By Dan Calabrese ——Bio and Archives--April 19, 2018
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So that’s it, right? We can end all the nonsense about weed being “medicine” because the properties in weed that get you high are not the same ones that can help with pain relief – and the least efficient delivery method for any substance is smoking it.
Although the primary purpose of the drug is for treating symptoms of epilepsy, doctors would have some leeway to prescribe it for other things.The FDA will vote in June whether to approve the drug, Epidiolex, an oral solution, for the treatment of severe forms of epilepsy in a small group of patients. The FDA has approved synthetic versions of some cannabinoid chemicals found in the marijuana plant for other purposes, including cancer pain relief. Cannabidiol, also called CBD, is one of more than 80 active cannabinoid chemicals, yet unlike tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, it does not produce a high. The committee’s recommendation was delivered after reviewing data from the drug’s maker, GW Pharmaceuticals PLC, a UK-based biopharmaceutical company. “We’re obviously very pleased by the unanimous recommendation in support of the approval of Epidiolex,” GW CEO Justin Gover said. “It’s a very important milestone in the approval process.”
Epidiolex, GW’s lead cannabinoid product candidate, was developed for severe, early-onset epilepsy syndromes, including Dravet syndrome, a rare genetic dysfunction of the brain that begins in the first year of life; Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, a type of epilepsy with multiple types of seizures; and tuberous sclerosis complex and infantile spasms, both of which begin in infancy and cause a sudden stiffening of the body, arms and legs with the head bent forward. One-third of Americans who have epilepsy have found no therapies that will control their seizures, according to the Epilepsy Foundation. This represents about 1 million families. Though FDA approval would limit use of the drug to epilepsy patients, doctors would have the option to prescribe it “off-label” for other uses.I have never disputed that there are properties in cannabis and/or marijuana that can offer pain relief. I know there are. And I have no objection now to the uses of these properties to develop a legal, properly tested, properly prescribed drug that can help people with these or other symptoms. What I have always objected to is the idea that a dime bag of weed, provided to you by one of your buddies or a “dispensary” – but never subjected to FDA testing or any of the other processes required of traditional medicine – should be considered as legitimate medicine. It’s not and never has been. There may be some people who use it in that way, but the vast majority of people who advocate and use it are just looking to get high without legal sanction. There is already a way to get THC in pill form. It’s call Marinol, and it’s been FDA-approved and on the market for several years, but the stoner crowd insists it’s ineffective. It’s very effective at what it’s designed to do, which is relief pain and other symptoms. But it’s not effective at getting you high because that’s not what it’s designed for, which is why the stoner crowd hates that it exists. It proves that marijuana as “medicine” can and should be separated from marijuana the party drug, which means you can’t seriously argue that a blunt of weed is medicine in any legitimate sense. Not that this will stop them.
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Dan Calabrese’s column is distributed by HermanCain.com, which can be found at HermanCain
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