cannabisnews.com: There's a Monopoly on Marijuana Growing & Research
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There's a Monopoly on Marijuana Growing & Research
Posted by CN Staff on August 09, 2009 at 06:31:46 PT
By Dave Stancliff, For the Times-Standard
Source: Times-Standard
USA -- I'd like you to meet Dr. Mahmoud ElSohly, the only person in the United States who can grow tons of marijuana and not worry the Feds will bust him. If your company wants to do research on marijuana, he's the guy to see. Dr. ElSohly's lab at the University of Mississippi has an exclusive contract with the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), which supplies the pot to approved researchers who study its ill effects.
Despite the federal government's efforts to suppress marijuana's positive aspects for the last 72 years, researchers everywhere watch with interest as Big Pharma gets involved with the controversial herb and its therapeutic qualities. And why not? There's a lot of money involved. Without fanfare, three legal drugs made with THC, the primary psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, are on the market. You may have heard of Marinol, a synthetic THC in capsules that has been around since 1986. A Belgian firm, Solvay Pharmaceuticals, manufacturers Marinol and some generic versions are also coming out. The second legal use of a pot pharmaceutical is Cesamet, produced by Valeant Pharmaceuticals, a multi-national company with corporate headquarters in Aliso Viejo, Calif. Cesamet is used to treat chemotherapy nausea. Out since 2006, it contains nabilone, a synthetic analog of THC. Our neighbor Canada legalized Sativex, a whole-cannabis-extract spray produced by the British firm GW Pharmaceuticals. It is absorbed by the mucous membranes under the tongue and inside the cheek. It's marketed as a pain reliever and researchers in the U.S. are looking at its applications for cancer pain. I think companies worldwide are beginning to see the possibilities of pot because of the growing acceptance of medical marijuana in America. Legalization is now openly considered by politicians in California. National polls show a growing acceptance of marijuana use, both for medicine and recreation. Five of the world's biggest pharmaceutical companies are openly looking into pot's therapeutic possibilities. That probably means they are all looking at it and some are more secretive than others. ”That is all proprietary information,” said Paul Armentano of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML). He also said the public will not be made aware of all the cannabinoid-based drug research until it's close to market-ready. According to Dr. George Kunos, scientific director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism at the National Institute of Health, there are about 18 cannabinoid-related compounds under active pharmaceutical development. Why doesn't Big Pharma in America take advantage of what some pharmaceutical-marketing newsletters suggest is the next big blockbuster for the industry? One reason is having to overcome government restrictions. Another is the need for exclusive ownership. Johnson & Johnson has publicly stated that they are not researching cannabinoid drugs and a company spokesman said it was “not aware of any” other companies doing so. Only Sativex is close to U.S. availability, and has been researched here for years. That brings us back to Dr. ElSohly, who has had an exclusive contract with NIDA for nearly 40 years. His contract calls for studies that aim to show the bad effects of marijuana abuse. So you know the mind-set there. Several well-known researchers who want to research medical marijuana have been denied. So what is our top marijuana-dealer, Dr. ElSohly, doing with his U.S. government monopoly on cannabis research? Funny you should ask. He's working with Mallinckrodt, a British company with offices throughout the United States, to develop a plant-extract form of Marinol. This has brought him under fire by Americans for Safe Access who charge him with “benefiting from such a monopoly by financially profiting from the research and sale of cannabis-based pharmaceuticals.” Yes, the good doctor has been busy and he's also patented a suppository containing THC hemisuccinate, which breaks down into THC when absorbed by the body. Frankly, I don't see this as a popular delivery system. Just a hunch. The good news is that numerous countries are doing studies to uncover the many exciting possibilities for cannabis and the cannabinoids. For example, researchers at Complutense University in Madrid found that THC causes brain-cancer cells to destroy themselves. As It Stands, what can be done about this monopoly that has hindered marijuana research in our country for so long? Dave Stancliff is a columnist for The Times-Standard. He is a former newspaper editor and publisher. Source: Times-Standard (Eureka, CA)Author: Dave Stancliff, For the Times-StandardPublished: August 9, 2009Copyright: 2009 MediaNews Group, Inc. Contact: editor times-standard.comWebsite: http://www.times-standard.com/URL: http://drugsense.org/url/1gzgZNVqCannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml
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Comment #15 posted by mykeyb420 on August 09, 2009 at 20:38:49 PT
off topic
here is my cat, Obama, doing a new trick,,
High 5 cat
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Comment #14 posted by FoM on August 09, 2009 at 19:14:45 PT
History Channel: Woodstock Now & Then
It Premiere's on August 17th at 8PM.http://www.history.com/content/woodstock
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Comment #13 posted by FoM on August 09, 2009 at 16:58:17 PT
charmed quark
It was interesting reading the comments. Thanks.
