Pharmaceutical companies prevent cannabis legalization

Pharma companies active against cannabis legalization

29/10/2014

A few months ago, a German court ruled that some seriously ill people were allowed to legally grow hemp. Cannabis use is also approved for medical use in several states in the United States. But there are also many opponents of the legalization of marijuana everywhere. These include, among others, pharmaceutical companies.

Analgesic and anti-inflammatory
In Germany, cannabis has long been used as a medicine. Its efficacy is proven, among other things, in nausea and vomiting or in cachexia, a condition in which it comes through extreme emaciation to extreme underweight, proven. In addition, experts advise loss of appetite for marijuana or hashish. Cannabis has an analgesic and anti-inflammatory effect and can help severely ill people to endure their suffering better. So also the German patients who were allowed a few months ago by the Cologne administrative court to grow hemp for personal use. Men who are struggling with chronic pain, multiple sclerosis (MS), or attention deficit syndrome (ADHD) are helping to use the drug for their own claims against the pain.

Pharmaceutical companies fund organizations against cannabis legalization
Cannabis use is also approved for medical use in several states in the United States. Since this year, killing in Washington and Colorado is quite legal, as the "Focus" reports. However, there is evidence that the pharmaceutical industry in the United States is trying to prevent legalization, fearing the sale of its painkillers. The US online magazine, The Nation, reports online that the Community Anti-Drug Coalition of America (CADCA) and Partnership for Drug-Free Kinds receive a significant share of their budget from opiate manufacturers and other pharmaceutical companies. According to the information, the two organizations are opposed to any form of cannabis legalization. Critics accuse both of them to be very restrained in the fight against the dependence on prescription opiates.

Pharmaceutical industry has little interest in research
It is said that "The Nation" has a confidential document stating that the largest contributors to the "Partnership for Drug-Free Kids" include opiate manufacturers Purdue Pharma and Abott Laboratories. And according to the report, the CADCA receives money from pharmaceutical companies Purdue Pharma, Alkermes, Janssen Pharmaceutical and Pfizer. Although the positive effect of marijuana could be proven in various studies, the pharmaceutical lobby in this country apparently does not consider further investigations to be so important. The "Süddeutsche Zeitung" wrote in an article in September 2013: "The pharmaceutical industry, however, has little interest in research, since the plant ingredients are hardly patentable." (Ad)