Big Pharma set to take over medical marijuana market

[decarboxylator]

In cali and colorado do you guys have associations watching over your laws??? in michigan we have MACC just think we could always unify the states... maybe with the help of norml.... i think gov is building up for a final push to eliminate us. we need start the movement again before we get wiped out....

I was talking with ASA rep and they said MI is under big time attack. DEA is going after doctor's files (those specializing in recs), and dispensary patient files. Yikes. MN just had their problem. CA and CO are the least bothered right now. WA/OR are next.

I have the same worry about MMj being wiped out. Self regulation is our only hope. Give thanks for the testing labs! Now it's time to get more certified organic Cannabis gardens.

 

[Guava]

You are the first one they will go after, I assume. Better get some stock, fast, before you have troubles. lol

 

[trichrider]

deff won't be the first one they go after, but in the queue.

 

[Rednick]

They decarb then do a CO2 extraction, then wash it in ethanol, then filter out the waxes at the bottom. Not a big deal, or difference really. I decarb, do a denatured wash, and from then the on the steps are pretty much the same for me.

Basically they are trying to patent a way to make hay into hash...

Now, if there were some 'prior art' (as it is called) [hmmmm, maybe the OG servers?], then many 'Process Patents' could be considered irrelevant.
The info on these servers would serve as 'Prior Art' in US Patent Law for many instances of genetic ownership (Monsanto, ect...) and processes (home butane extraction, lazyman's sativex, ect.)...

P.S. And getting stock in that company, to force a drop? What are you smoking, I want a cut. If you had that much money, you wouldn't be rallying the troops here.

 

[SOTF420]

I just smoked a joint in protest! That will show them!

 

[decarboxylator]

http://www.gaia-health.com/articles401/000441-fda-persecutes-pot-patients.shtml

:FDA Persecutes Pot Patients So Proceeds Profit Big Pharma
Marijuana is the flagship herb for governmental suppression of natural products so that Big Pharma can have a monopoly.

by Heidi Stevenson

22 April 2011


While the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) criminalize people who use marijuana for medicinal purposes, even to the point of threatening state employees engaged in state-approved dispensaries, the FDA has been planning to hand the pot business over to Big Pharma.

One of the tenets of patent law is that natural products cannot be patented. Therefore, marijuana cannot be patented as a pharmaceutical drug. However, they and their derivatives can be sold for medicinal uses. Of course, there's little profit in it—unless government is enlisted to criminalize its growth and use by common people while licensing sales of derivatives and artificial copies to Big People/Pharma. That, of course, is exactly what's happening—and marijuana is merely the flagship herb.

The FDA's Hypocrisy

Whatever one's personal views on marijuana, the fact remains that the government's actions demonstrate inherent hypocrisy. While vilifying it and punishing, even to extreme degrees, people who use, grow, or sell it, the FDA is handing the business over to Big Pharma and its cohort, Big Medicine.

On its website page entitled, "What FDA Doesn’t Regulate, the statement is made that "Drugs of Abuse" are not regulated by them because:

Illegal drugs with no approved medical use—such as heroin and marijuana--are under the jurisdiction of the Drug Enforcement Administration.



Yet, the FDA has licensed Marinol, a drug that was derived from a single tetrahydrocannabinol, the active ingredients of marijuana.

Worse, the cannabis products Big Pharma produces are significantly inferior to the natural weed. Marijuana is effective because of a synergistic blend of substances. Those who rely on it for medical purposes also understand that different varieties result in somewhat different effects. Marinol is a derivative from a Sativa variety of marijuana. It includes only one, 11-hydroxy-delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, out of at least 85 different varieties. Is it any wonder that most patients find it useless, even when they achieve great relief from a wide array of symptoms and pain with the use of pure marijuana?

And now, there's a new one on the way. GW Pharmaceuticals is starting its Phase III trials of Sativex. It is already approved in the UK and Spain, and it's sold for easing spasticity from multiple sclerosis, but the company has hopes of selling it for cancer and neuropathic pain, too.

