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Drug companies prefer expensive Sativex over cheap cannabis
By Hempology | June 26, 2007
New York Times
24 Jun 2007
A CRITICAL NEED FOR MEDICAL MARIJUANA
Letter to editor:
In “Crackpot Legislation,” Henry I. Miller proposes unrealistic dangers in the use of medical marijuana. He worries about “fungi, bacteria, pesticides, heavy metals and other substances.”
If citizens grow their own marijuana in limited quantities, these risks are eliminated.
He also worries about quality control: if people grow their own, they quickly learn what to expect from their domestic product.
While he acknowledges that marijuana may have some medicinal purposes, he would have patients wait for F.D.A.-approved clinical trials of Sativex, a liquid marijuana derivative.
If Sativex is approved, as it has been in Canada, it will still have a major drawback: it will be expensive.
Marijuana, if legal, costs almost nothing to grow. Obviously the drug companies will prefer Sativex.
In 1944, after careful scientific study, a commission appointed by New York City’s mayor, Fiorello H. La Guardia, concluded that marijuana posed few, if any, risks. Local and state governments continue to provide a more realistic view than the hysteria that has often come from the federal government.
Arthur Hohmuth, Princeton, N.J.
The writer is a professor of psychology at the College of New Jersey.
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