And what makes it so expensive?? I dont get it? Why did they need to make synthetic thc?
"""And what makes it so expensive?? I dont get it? Why did they need to make synthetic thc?""" - OG Kushta
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In the U.S. mostly government agencies like National Institute of Health (NIH) receive grants and other funding from the feds, as do some university research programs. But most pharmaceutical companies, especially the bigger ones called "Big Pharma" (Pfizer, Roche), they don't get substantial taxpayer funding. Most companies get bank loans, sell products, sell stock and recruit private investors. There is plenty of lobbying for legislation that is favorable to corporations but that's a different beast.
Now, the FDA regulates (controls) the pharmaceutical industry and they are 100% government. Every research company wanting to make drugs has to do it their way. And because so many Americans are such safety fanatics with narrow comfort ranges, they insist that their drugs be made of highest purity, highest-potency, oral-administration preferred, super-tangerine-flake-streamlined-convenient delivery, once-a-day,no-side-effects.... Sooo, the FDA makes anybody doing research be extra extra diligent. Otherwise, every now and then you get lead in your toothpaste, or fake Prozac.
Well, to do such a good job the companies have to be big, which means they have to pay a bunch of scientists to try to make new drugs from only a crazy idea based on what a shaman said 70 years ago, but those people have to be managed, so they pay for a bunch of managers, and then they need a big ass building for all those people, and then they have to hire lawyers, and people to count the money, and clean the restroom, and maintain all of the computers with the research info, and buy glassware, and all the employees want raises and vacations and insurance since they aren't entitled to reasonably priced healthcare...
...Then the cost of gas goes up, so the cost of ether and chloroform goes up and research chemicals come from petroleum. Then the pharma company has to pay for inspections & permits, DEA licenses and team-building lunches, pay extra to dispose of toxic waste, pay lawsuits for people they killed while testing, pay for Joe-Bobs back surgery, pay for the lobbyists to play golf in Virginia, pay for management to fly to New York every week for a 3 hour meeting...
Finally the pharmaceutical company has what they think is a drug that might work because 42 mice pepped-up all of a sudden and ran on the big metal wheel for an extra few minutes. FDA says they have to test new drugs in animals for up to several years, then they have to test in sick people for a while, then healthy people for a while, then some more people again. After several years of giving out those $10,000 bonuses to every employee each year, and 6-figure bonuses to the executives, and paying all those hospitals and doctors to find the patients to volunteer to test the drug on, they've spent a billion dollars to bring the drug to market and jump through FDA's hoops.
Then assume that only 150,000 people need the drug AND the company wants to make a profit. In the end you pay $15 for a tab, twice daily, for marginally effective Marinol, or you can take your medical card down to the dispensary and pickup enough pharmacologically superior cannabis to last several days...or you can grow your own right next to the chilies and tomatoes. Either way, it appears that cannabis supports local economies.
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Why did they make synthetic THC? Partially because it comes back to the idea that the public demands highly pure pills - magic bullets. Everyone seemed to agree that THC was the primary compound responsible for the high and some of the medicinal benefits. Early lab studies indicated that THC had therapeutic potential but there wasn't as much effort put into isolating, investigating and researching the the other cannabinoids and the synergies reported by users of poly-pharmaceutical (raw) cannabis. We were ignored again.
The schedule I status of cannabis meant that to do research, researchers had to apply to the DEA before they could do their thing. Mysteriously, the DEA was always losing those applications, saying they never arrived, or "Just saying NO" to research and education. It is rather convenient to prevent research on something that has already been deemed of no medicinal use, and happens to be illegal; the serpent that eats it's tail -
Ouroboros. Momentum is hard to change.
And it seems the feds were on board. Once they heard that THC had some positive attributes, it seems reasonable that they would think that having "safe synthetic marijuana" would satisfy the public demand for medical marijuana, and further eliminate the chances of recreational cannabis legalization. Likewise, this was an opportunity for a pharmaceutical company to monopolize a brand new market and have their trademarked, patented formulation escorted into legality, Schedule III. In the end, I believe that getting this THC-sesame oil into Schedule III will have played a significant role in the decriminalization movement.
Marinol works against legalization/decriminalization of cannabis. Everyone that takes it recreationally is creating additional demand for it, additional revenue, and that will be misunderstood as effectiveness. Popularity and high-volume sales of Marinol may indicate to lawmakers/drugmakers that Marinol is sufficient and effective, thus no need to legalize cannabis. Besides, why pay more for a tasteless, more expensive, less-environmentally-friendly, inferior buzz?
We must keep up the pressure, keep letting doctors and lawmakers know that raw, vaporized cannabis is superior to oral, single-component Marinol. It's important that they get the vaporization part - smoking is a potentially outdated argument. Jesus that's a bunch of words. Sorry to ramble.
I was thinking the same thing! 