Thomas is pleased that the government is allowing private groups to buy its marijuana, but he worries that these continued restrictions and rigorous reviews may inhibit real research. But a bigger hurdle than the feds may be the pharmaceutical industry itself. The government wants someone to develop a pharmaceutical alternative to smoked marijuana, but skeptics wonder how much incentive drug companies will have to try to replicate the properties of a drug that, despite its illegality, is relatively affordable, available, and effective. No one's jumping to patent them domestically, because vaporizers use whole-plant marijuana. The reluctance of pharmaceutical companies to embrace herbal medicine in general is another factor that could stall marijuana research.
Herbal remedies are increasingly popular and are the source of much consternation in the industry.
Marijuana resides in the netherland between those two worlds. Perhaps what concerns reformers most of all is that the federal government has yet to back off from its past promises to prosecute patients who currently use marijuana and the doctors who recommend it to them. Even though voters in seven states have approved the medical use of marijuana, proponents say that many patients and doctors in those states are scared to talk about it, much less use it, for fear of federal prosecution. And that's tantamount to criminalizing the sick, says Chuck Thomas. We do not own nor are responsible for visitor comments.