Only seven states have legalized marijuana for medicinal purposes. Marijuana contains over 400 different chemicals, and each chemical, as it gets burned, converts into several other chemicals. So, you are ingesting, literally, thousands of chemicals into your system. Smoking marijuana would be a backward step in terms of pharmaceutical development. Unlike marijuana, few people are likely to abuse THC in suppository form, ElSohly noted.
Most people have a hard time taking a suppository even to treat an illness.
Only people who really need it will use it. Even if you were willing to take a suppository to get high, you would have to take a lot of them because the THC is released slowly and at levels only enough to provide therapeutic effects but not enough to give the psychological high. Studies of the drug already have been conducted in animals and humans, and the results have been promising, ElSohly said. Efforts are underway to identify a pharmaceutical company to assist in the additional studies needed to apply for FDA approval. Once approved, the drug can be prescribed by physicians and dispensed by pharmacists.