Those who oppose medical marijuana have never had to live in extreme pain! (Fibromyalgia patient)
It’s inconsistent to oppose medical marijuana because of insufficient testing and not demand that the FDA and DEA reclassify it to allow more testing.
Want to be a billionaire? Sell drugs!
No, not the illegal kinds…FDA approved drugs! With an FDA approval, you can even list the numerous, and often critical, side effects and still make billions!
Oh, and doctors can make millions by prescribing them as part of Big Pharma’s ongoing “testing.” Of course the media convincingly asserts that the large illegal drug cartels are killing Americans, but the truth is the largest drug cartel in the world is Big Pharma and they are killing over 115 people each day with opioids!
Yet in the face of this “legal drug epidemic” the DEA (with the FDA’s support) continues to classify cannabis as a schedule 1 drug. Because of this, research on marijuana or its active ingredients is highly restricted, and in many cases even discouraged.
A Schedule 1 classification is defined as deriving no medicinal value with the designated drug. The only reason Marijuana has remained under this classification is the substantial influence Big Pharma has over the compromised FDA and many federal legislators.
Emphasizing the federal government’s opposition, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar recently pronounced that there was “no such thing as medical marijuana.” Medical researchers complain that federal reluctance, and in some cases hostility, prevents high-quality research needed to better understand the medical opportunities available with cannabis.
Big Pharma’s empire is built and maintained upon medical patents—and there isn’t enough opportunity for profit in patenting a plant, or its extracts. Hence their aggressive opposition to harmonizing state and federal law.
Early research suggests that marijuana might be a promising alternative to opioids or other medicines with severe side effects (i.e. seizure and cancer drugs). Of course, Big Pharma is aggressively opposed to the pursuit of medical marijuana as it replaces patented (and thus financially secure) medications with an unpatented solution. The idea of losing billion-dollar revenue streams can bring out the worst in people and companies.
“We have the federal government and the state governments driving a hundred miles an hour in the opposite direction when they should be coming together to obtain more scientific data,” says Dr. Orrin Devinsky, director at New York University’s Comprehensive Epilepsy Center. Dr. Devinksy has been researching the effects of cannabidiol, an active ingredient of marijuana, on epilepsy. “It’s like saying in 1960, ‘We’re not going to the moon because no one agrees how to get there.’ “
Impatient with Big Pharma’s roadblocks that appear to be fully supported by the DEA and FDA, states have moved forward to provide relief to those suffering from chronic pain caused by injury or diseases such as Fibromyalgia.
Thirty-Five states have currently legalized Marijuana for either recreational use or medicinal use under broad medical guidelines. Yet even in these states, patients and physicians both lack accurate guidance when making decisions about medical treatment for the array of serious conditions they want to treat with medical marijuana.
CURE Initiative
The CURE Initiative was created to specifically address the divide left between state legalization of Marijuana and federal laws and regulations. The CURE Initiative follows a five-prong attack.
First, the CURE Initiative educates the public and government officials on the medical benefits being enjoyed by those suffering from chronic pain and other severe illnesses.
A growing number of medical professionals are using cannabis (or its derivatives) for relief from chronic pain, and other serious illnesses—such as Parkinson’s and Epilepsy.
Second, the CURE Initiative educates the public on the compromised role of the FDA, DEA, and many in Congress regarding the laws and regulations dealing with Marijuana.
“It’s public policy before science,” says Chinazo Cunningham, a doctor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and a lead investigator on one of the few federally funded studies exploring marijuana as a treatment for pain. “The federal government’s policies really make it much more difficult.”
Third, the CURE Initiative activates voters to demand that their House and Senate representatives pressure the FDA and DEA to reclassify Marijuana scheduling and pass laws in harmony with state laws—allowing both access and scientific testing of its benefits for all.
Fourth, the CURE Initiative supports testing of Marijuana to best understand its many healing components, the proper potency of the product, and the proper dosage to treat the many symptoms it is used for today.
For years only one federal government contractor at the University of Mississippi has been allowed to grow marijuana for federally funded research. Not only is this severely limiting, but many competent researchers criticize that the product (in micronized powder form) used for testing is inadequate for high-quality studies.
Fifth, the CURE Initiative supports proper and effective regulation of Marijuana. While focused on Medical Marijuana, it would be foolish and inconsistent to not have both medical and recreational use regulated in accordance with other drugs and recreational products. Cigarettes and alcoholic beverages have no medicinal benefits but have been legalized and regulated nationally for recreational use.
