Bursting The ‘Molecular Bubble’ Of Pharmacopia
Comparing the entire lot of synthesized marijuana medications which include Marinol, Cesamet, Dexanibanol, CT-3 (ajulemic acid), Cannabinor, Rimonabant / Acomplia, and a few others; one thing that is blaringly obvious is that none of them are very popular at all.
This lack of efficacy in the synthesized marijuana medicines is especially apparent in contrast to the popularity of another widely synthesized flowering plant with a very paternal name, Poppy. The poppy plant is synthesized into many successful drugs/medications; a number that is artificially lower than the actual demand, as the drastic and sometimes deadly side effects of these powerful drugs draws too much scrutiny from the public causing either a complete cessation of sales for that product or severe restrictions on the sales.
This dichotomy of science vs. nature is rich with irony; the transition from the mechanical to holistic version of reality gets progressively slower the more money is involved. As it pertains to the manufacture and sales of medicine, the pharmaceuticals companies are in no shortage of appetite for more profit. Like banks making loans during the housing bubble, we are experiencing the acceleration of pharmacology making drugs in a molecular bubble.
If we are to use sales as the defining test in a drug’s efficacy, then hands down Cannabis is the winner; with over $36 billion in estimated domestic sales per year. The annualized sales profit for all pharmaceutical drugs is somewhere around $300 billion. Cannabis now accounts in volume for more than 10% of sales of all medicinal drugs, with one huge exception; that the price of cannabis is not subject to the gross inflationary figures of the pharmaceutical drugs. Hence the huge numbers do not represent the true value proportion to which cannabis is more efficacious than many other drugs in many types of ailments.
With that said, there is still the mysterious paradox surrounding cannabis’ resistance to molecular vivisection by modern science. The magic of this medicine is anathema to modern science’s attempt to reconstruct and control the substance for profit, as it remains most effective in its natural form. This inherent frugality cannabis offers as a remedy is both blessing and curse.
The usage and acceptance of cannabis as a medicinal flower predates the existence of the nation which has waged the most destructive war against it. A war machine was created so vast and internecine it consumed epic levels of gross impropriety such that an entire nation’s fabric is stained thoroughly by the noxious fumes emanating from the incessant lies. Albeit trodden and trampled for 50 some odd years, this medicinal plant supersedes our top scientist’s own abilities at easing pain or relieving suffering. Still nature is better than the best man can offer. Still we rely on this Earth for our life.
Moving medicine forward is glacial because of the vast sums of highly illiquid money invested in this industry. One paradigm that deserves more attention is in analyzing the very nature of medical analysis of medicine. Every single manufactured molecule (drug) is tested against a placebo which is usually a sugar pill. This statement is ripe with inherent discord. If they test thousands of molecules a year this way and only a few actually work better than a sugar pill, then it behooves one to think that we should stop looking for new drugs and figure out why the placebo is winning every time?