Patients' Needs

The needs of patients are not factored in. Patients with glaucoma, whose vision is preserved with marijuana, are forced to go blind as the federal government, with the tacit agreement of the FDA, shuts down state-approved dispensaries and grow operations.

Patients whose needs are not fulfilled by the limited varieties of cannabinoids available in drugs are of no concern to the US federal government, nor are their needs factored in by other industrial nations.

The governments would rather put sick people and those who try to provide for their needs in prison.

The US government has gone so far as to force foreign governments, like Mexico, to attempt to stop trafficking in marijuana. While the FDA grants Big Pharma monopolistic access to marijuana and its products, the US has created an environment in which huge numbers of people are massacred in drug wars, just so that the pharmaceutical corporations can make unconscionable profits.

Big Money-Big Pharma

This is all happening, of course, because of money, very big money. Sold by Bayer Schering in the UK, the NHS pays about £11 per day for each patient's use. That's £330 per month and £3,960 per year. You can, of course, expect the price in the US to be significantly higher, since there is virtually no control over pharmaceutical prices.

Imagine how much cheaper it would be if patients could simply use pot legally!

Of course, saving money has nothing to do with the government's plans. The government in the US, whether the Department of Justice or any other, exists to support the desires—that is, the profits—of corporations, not to better the welfare of the people.

Paul Armentano of NORML, a marijuana reform organization, stated:

The DEA's intent is to expand the federal government's schedule III listing to include pharmaceutical products containing naturally derived formations of THC while simultaneously maintain existing criminal prohibitions on the plant itself.
That, of course, says it all. The US government, along with those of the UK and Spain, and other nations that criminalize marijuana while allowing sales of drugs derived from it, are not acting for the people. They're acting to promote the profits of Big Pharma.

It's Getting Worse

Marijuana is merely the flagship of a process intended to remove personal health freedom in favor of Big Pharma and Big Medicine profits. The process is accelerating. Stevia, a natural and healthy herbal sweetener, is denied to the people, unless it's been adulterated by pharmaceutical practices. The status of this particular herb varies from country to country, but it's illegal in the UK, and access in the US can be difficult.

In the EU, the public's direct access to all medicinal herbs is about to become illegal, unless they've been approved by the state. To gain approval requires significant funding, which is usually available only to large corporations. As a result, in the UK, the approved list currently includes only 81 brands, mostly duplications of each other and adulterated with substances that don't belong in natural products.

In the US, the FDA is targeting natural products that happen to contain natural substances from which drugs have been derived or for which health claims are made. Even something as innocent and harmless as Seville oranges has been targeted!

Whatever your view on marijuana, don't be fooled into believing that the government bans it because of any harm it might do. It's banned even for medical use, even when the people of a state have voted in favor of it. And it's the leading edge of banning many other herbs useful to health so that Big Pharma can have a monopoly on them."

 

[decarboxylator]

http://neilrockindpcblog.com/2011/02/24/big-pharma-in-medical-marijuana-would-be-a-big-fail-for-medical-marijuana/

Big Pharma in Medical Marijuana Would Be A Big “Fail” for Medical Marijuana
Posted on February 24, 2011 by neilrockindpc| 1 Comment
IF THE FEDS GET THEIR WAY, BIG PHARMA COULD SELL POT

But Your Dime Bag Would Still Send You to Jail

We Should Be Very Wary About the DEA Allowing Regulation and Marketing of Pharmaceutical Products Containing Plant-Derived THC.

“[M]arijuana has no scientifically proven medical value.” So stated the United States Drug Enforcement Administration ( DEA ) on page six of a July 2010 agency white paper, titled “DEA Position on Marijuana.”

Yet only four months after the agency committed its “no medical pot” stance to print, it announced its intent to allow for the regulation and marketing of pharmaceutical products containing plant-derived THC – — the primary psychoactive ingredient in cannabis.

But don’t for a second believe the DEA has experienced a sudden change of heart regarding patients’ use of the marijuana plant — use that is now legal under state law in 15 states and the District of Columbia ( although recently approved laws in Arizona, New Jersey, and Washington, DC still await implementation ). Despite growing public support for medical marijuana legalization, America’s top anti-drug agency remains resolute that these hundreds of thousands of medi-pot patients are no more than common criminals, and their herbal remedy of choice is nothing more than the “Devil’s weed.”

