I had the pleasure of speaking with a 91 year old medical researcher who worked with my friend who was celebrating his 75th birthday. Both worked together decades ago in kidney research, and while my friend went into private practice, his friend continued the research and his company now has a portable unit in trials that eliminates the need for dialysis. You wear the unit 24/7 and the unit must be recharged 3 times a day, but you never need to be hooked up to a dialysis machine again.
Sadly while this has been developed in the U.S., because of research costs it's in clinical trials in Singapore and will probably be accepted there, as well as in much of the rest of the world, before they can afford to do the testing required by the FDA, who won't accept the words of others that something works, it must be proven here.
I bring this up because sadly I believe their are similar, and in many cases worse examples here when it comes to products developed from cannabis which have shown medical benefits and are being accepted all over the world.
I'm very critical of the FDA, but in this case it's more than just the FDA, the entire Federal Govt. has it's head in the sand when it comes to accepting that their are benefits that are worthy of exploring with cannabis. Sadly as I understand it a Congressional committee may prevent the bill that doesn't permit the Justice Dept. from prosecuting cannabis cases in State's where it's legal, and Session's may be allowed to start arresting and prosecuting those who grow, distribute, and sell cannabis based products. Perhaps this is needed to get Congress to take proper action once and for all instead of applying band-aids that essentially permit State's to do what they choose to do without Federal interference. The problem with State's Rights is it doesn't clearly tell the FDA that they're free to explore the benefits of cannabis.
To me the saddest thing is that if something can be extracted from cannabis, and then it's possible to duplicate it artificially, it's fine to test the artificial product. It's rather like saying their are medical benefits to an apple a day, but we cannot make it legal until an artificial apple has been developed. I know that they have successfully reproduced certain cannabis based components, but I'm told their are many other components available in much smaller percentages who's benefits haven't been explored, except by companies like OWCP, as well as those using the entire plant and getting these components whether they want it or not.
Israel and other countries in the world will no doubt develop products that benefit people with a variety of diseases from component of the entire plant. Here in the U.S. we'll wait for others to prove we're wrong about our approach, and hopefully some day Congress will act responsibly and do what's needed to put America on equal footing with most of the rest of the world.
Gary
Sadly while this has been developed in the U.S., because of research costs it's in clinical trials in Singapore and will probably be accepted there, as well as in much of the rest of the world, before they can afford to do the testing required by the FDA, who won't accept the words of others that something works, it must be proven here.
I bring this up because sadly I believe their are similar, and in many cases worse examples here when it comes to products developed from cannabis which have shown medical benefits and are being accepted all over the world.
I'm very critical of the FDA, but in this case it's more than just the FDA, the entire Federal Govt. has it's head in the sand when it comes to accepting that their are benefits that are worthy of exploring with cannabis. Sadly as I understand it a Congressional committee may prevent the bill that doesn't permit the Justice Dept. from prosecuting cannabis cases in State's where it's legal, and Session's may be allowed to start arresting and prosecuting those who grow, distribute, and sell cannabis based products. Perhaps this is needed to get Congress to take proper action once and for all instead of applying band-aids that essentially permit State's to do what they choose to do without Federal interference. The problem with State's Rights is it doesn't clearly tell the FDA that they're free to explore the benefits of cannabis.
To me the saddest thing is that if something can be extracted from cannabis, and then it's possible to duplicate it artificially, it's fine to test the artificial product. It's rather like saying their are medical benefits to an apple a day, but we cannot make it legal until an artificial apple has been developed. I know that they have successfully reproduced certain cannabis based components, but I'm told their are many other components available in much smaller percentages who's benefits haven't been explored, except by companies like OWCP, as well as those using the entire plant and getting these components whether they want it or not.
Israel and other countries in the world will no doubt develop products that benefit people with a variety of diseases from component of the entire plant. Here in the U.S. we'll wait for others to prove we're wrong about our approach, and hopefully some day Congress will act responsibly and do what's needed to put America on equal footing with most of the rest of the world.
Gary
