws under the
theory that pot has medicinal benefits that can’t be produced by other,
legal means.
But what if there was a Food and Drug Administration-approved drug
that gave you all the benefits of the active ingredients in marijuana,
such as tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) or cannabidiol?
What if that drug had been rigorously tested through clinical trials
to make sure that it worked as promised, was properly dosed, and had no
unanticipated side effects?
And what if you could get that lawful drug from your doctor in pill or liquid form?
And what if there were three such different FDA-approved drugs, and two more on the FDA-approved fast track?
Would it surprise you to know there already are three FDA-approved
THC drugs and that at least five more are on the way? We suspect so,
because the pot pushers—those that push smoked and edible marijuana as
“medicine”—don’t want you to know about these safe alternatives.
Some of those FDA-approved drugs have been around since the 1980s.
That’s right—the dirty little secret they hide from you is that you
don’t have to smoke marijuana, eat it in a brownie, or chew it in a
marijuana-laced gummy bear to reap the medicinal benefits of THC.
The three FDA-approved drugs are Marinol, Cesamet, and Syndros. Drugs
like Syndros show great promise for countering today’s dangerous
“medical marijuana” movement.
In early July, the FDA approved
Syndros as the first orally administered liquid form of THC. Like
Marinol, the original oral cannabinoid to gain FDA approval in 1985,
Syndros treats anorexia associated with weight loss in patients with
AIDS, as well as nausea and vomiting caused by cancer chemotherapy.
Epidiolex is one drug currently on the FDA fast track. According to a recent press
release from GW Pharmaceuticals, a study of 171 randomized patients
suffering from Lennox-Gastaut and Dravet syndromes found that Epidiolex
decreased seizure occurrence, was relatively well tolerated among
patients, and generated no unexpected adverse effects.
Other cannabinoid-based medications on the international market today
include Cesamet, another synthetic drug that treats nausea and vomiting
stemming from chemotherapy; Cannador, which is currently used in Europe
and has demonstrated potential to relieve multiple sclerosis symptoms
and postoperative pain management; and Sativex, another GW
Pharmaceuticals drug on the FDA fast track that treats spasticity caused
by multiple sclerosis.
Since these are all medical cannabinoids, they do not require
smoking. They are also safer to use because levels of THC can be
monitored.
Knowing these safer alternatives exist, ask yourself: Why? Why have
the pot pushers kept this secret and why don’t they want you to know
this?
“The medicinal marijuana system in this country has become a bad
joke, an affront to the concept of safe and reliable medicine, defying
the standards that we have come to expect from the medical
establishment,” Dr. Kevin Sabet, former senior adviser to President
Barack Obama’s drug policy office, wrote in his book, “Reefer Sanity: Seven Great Myths About Marijuana.”
We can thank Ed Rosenthal and Richard Cowan for creating the current
public perception of the so-called “medical marijuana” marketplace.
In a video filmed many years ago, which we highlighted in this 2010 blog post,
Rosenthal (former editor of High Times magazine) and Cowan (former
director of NORML—the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana
Law) joked about the nationwide “scam” they started. They realized that
if they convinced enough people that smoking marijuana was “medical
marijuana,” that would be the beginning of a movement toward full
legalization.
“Once there’s medical access, if we continue to do what we have to do
and we will, then we’ll get full legalization,” Cowan explained.
“I have to tell you that I also use marijuana medically,” Rosenthal
joked. “I have a latent glaucoma which has never been diagnosed, and the
reason why its never been diagnosed is because I’ve been treating it.”
But, according to Rosenthal, pleasure trumps any medicinal benefit he should derive from marijuana anyway.
“There is a reason why I do use it,” he said. “And that’s because I like to get high. Marijuana is fun.”
Sabet acknowledges that THC has potential therapeutic effects, but
these do not come from smoking pot. (We don’t light any of our
FDA-approved medicine on fire and smoke it, after all).
With the average strength of marijuana being five to six times what it was in the 1960s and 70s, the repercussions of marijuana and legalizing it
are more evident than before. Some of these include higher risks of
motor vehicle accidents, heart attacks, and impaired immune systems and
short-term memories. Evidently, the pot pushers don’t want you to know this truth.
“America is being sold a false dichotomy: ‘We can either stick to our
current failed policies, or we can try a ‘new approach’ with
legalization,” Sabet said. “Sadly, this kind of black-and-white thinking
conceals the fact that there are better, more effective ways than
either legalization or incarceration to deal with this complex issue.”
Cannabinoid-based drugs are better alternatives because they reap the
benefits of marijuana’s therapeutic components safely, as well as have
the potential to become FDA approved if they aren’t already.
So the next time a pot pusher encourages a state to enact so-called
“medical marijuana” laws, or goes for full legalization in violation of
federal law, ask them: Why are they pushing an unsafe, untested product
instead of pushing FDA-approved THC?
No comments:
Post a Comment