It’s not public pressure that’s motivating the agency to consider rescheduling an organic cannabinoid for the first time since the creation of the U.S. Controlled Substances Act of 1970. ( Under this act, all prescription drugs are classified as schedule II, III, IV, or IV controlled substances, while all illicit substances are categorized as schedule I drugs. ) And it’s not the recent publication of a series of FDA-approved “gold standard” clinical trials affirming the plant’s safety and efficacy that’s prompting the agency into action. ( The DEA has so far refused to acknowledge these studies even exist. ) Rather, the agency’s sudden call for regulatory change is inspired by far more politically influential forces: The DEA is responding to the demands of Big Pharma.

Rescheduling ‘Dronabinol’

The DEA initially made public its desire to recognize the use of marijuana plant-derived pharmaceuticals in a “notice of proposed rulemaking,” which appeared in the November 1, 2010 edition of the Federal Register.

The agency posted, “This proposed rule is issued by the Deputy Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration ( DEA ) to modify the listing of the Marinol formulation in schedule III so that certain generic drug products are also included in that listing.” ( Marinol is the brand name for dronabinol, a prescription pill approved by the FDA in the mid-’80s that consists of synthetic THC in sesame oil and is encapsulated in a soft gelatin capsule. )

Specifically, the DEA’s intent is to expand the federal government’s schedule III listing to include pharmaceutical products containing naturally derived formations of THC while simultaneously maintain existing criminal prohibitions on the plant itself. “The DEA has received four petitions from companies that have products that are currently the subject of ANDAs ( abbreviated new drug applications ) under review by the FDA,” its post reads. “While the petitioners cite that their generic products are bioequivalent to Marinol, their products do not meet schedule III current definition provided above. Therefore, these firms have requested that 21 CFR 1308.13( g )( 1 ) be expanded to include naturally derived or synthetically produced dronabinol.”

By contrast, any use of the plant or plant-derived cannabinoids by the public will remain criminally prohibited. “THC, natural or synthetic, [will] remain a schedule I controlled substance,” DEA spokesman Rusty Payne affirmed to the Washington, DC publication, The Daily Caller, in February. “Under the proposed rule, in those instances in the future where FDA might approve a generic version of Marinol, that version of the drug will be in the same schedule as the brand name version of the drug, regardless of whether the THC used in the generic version was synthesized by man or derived from the cannabis plant.”

Who Stands to Gain?

Of the four petitioners cited in the DEA’s notice of intent, two are companies seeking to market synthesized THC pharmaceuticals similar to Marinol. According to a March 17, 2010 letter to the DEA from Howard Koh, assistant secretary for health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, representatives from Barr Laboratories ( now Teva Pharmaceuticals, the largest generic drug manufacturer in the world ) and Insys Therapeutics ( a biotech specializing in anti-emetic drugs ) both have synthetic-THC products in their pipeline. “In both of these petitions, the Petitioners assert that their generic drug products have a similar chemical properties, composition, and therapeutic value as those of Marinol,” the letter states. ( In 2008, Par Pharmaceuticals of New Jersey became the first company to receive FDA approval for a generic version of Marinol. )

A third petitioner — the Canadian-based Cobalt Pharmaceutical — is seeking to bring an organic THC based drug to market. “Cobalt is developing a generic drug product that references Marinol [and is] requesting that the product be placed into schedule III,” states a June 1, 2010 letter from Koh. “This drug product contains naturally-derived dronabinol dissolved in sesame seed oil and encapsulated in a gelatin capsule at three dosage strengths ( 2.5 mg, 5mg, and 10mg per dosage unit. )” If successful, Cobalt would become the first company since the passage of the federal Marihuana Tax Act in 1937 to legally market a prescription drug in the United States containing natural marijuana plant compounds.

