The conjuring of cannabis into marijuana made The King a magnet for mind-boggling hypocrisy. Perhaps there is no finer example of the hypocrisy than that of Dronabinol. Marketed under various names such as Marinol, Nabilone, Sativex...Dronabinol is a synthetic version of THC, the primary active ingredient of cannabis. The DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) lists cannabis as a Schedule 1 controlled substance. The three benchmarks for Schedule 1 listing:
[A] The drug or other substance has a high potential for abuse.
[B] The drug or other substance has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the U.S.
[C] There is lack of accepted safety for use of the drug under medical supervision.
So, why would Big Pharma spend untold millions of dollars developing a synthetic version of a drug that the DEA insists HAS NO CURRENTLY ACCEPTABLE MEDICAL USE? Money. Patents. Control. Dronabinol was extremely expensive to develop, is very expensive to make, and is very expensive to buy. It works nowhere near as good as raw cannabis, which contains many cannabinoids in addition to THC which contribute in various ways to the excellent effectiveness of cannabis. So the bottom line with synthetic THC: It’s a poor substitute for the real thing, which patients can easily grow themselves, but Big Pharma makes a lot of money at the expense of patients, peddling the patented synthetic of a drug the government classifies as having no currently accepted medical use. When it comes to virtually every aspect of The King, such hypocrisy rules. If a patient that needs cannabis were to simply grow their own, nobody would make any money (except the patient, by saving the astronomical cost of the synthetic), and the patient could not be controlled for profit—one of the modern essences of government under corporate control (CorpoGov).
Regarding LACK OF ACCEPTED SAFETY FOR USE OF THE DRUG UNDER MEDICAL SUPERVISION, cannabis has been for thousands of years one of the most common and effective of drugs, listed as a panacea (remedy for all ills or difficulties) more times, in more places, than anything else known to mankind.
A possible ray of hope for The King in America, and for Americans to make progress against CorpoGov tyranny such as displayed in the Dronabinol boondogle, is H.R. 1009, The Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2007. This bill, introduced by Rep. Ron Paul, would amend the Controlled Substances Act to exclude industrial hemp from the definition of “marihuana”. The detailed summary reads:
“Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2007 - Amends the Controlled Substances Act to exclude industrial hemp from the definition of marihuana. Defines industrial hemp to mean the plant Cannabis sativa L. and any part of such plant with a delta-nine tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) concentration that does not exceed .3 percent on a dry weight basis. Grants a state regulating the growing and processing of industrial hemp exclusive authority, in any criminal or civil action or administrative proceeding, to determine whether any such plant meets that concentration limit.”
As with all things CorpoGov involving The King, hypocrisy has descended upon H.R. 1009: Since 4/20/2007 the bill has been languishing in the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security.
Hypocrisy rules.
*****
In King Hemp V, the lobby forces attacking H.R. 1009 as it mires in a committee that has nothing to do with industrial hemp farming present a crystalline portrait of hemp’s amazing usefulness to The People, and threat to status quo profits. Just how valuable is hemp? How might it mitigate our most serious problems? Modern forces arrayed against The King leave little to the imagination, and, they hope, even less to The People....
Rand Clifford is a writer living in Spokane, Washington, with his wife Mary Ann, and their Chesapeake Bay retriever, Mink. His novels CASTLING, TIMING, and VOICES OF VIRES are published by StarChief Press.
The biggest industry opposed to hemp production is the Petroleum Industry. Hemp oil would replace all carcinogenic petro-diesel with non-toxic vegetable oil.
Hemp grows well on marginal land, with no genetic manipulation, herbicides, insecticides, or fertilizers needed. Dow and Monsanto oppose that.
Big Pharma opposes any product they can't control that would cut their profits.
After the oil is pressed, hemp fiber would eliminate trees as a source of paper and cloth. Weyerhauser and Georgia Pacific wouldn't like that. Cotton growers, either. Bio-diversity and the National Forests would benefit. No profit in bio-diversity.
Much CIA income derives from importation of illegal drugs at inflated prices. The CIA doesn't want Gramma growing hemp in her backyard.
The Defense Dept. needs us to be scared and violent. Violent pot smokers is an oxymoron, like military intelligence. Only fear could keep us spending 700 billion dollars each year on "Defense", and sending our children to die in wars for corporate empire.
America's greatest competitive advantage in the global marketplace, Innovation, is stifled by the economic pressure of these obsolete industries and their lobbies. The buggy-whip makers are running our government, and sending hundreds of thousands of us to jail for victimless "crimes" at a cost of millions of dollars per year.
The "War on Drugs" is a war against Innovation, a war to defend the status quo, a war whose victims are prosecuted for "the pursuit of happiness."
by
martinweiss (22 articles, 4 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 380 comments)
on Monday, October 1, 2007 at 11:43:32 AM
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