[Biscanna]

Where have you guys been all my life?

I think you’re right about Big Pharma. I agree that lobbying by big pharma is unlikely in any ‘official’ capacity, yet I won’t dismiss that keeping cannabis illegal is important to lobbyists in general, for whatever reason, and thus a bias is generally present. Plus it’s extremely important for golf partners to agree on issues.

For decades U.S. scientists, doctors and university research groups very much desired to do cannabinoid-related research, but it was severely restricted due to the Schedule I status – the archaic reasoning was that a Schedule I drug has no medicinal value, so why allow medical research? With Marinol (synthetic THC in sesame oil) being assigned to Schedule III, cannabinoid research mushroomed and it has been building sinse [sic]. New research and technology spurs new technology and research.

I think that we could assume that the majority of cannabinoid-based drugs produced by pharmaceutical companies from here on out will have no psychoactive effect, and they will be ‘tuned’ to specifically regulate only certain types of cannabinoid receptors. Whereas, raw cannabis is a qualitative shotgun blast in terms of stimulating multiple types of cannabinoid receptors. The weight-loss market for cannabinoid-based drugs is real and polypharmaceutical (raw) cannabis won’t be a competitor; many drugs will be antagonists as you mentioned, they block the receptors.

But I also agree that pharmaceutical use in areas with well-supported medical cannabis programs is likely lower than in non-cannabis populations. Cannabis is a minor competitor against drugs like ibuprofen, aspirin, most opiates, blood pressure meds. Legalization movements are more likely to threaten top money makers than the legal-pharma-cannabinoid market alone.