What Weed Means for the Future of Sustainable Healthcare

Written by DAVID BIENENSTOCK
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Despite costing the average MS patient in New Zealand more than $16,500 (USD) per year, Sativex contains relatively modest doses of THC and CBD, and no other active ingredients—an incredible marijuana mark-up that gives GW a strong incentive to help maintain cannabis prohibition at all costs, especially since whole-plant cannabis can be smoked or vaporized, bringing near instantaneous relief due to rapid absorption in the lungs, while Sativex takes an hour or longer to start working.
“Needless to say, the pharmaceutical industry is increasingly devoting its massive resources to the development of cannabinoid analogs or other products which can compete with herbal marijuana,” Dr. Grinspoon writes. “None of these products will be as inexpensive or useful as herbal marijuana. Legality, not efficacy, is their major appeal.”
 
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