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Comment #12 posted by charmed quark on August 09, 2009 at 16:37:55 PT
Philadelphian Woodstock Experiences
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/entertainment/20090809_Here_s_how_it_felt_to_be_at_Yasgur_s_farm.htmlI like the story of the couple who took their declawed cat with them ( they thought he deserved a vacation too). Blackie had many adventures, including living wild in the Maine woods, before he got back to his apartment 6 months later. When he finally got there, he jumped on his pillow and wouldn't move for three days.
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Comment #11 posted by FoM on August 09, 2009 at 14:30:03 PT
John Tyler
I have been followin the 40th Anniversary of Woodstock and it is amazing. I wasn't at Woodstock but what it represented touched my very soul so many years ago.Woodstock: A Moment of Muddy Grace http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/arts/music/09pare.html?_r=1&hp***Even After 40 Years, Sounds Still Emanatehttp://www.mydesert.com/article/20090809/LIFESTYLES01/908090301/1026/NEWS12
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Comment #10 posted by John Tyler on August 09, 2009 at 14:21:21 PT
re: ill effects
You know what, the only “ill effects” I have ever seen is that it make you really dislike prohibitionists, and their ignorant, arrogant, sanctimonious behavior. Woodstock 40th anniversary is this week. Big high point on the counterculture calendar, and I do mean high. Here is a link to the Woodstock memorial
http://www.bethelwoodscenter.org/home.aspxIt funny though how this place and the other media stories are really downplaying the role that psychedelic drugs played in spreading the hippie philosophy of peace, love, happiness and understanding. Hipsters didn’t read about and say “Yeah, that’s cool”. Each of them had their own mind-blowing experience with cosmic consciousness where they experienced the power of peace, love, and understanding personally and it changed their lives forever. The outsiders saw it as 500,000 half naked hippies, high, listening to music. It was more than that, it was a utopian ideal made real. It was heaven on earth, if only briefly. It was a miracle in every sense of the word. Woodstock is hallowed ground. There is a museum there etc., etc. The whole country is still taking about it 40 years later, there are movies about it, and a bunch of CD being released. People that attended count themselves lucky. They kept their tickets and t-shirts as keepsakes. Woodstock by CSN&Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrWNTqbLFFE
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Comment #9 posted by George Servantes on August 09, 2009 at 13:56:49 PT
Those who fight against Creator...
...will lose at the end.
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Comment #8 posted by MikeC on August 09, 2009 at 12:41:29 PT
EAH...
That's the way I read it too but I have to wonder....In order for them to do that they would have to reschedule marijuana. If they do reschedule then it wouldn't be the crime it is today if you get caught growing your own. Much like home beer and wine making I don't see how the government could ever really do anything about it.I find it very interesting either way though that they are putting that out there for bid. I wonder what they are up to?
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Comment #7 posted by duzt on August 09, 2009 at 11:41:27 PT
Mississippi garden is sad
I've seen many photos of their garden and it sure is a pathetic grow. The plants are very inconsistent and don't look very healthy. From what I hear they grow mostly a Mexican Sativa dominant plant that has very low potency. They also grind the whole plant, seeds, stems and all in to make the cigarettes (they use a cigarette rolling machine). I have seen their product and it is disgusting to say the least, almost unsmokeable. I would love to see some studies done with the good quality and with a large variety of strains to test, each strain has very different effects.
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Comment #6 posted by EAH on August 09, 2009 at 11:38:20 PT:
CONTROL!
The link to fedbizopsps is depressing. This makes it quite clear that the DEA bureaucrats are going to attempt to find a tightly controlled, narrowly constricted method of dispensing cannabis. They are obviously going to resist
legalization along the lines of alcohol totally, while seeking to implement
their idea of how cannabis should be made available. So forget any idea about
growing cannabis next to the tomatoes in your garden. They are never going to
allow that. It looks like they want to award a production contract to someone who then produce cannabis "cigarettes". Will they be "formulated" to burn evenly like tobacco cigarettes with chemicals too? These people remain utterly clueless.
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Comment #5 posted by The GCW on August 09, 2009 at 10:45:54 PT
ill effects?
The US government has Dr. Mahmoud ElSohly, the only person in the United States who has an exclusive contract with the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), which supplies the pot to approved researchers who study its ill effects. US citizens need research to study it's (cannabis) benefical effects.
