People that do not follow the cannabis story will find this article very informative. Cannabinoid research will spend 20 years to get to where we would be today, if the corruption of the government had not blocked the research of cannabis.
Federal prohibition brought a federal hedgemony that blocked all research without federal approval and for that matter, federal supply of cannabis for research. Federal approval only came when the research might lead to some harm that could be demonized and the real research was blocked. GW Pharmaceuticals has been in existance for about 6 years and it will bring cannabis extracts that meet clinical standards for consistency. What makes cannabis extracts so dangerous to pill company profits is that a the physicians call to do no harm will place cannabinoids first on the list of treatment and displace the patent medicines that are so costly/profitable.
This federal hedgemony uses the Controlled Substances Act and the DEA to effectively prohibit research. The DEA administers the Schedule of Narcotics that places cannabis and all individual cannabinoids as a Schedule 1 Narcotic. Using the criteria of the Schedule, cannabis should be a schedle 5 substance because it does not meet any of the three criteria needed for Schedule 1, when intellectual classification would mean it would have to meet all three. Even a Schedule 2 would mean our universities could research it even if NIH would neglect this call to research.
The Drug Bizarre Walters uses his cabinet post to repeatedly say "Marijuana is a dangerous and addictive drug?" Here we have taxpayer "servants" lying when they should say that it is not marijuana, it is cannabis. Cannabis is not dangerous and it actually will define 1 safety in medicine on a scale of 1 to anything. Cannabis is not addictive and the use of cannabis will decrease the dosage of opiates now used in pain treatment if not replace them in some patients. Cannabis is not a drug. Cannabis is a plant. As long as our Congress and our institutions call for ganjaganda like Walters delivers, you can believe your country's government is corrupted. NIH has a $28 billion annual budget and it takes a small company in the UK to bring clinical cannabis to the world. We have all been *ucked and we still are.
Here is a link to the article
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/18/thread18329.shtml Here is the Fast Company website-
http://www.fastcompany.com/homepage/index.html