Though not named as a specific petitioner, another major pharmaceutical company that would stand to benefit financially from the legalization of plant-derived THC is the former Mallincrodkt Baker ( now Avantor ), a worldwide producer of biotherapeutic agents. Testifying under oath in the 2005 administrative legal challenge Craker v. DEA, federally authorized pot farmer Mahmoud ElSohly revealed that he possessed a contract with the Big Pharma firm to provide it with organic THC extracts. Mallincrodkt desired the extracts, Elsohly explained, because they — like Cobalt — wished to bring a Marinol-like pill comprising of actual THC to the U.S. market.

Another member of Big Pharma that stands to benefit from the DEA’s pending change is Bionorica Worldwide, a German-based company founded in 1933 that specializes in manufacturing plant-derived pharmaceutical products. In 2009, a company representative affirmed in a story on AlterNet.org that Bionorica was seeking U.S. FDA approval for both a plant-derived version of Marinol as well as a sublingual THC spray.

The United Kingdom’s GW Pharmaceuticals would also no doubt welcome the DEA’s call for rescheduling. GW Pharma is the manufacturer of Sativex — a oral spray containing plant-derived extracts of the cannabinoids THC and CBD ( cannabidiol ). The spray is presently available in Canada and the United Kingdom, but could not be legally marketed in the U.S., even with FDA approval, until its natural cannabinoid compounds are reclassified under federal law.

Ironically, the federal government itself also stands to benefit financially from rescheduling. After all, under the U.S. government’s existing monopoly on marijuana production — a monopoly that was upheld in 2009 when the DEA rejected its own administrative law judge’s decision in Craker — no domestic-based pharmaceutical company wishing to develop products derived from organic THC could legally acquire the necessary extracts without first contracting to purchase those compounds from the federal government’s sole pot farm, located at the University of Mississippi at Oxford and headed by ElSohly.

Who Stands To Lose? You Do

While the DEA’s forthcoming regulatory change promises to stimulate the advent of legally available, natural THC therapeutic products — and will also likely encourage the development of less expensive yet similarly synthetic alternatives to Marinol — the change will offer no legal relief for those hundreds of thousands of Americans who believe that therapeutic relief is best obtained by use of the whole plant itself. Rather the DEA appears content to try to walk a political and semantic tightrope that alleges: “pot is bad,” but “pot-derived pharmaceuticals are good.”

It’s a position that would appear to be scientifically untenable, and one that will do little to bridge the existing gap between the public’s demand for a rational medical marijuana policy and the federal government’s desire to maintain a criminal prohibition that lacks any rational basis whatsoever.

 

[decarboxylator]

whoops reposted the OP...

 

[Mr. Fantastic]

The whole thing just reeks. Our government is just as shady as the cartels they just do it under the guise of government. Read this http://dankglassworks.com/HighTimesOperationGreenMerchantCannabisCup.aspx

I have heard that this Pietri guy is not that reliable however it can't all be made up. The bottom line is our government has there hand in the pockets of big pharma. They do not care about patients getting relief they want money.

 

[amannamedtruth]

http://otp.investis.com/clients/uk/gw-pharma/rns/regulatory-story.aspx?cid=185&newsid=201978

US PATENT GRANTED FOR SATIVEX® IN CANCER PAIN


Porton Down, UK; 20 April 2011: GW Pharmaceuticals plc (AIM: GWP) today announces that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued a Notice of Allowance for a patent which protects the use of Sativex® as a treatment for cancer pain.

The patent, entitled "Pharmaceutical Compositions for the Treatment of Pain", provides an exclusivity period until April 2025. The patent specifically covers a method of treating cancer related pain by administering a combination of the cannabinoids cannabidiol (CBD) and delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the two principal cannabinoids in Sativex®. In addition to this newly granted patent, Sativex® is protected by a number of other patents related to different aspects of the product.

Sativex® is currently in Phase III clinical development as a treatment for cancer pain. Cancer pain represents the lead indication for Sativex® in the United States, where the medicine is partnered with Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.

