Vaporizer technology threatens pharma profits

This is old news to me. I've seen these vaporizers being used for years now, but they just seem to be hitting the commercial market.

The Bay Area has apparently become the hub of the vaporization movement - from a just-completed UC-San Francisco study on the technology's effectiveness to Alameda County officials' plans to allow the devices in new marijuana dispensaries.

More than a dozen manufacturers have sprung up to churn out the devices.

Prohibitionists of course are unhappy since the vaporizer blows one of their big arguments against natural marijuana out of the water - that being the dangers of delivery via smoking the herb.

By heating marijuana to a point where vapors are formed but before combustion, a vaporizer is free of many of the toxins found in marijuana smoke, advocates say.

In fact they appear to be a bit threatened by the prospect of a safe delivery system that doesn't require expensive pharmaceutical intervention. A trend like this could definitely cut into the profits of former ONDCP czarina, Andrea Barthwell's new employer Bayer, who is pushing for FDA approval of Sativex.

Until an application ... is approved by the Food and Drug Administration, marijuana will continue to be classified as a Schedule I (illegal) drug," sniffed Jennifer Devallance, spokeswoman for the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Which will of course happen when hell freezes over, if the prohibition profiteers at ONDCP have anything to do with it.