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Comment #4 posted by MikeC on August 09, 2009 at 09:21:10 PT
Posted this link the other day...
but it is more appropriate for this thread. What are your thoughts on this?https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=2f734e46a74d477e37ac07798c08a3ae&tab=core&_cview=0&cck=1&au=&ck
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Comment #3 posted by FoM on August 09, 2009 at 07:53:21 PT
OT: Even After 40 Years, Sounds Still Emanate
By Bruce Fessier, The Desert Sun August 9, 2009Forty years after Woodstock, the three-day peace and music marathon is remembered as the high point of the 1960s counterculture.Songs, CDs, documentaries, books and an upcoming feature film directed by Ang Lee attest to it as an event of Homerian proportions.“The greatest event in counter-cultural history,” said historian William O'Neill in the book “Coming Apart in the Sixties.”“Here was conclusive proof that the love generation could survive and even flourish under the most adverse circumstances,” David Pichaske wrote in “Coming Apart: An Informal History of America in the 1960s,” “conclusive proof that a new consciousness had been born.”The legendary festival on Max Yasgur's farm in Bethel, N.Y., is remembered for its massive crowds of more than 400,000 people, its music lineup of 31 artists, and it's relatively disturbance-free safety record that gave it a Utopian reputation.Four men with Coachella Valley ties experienced it from an insider's point of view.Elliot Tiber, who wrote the memoir on which Lee's film is based, operated an 80-room motel in Bethel that presented chamber concerts. When Woodstock promoters Michael Lang, Artie Kornfeld, Joel Rosenman and John Roberts were denied a permit for a proposed 50,000-person festival in nearby Wallkill, N.Y., in July 1969, Tiber offered them his music permit. He introduced them to his neighbor, Yasgur, and they rented his 600-acre farm for the festival.But Tiber, who tried to stage a Gaystock festival in Palm Springs before moving back to New York, never got close to the Woodstock stage.Steve Madaio of Palm Desert played at Woodstock as a trumpeter for the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. What he remembers most about Woodstock is “the continuous amount of music going on for three days, day and night.“They had some breaks because of the rain,” he said, “but it was really non-stop.”Paul Krassner of Desert Hot Springs co-founded the Youth International Party (the Yippies), a prank-loving activist group that disrupted the 1968 Chicago Democratic National Convention. He recalls the festival's sociological implications.“The police riot in 1968 at the Chicago convention spoiled our vision of presenting a culture with an alternative value system,” Krassner said. “Woodstock turned out to be what we had originally envisioned for the (Chicago) counter-convention — on a much grander and peaceful scale.”Dr. Michael Gatto of Bermuda Dunes saw much of Woodstock from inside a medical tent. A pre-med student at Fairleigh-Dickinson University in Madison, N.J., Gatto said they treated “mostly drug overdoses, drug-related incidences. I think it was about 5,000 treatments. There was also dehydration, abrasions and cuts.”He said the crowd could have been a nightmare. In his medical opinion, he said the rampant marijuana use “probably made (festival goers) more mellow.“There was Vietnam, racial unrest and here you've got 500,000 so-called hippies in one place,” Gatto recalled. “In three days of an event, there were no murders, no stabbings, no fights. It was very mellow and people really came for the music. There were problems with sanitation, there were problems with food, there was problems with traffic, but somehow, everybody made it. It was just an event we'll never see again.”Gatto paid $28 for four tickets. Then the fences were torn down and it was declared a free concert. Soon, artists were mingling with the fans.“I saw Janis Joplin in the crowd and she was drinking all day,” he said. “She had to wait 10 hours before she performed and how she ever got up on stage to perform, I'll never know.”“You were out there going crazy,” said Madaio. “Half the people didn't have clothes on. It was a different period. It was a tremendous sociological change in the country.”Madaio said the artists hung out anywhere they could because they had no place to go.“We went in in the middle of the night on a helicopter and just hung there,” he said. “Once we got in with the helicopter we couldn't get out.”Madaio recalls talking with Jimi Hendrix, David Crosby and Stephen Stills. But he has trouble recalling what they were talking about.“‘Pass me the joint',” he said with a laugh. “Look, if you realize how much goes down in your life, multiplied by 25 or 30 years of doing this, it's impossible to remember it all (even) if I was totally straight. And a lot of times, I wasn't.”
Complete Article: http://www.mydesert.com/article/20090809/LIFESTYLES01/908090301/1026/NEWS12
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on August 09, 2009 at 07:14:46 PT
Picture of The Mississippi Farm
http://gallery.marihemp.com/albums/public_domain_free/miss2.jpg
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Comment #1 posted by GeoChemist on August 09, 2009 at 06:56:18 PT
Interesting
The most researched condition by big pharma is the deadly condition known as erectile dysfunction. It's time the lid is blown off of the atrocity, indictments for all prohibs.
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