Why is marinol legal and marijuana is not legal?

[Oleg]

If marinol is the same as marijuana except that it doesn't contain additional chemicals that marijuana has, why is marijuana illegal, but marinol is legal? Also, people smoke marijuana because they cannot be prescribed marinol in a legal way? I mean, marinol is prescribed for cancer and AIDS patients, and most people don't have either cancer or AIDS.

Oleg Reviewed by Oleg on 08-11-2007. Why is marinol legal and marijuana is not legal? If marinol is the same as marijuana except that it doesn't contain additional chemicals that marijuana has, why is marijuana illegal, but marinol is legal? Also, people smoke marijuana because they cannot be prescribed marinol in a legal way? I mean, marinol is prescribed for cancer and AIDS patients, and most people don't have either cancer or AIDS. Rating: 5

[psteve]

You can't put a bar code on a bud.

[Oleg]

LOL. But seriously, why is one thing legal and the other one is not?

[psteve]

I was serious.

[Oleg]

If this is what determines legality of something, well... I guess, it's perfectly logical.

[king of the world]

You can't put a bar code on a bud.

hes right pharmaceutical make billions off of drugs that they make in their labs. they dont want weed to be legal because then everyone would just grow their own and they would get no money.

[Sombrero]

What I find interesting is that pure THC is listed as a much safer substance than the cannabis plant, while THC is the psychoactive constituent in cannabis, and the other cannabis constituents aren't really psychoactive. Also, pure THC can cause what scientists might refer to as acute psychotic states, while the cannabidiol, the second most abundant cannabinoid in the cannabis plant, is a potent anti-psychotic, and counteracts the negative effects of pure THC. So the cannabis plant is much better than pure THC. So the government that is "protecting" us from cannabis is actually harming us by pushing pure THC while not making cannabis available.

[mfqr]

You're all right about this, but there is also another reason. Somehow people think that Marijuana isn't a medicine because you smoke it. You can't smoke medicine, apparently (and yes, this is used as an argument against medical marijuana - how said, isn't it!). All medicine has to be in the form of a pill, or injected. Apparently everyone thinks that Marijuana can't be used as medicine because of this, and because of all the anti-cannabis propaganda surrounding it. Thus, even though they do know it can be medicinal, they make a pill that contains pure synthetic THC. Of course, these same people will argue against the legalization by saying that cannabis has become more potent (more THC) since the '60s and '70s. Some how this makes it bad, even though it's not bad to take a pure synthetic THC pill as medicine.

So considering this, Marijuana is bad, and the natural THC found in Marijuana is bad. However, synthetic THC in pill-form isn't, because apparently all medicine needs to be in pill-form to be a medicine.

Remember, people, it's not its medicinal effects that count as medicine... it's how it's taken. That is our society. Sucks, doesn't it?

But yes, the pharmaceutical industry would rather keep the world riddled with crime than to help end the phony War on Drugs, which has many unnecessary casualties. Not only that, but it is a war that cannot be won, not matter how strict the laws get; as there will always be someone willing to risk their freedom for a 1000%+ profit on an item.

The pharmaceutical company knows that if cannabis were legalized for any purpose, whether it be recreational or medical or spiritual, or all of those, that people would use it as an alternative to many of their "medicines."

I don't think it's so much about people growing their own - we already do that. It's more about cannabis taking over other popular prescription drugs with legal access to it. And you can bet that if it was legalized, that many people would realize how beneficial cannabis really can be.

[Hardcore Newbie]

I just find it very hypocritical, the government says that marijuana has "no medical benefits at all", yet they're using it to make pills. Either say that it does have medical properties, and allow it, or that it doesn't and stop deriving pills from it.

[mfqr]

I just find it very hypocritical, the government says that marijuana has "no medical benefits at all", yet they're using it to make pills. Either say that it does have medical properties, and allow it, or that it doesn't and stop deriving pills from it.

Yep, that's exactly my point.