In A Twist Of Irony, Big Pharma Helping Get Pot Legalized

[420 Warrior]

Marijuana won't be legalized just because every other American smokes or eats it in some form. Think brownies, cookies, candy or cake.

Despite a record-high 50 percent of Americans saying they use marijuana and it should be made legal, it's still illegal.

Thea fact that an overwhelming majority of Americans are for legalization means absolutely nothing. The federal government, with its Orwellian logic, is unfazed by what Americans really want.

For those who don't know why marijuana is illegal in this country, it's because of politics and outright lies by a crazed anti-pot crusader named Harry J. Anslinger.

Many people assume that marijuana was made illegal through some kind of process involving scientific, medical and government hearings. Not even close. Banning pot was a political thing.

The first federal vote to prohibit marijuana was based entirely on a documented lie on the floor of the Senate. Those who voted then got one side of the story based upon racism, fear, protection of corporate profits and yellow journalism inspired by Anslinger.

We can thank incompetent and/or corrupt legislators interested in personal career advancement and greed for the continued war on marijuana. Despite the medical findings associated with marijuana, it still hasn't been legalized nationwide.

Anslinger's propaganda still pulls weight among many legislators.
Politicians like to appear tough on crime and pass tougher penalties for marijuana possession.

The taxpayers end up funding the pot propaganda while their speech on the subject is stifled by the corporate media.

Laws are passed based upon political contributions from corporations that profit from marijuana being illegal, like pharmaceuticals and alcohol.

So what makes me think that marijuana will be legal in America some day? I've written on this subject for two decades, and I've always made it a point to show why Big Pharma doesn't want marijuana legal.

Well, guess what? Big Pharma has taken a new course (perhaps they planned it this way all along) and is seriously eyeing the profitability of the medical marijuana market. It's already using lobbyists and government connections to ensure control. That means legalization at some point.

Last April, two drug manufacturing giants, G.W. Pharmaceuticals (a worldwide corporation based in the U.K. with offices in the U.S.) and Novartis (a worldwide corporation headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, with offices in the U.S.), announced they had formed an alliance to license and market GW's Sativex, a liquid cannabis drug.

The American Independent recently observed, "... the pharmaceutical giants' strategy as regards marijuana seems to be to 'demonize it, prosecute it, shut it down, then grab the market.'"

The idea that a drug can be denounced as evil in one context but hailed as a medical miracle if sold within the pharmaceutical system is nothing new. Big Pharma's magic cure pills for ADHD bear a suspicious chemical resemblance to speed.

Cannabis Science Inc., a U.S. biotech company developing pharmaceutical cannabis products, recently reported that two former U.S. attorneys and the former head of Seattle FBI are in favor of Washington State Initiative 502 to legalize marijuana.

So you see we are moving towards legalization. Not because you or I want it, but because Big Pharma has finally decided the time is here to profitably exploit marijuana.

Look to the media this year for more reports like Cannabis Science's (or other corporations) backing marijuana legalization in other states.

Big Pharma won't be the only corporate giant cashing in on legal cannabis crops. The retail and food industry will probably step in with their deep pockets, providing unfair competition to small-time growers.

The dot-com industry was once the fastest way to get rich, but I suspect the future holds a new crop of instant millionaire CEOs when marijuana is legalized. It won't be because the American people have finally convinced legislators to do the right thing. That only happens in the movies.

As It Stands, despite the real possibility of monopolies when marijuana becomes legal, there are at least two upsides. The Feds' expensive and losing war on marijuana will end, and it'll cripple the Mexican cartels' lucrative marijuana trade in the U.S.

News Hawk - 420 Warrior 420 MAGAZINE
Source: Times-Standard
Author: Dave Stancliff
Copyright: Copyright © 2012 - Times-Standard
Website: www.times-standard.com

 

[Nerdmaster]

I'm not sure I follow the logic here. The legalization of big pharma's pot means the feds fight against "street" pot that much harder. They use Marinol as proof that we don't need medical marijuana. Give more options to big pharma, and you simply give more ammo to the DEA.

Legalize cannabis completely and big pharma has to compete with the companies that will eventually sell a pack of joint at probably 50 cents a piece (maybe less). With the prices of Marinol, I do not see those behind the drug ever lobbying for true legalization.

 

[420 Warrior]

I'm not sure I follow the logic here. The legalization of big pharma's pot means the feds fight against "street" pot that much harder. They use Marinol as proof that we don't need medical marijuana. Give more options to big pharma, and you simply give more ammo to the DEA.

Legalize cannabis completely and big pharma has to compete with the companies that will eventually sell a pack of joint at probably 50 cents a piece (maybe less). With the prices of Marinol, I do not see those behind the drug ever lobbying for true legalization.

Kinda' what I thought too.

Big Pharma seems to be scrambling to jump in while the water's warm so they can get their piece of the pie and monopolize OUR world when they've been such a road block all these years!

It's hard to want to endorse them, when they have been such a fly in the ointment but the only problem I see, is that we may need them for the big push...IDK?

 

[budbro]

I'm not saying he is right, but I can see where it is possible. If they do approve a drug that is wholly made up of cannabis extracts and no synthetics (such as Sativex), the FDA will have to reschedule marijuana to at least a schedule II drug in order for it to be prescribed. It very well could end up pulling the cork on the dam and causing a flood, so to speak.

 

[Nerdmaster]

I'm not saying he is right, but I can see where it is possible. If they do approve a drug that is wholly made up of cannabis extracts and no synthetics (such as Sativex), the FDA will have to reschedule marijuana to at least a schedule II drug in order for it to be prescribed. It very well could end up pulling the cork on the dam and causing a flood, so to speak.

This could be great for medical use, but if, and only if, we're willing to let the federal government decide what uses are okay to prescribe Sativex. And we also have to be willing to accept the consequences of raw cannabis still being fully illegal.

To me, it's a lot like morphine being legal while heroin is not. It's not the same situation, of course, but my concern is that we will end up with the FDA deciding who gets the drug, and in what form, and how much, etc. If this happens, the average person will say, "Okay, it's legal for those who need it, great." Unfortunately, for people with insomnia, anxiety, depression, and so forth, the FDA will say that other drugs are better, keeping cannabis a high-ticket item with only a small group who can use it.

It might be a step in the right direction, I'm not sure. I am skeptical, however -- if the group who only wants cannabis for the dying see Sativex as the answer, they won't see a reason for full legalization anymore. And full legalization is the only way we can choose for ourselves what ailments need cannabis.

 

[lofryhash]

what irony??? they want control of the MONEY they want to have control of the POT!!! wake up and smell the STINK!!!!- YOU cannot trust the government or any commercial entity, Cannabis is a WEED!... work to DE-monitize it and take it OFF the Drug Classification Schedule... it is groundhogs day!!!
- ol' mole

 

[tokerace]

The Feds' expensive and losing war on marijuana will end, and it'll cripple the Mexican cartels' lucrative marijuana trade in the U.S.

It may cripple the cartels. It will not affect the DEA much at all. They still have the crack and heroin to go after. They will still spend just as much of your tax money. The ONLY answer is to legalize all of it.

 

[tokerace]

All of the same companies that made it illegal are now lobbying washington to get CONTROLL over it. They are greedy hypocrites.

 

[whiteraven86]

The only way to get the feds out of the cannabis controversy is to get it changed from a schedule 1 to schedule 2 or lower drug classification. There is more thn adequate research and study now to do just that if it would be revisited by a Supreme Court case.
Lowering its classification would allow states to regulate it as medicine or like alcohol and remove federal influence and harrasment.