Dr Geoffrey Guy, GW's Chairman, said, "The grant of this US patent covering Sativex® as a treatment for cancer pain is part of a broad platform of intellectual property rights which continue to be developed by GW. GW now has 35 patent families as well as other forms of protection such as plant variety rights and proprietary know-how. We believe that this matrix of intellectual property provides GW with a unique position to benefit from the rich promise within the field of cannabinoid therapeutics."

Sativex® is approved in the UK, Spain, Czech Republic, Canada and New Zealand as a treatment of Multiple Sclerosis spasticity.


Enquiries:

GW Pharmaceuticals plc
(Today) + 44 20 7831 3113
Dr Geoffrey Guy, Chairman
(Thereafter) + 44 1980 557000
Justin Gover, Managing Director



Financial Dynamics
+ 44 20 7831 3113
Ben Atwell / John Dineen



Peel Hunt LLP
+44 207 418 8900
James Steel / Vijay Barathan

 

[amannamedtruth]

Currency: GBp Code: GWP.L

Date 21/04/2011 Time Last Trade 17:35 BST

Mid Price 117.50 Last Closing Price 120.00

Change -1.00 Bid 115.00

Day High 120.00 Ask 120.00

Day Low 114.57 Year High 156.00

Day Volume72,006 Year Low 92.50

http://www.gwpharm.com/share-price.aspx

 

[AfroSheep]

Wow great read, i wonder how much of that is right. amazing.

 

[merlin123]

Guys big pharma owns our politicians. Big pharma will take over MJ through our politicians.

 

[mean mr.mustard]

Wow great read, i wonder how much of that is right. amazing.

Do you mean correct and accurate or proper and respectable?

 

[iBogart]

No surprises.

All you guys who have the balls to grow your own should focus on producing seeds and johnny appleseed the country. I would love to walk down to the bus stop and notice some herb growing through the cracks of the sidewalk by the stop sign.

 

[decarboxylator]

The whole thing just reeks. Our government is just as shady as the cartels they just do it under the guise of government. Read this http://dankglassworks.com/HighTimesOperationGreenMerchantCannabisCup.aspx

I have heard that this Pietri guy is not that reliable however it can't all be made up. The bottom line is our government has there hand in the pockets of big pharma. They do not care about patients getting relief they want money.

ruh roh. Agreed. Joe Pietri is an asshole. I've had huge arguments with him on fbook. Don't even get me started on his patented $1000 hash machine and the "ice wars". There may be a shred of truth to what he says, but Marco Renda (of Treating Yourself Mag) had to publish an apology for one of Joe's most slanderous articles.

 

[Gobwats]

ruh roh. Agreed. Joe Pietri is an asshole. I've had huge arguments with him on fbook. Don't even get me started on his patented $1000 hash machine and the "ice wars". There may be a shred of truth to what he says, but Marco Renda (of Treating Yourself Mag) had to publish an apology for one of Joe's most slanderous articles.

Totally agree! The guy is nothing but a 2 bit smuggler turned DEA snitch. What better way to deflect attention than to make accusations aimed at so many others. Now he's trying to give out grow advice that is nothing but one contradiction after another, and if you point out flaws or ask him for proof of his claims he just tells you to F off. He's a wannabe that's pissed because so many have gained respect while he has accomplished nothing (unless you consider snitching for the DEA an accomplishment.)

 

[bentom187]

how did this turn from the govt to sam? even if he was the problem for you its not the downfall of pot, the down fall is stupid people beleiving the govt would let them grow and not corner them out on the market they beleived in,yet they did and it was by the law,do you still think your making ground? /won the FBI/DEA/ over whatever .....

keep trying mabey youll get a tiny fraction of money allowed by law,or you coul just do whats natural.

theres greed everywhere thats all i see!!!

 

[mean mr.mustard]

I was posing the possibility it's not a coincidence that rescheduling and Sativex trials in the US.

I'm as curious as the next guy what he'll have to say about it.

 

[bentom187]

I was posing the possibility it's not a coincidence that rescheduling and Sativex trials in the US.

I'm as curious as the next guy what he'll have to say about it.

wasnt sinlging you out either,if thats why you posted after me. but its not a coincidence at all they are ahead of the game.