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New Drug Takes You on a Bum Trip
By Hempology | August 31, 2002
From the Edmonton Sun, August 31, 2002
By Shane Holladay
Butt out those joints – a U.S. researcher is close to rolling out an alternative for medical marijuana exemptees that may put an end to their need for weed.
Dr. Mahmoud ElSohly has developed a rectal suppository that delivers a therapeutic dose of THC – the active ingredient of marijuana – without the harmful effects of smoking and with one other twist, he says.
“You don’t get that stoned feeling,” said ElSohly, a University of Mississippi research professor who does U.S. government sponsored research of marijuana and other drugs.
“It cuts down on that edge that you normally get with THC.”
Suppositories are the next more direct route to deliver THC into the bloodstream after smoking, he said.
Rob, a medical marijuana exemptee living in Edmonton, said he’s skeptical scientists can cut out the euphoric aspect of THC without cutting its effectiveness.
“They seem to want to alter it when it’s proven to be effective just the way it is,” he said.
The drug ElSohly patented in 1996 – dronabinol hemisuccunate (DHS) – is a precursor to THC.
It is quickly absorbed into fatty tissues of the lower intestine. As DHS is gradually released into the bloodstream, it’s chemically transformed into THC.
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