Need a new drug

Israeli biotech company Pharmos is hot on pot, well make that chemically produced synthetic pot. Despite failed trials of its last drug, dexanabinol, in the treatment of traumatic brain injury, the company is still enthusiastically pursuing cannabinoid research.

It's unsurprising that Pharmos is undaunted by earlier failures with the stakes this high. The global pain market is said to be worth $26 billion and there's a dearth of appropriate drugs after the recent scandals around the safety of Vioxx and related pain meds and the alleged dispersion of addictive narcotic painkillers like OxyContin into the black market that the DEA is using to justify with it's war on pain doctors. The company has already come up with a new drug.

Pre-clinical studies carried out by Pharmos show that Cannabinor is as potent as morphine and other pain killers in providing pain relief and has a longer duration of action.

"But unlike morphine and other drugs on the market today, Cannabinor does not show any of the side effects, including constipation, drowsiness and addiction, associated with these drugs," says Kindler.

The development of Cannabinor comes at a time when there is extensive interest in cannabinoids in the pharmaceutical world. Dozens of companies are developing cannabinoid drugs for medical uses that include the treatment of cancer nausea, spastic disorders, epilepsy and sleepwalking.

It's like I've always said. The pharma corps were going to willing to acknowledge the medicinal properties of cannabis as soon as they figured out how to make enough money on it. It just took them a while to figure out how to vilify the evidence of 5,000 years worth of successful use of a natural herb that anyone can grow, in order to sell us a synthentic drug that only they can produce.

[hat tip to Michael Krawitz]