MARIJUANA LAW UPDATES BY JUDGE MARY CELESTE (RET.)


Who Is Impacted if Marijuana Is Reclassified as a Schedule II Drug?


I


n the Fall 2018 issue of DATIA focus, I discussed congressional marijuana bills awaiting consideration and votes. Te


bills ranged from reclassifying marijuana as a Schedule II drug to removing it entirely from the Controlled Substances Act. Te Act contains five schedules: I as the most serious, to V as the least. Two of the major reasons that drugs are classified as most serious under Schedule I is that the drug has “no currently accepted medical use” and has a “high potential for abuse.”1


deny that as more and more states adopt medical marijuana laws and more studies seem to indicate some medical benefit,2


the


notion of scheduling marijuana as one of the most dangerous drugs is starting to crack. Te continued Federal Drug


Administration (FDA) approval of cannabinoid-based medicines is also causing fissures. Four of them are now on the market: dronabinol (marinol) for controlling nausea and vomiting caused by chemotherapy, nabilone (cesamet) to treat anorexia in HIV patients, and the recently approved drugs Epidiolex3


(cannabidiol)


[CBD] to treat rare and severe forms of epilepsy and Syndros, a THC dronabinol substance like Marinol (except that it is marketed in liquid form rather than a pill).4 Te later became commercially available in the U.S. as a Schedule II substance. “It seems paradoxical that drugs like these, which contain elements of marijuana and serve the same purported purpose, are designated as Schedule II and III, while botanical marijuana remains Schedule I.”5 If, however, the Schedule I changes to


II, several industries will be impacted. Tey include, but are not limited to, the synthetic-marijuana pharmaceutical companies; the Canadian marijuana industry; the alcohol industry; the


36 datia focus


pharmaceutical industry in general; the drug testing industry, and the government. Some would think these big Pharma


companies would be jumping for joy if marijuana were rescheduled to II. But big Pharmasynthetic marijuana companies want to protect their monopoly and hold onto the synthetic-marijuana industry. Epidiolex is manufactured solely by GW Pharmaceuticals;6


it is the first FDA- No one can


approved drug that contains a purified drug substance derived from marijuana. It is also the first FDA-approved drug for the treatment of patients with Dravet syndrome.7


Syndros is marketed by


Insys Terapeutics. Tese companies are the manufacturers and distributors of everything that has been FDA has approved and is currently on the market. “Big Pharma companies want botanical marijuana to remain illegal because it is financially beneficial to them, not because synthetic marijuana is decidedly beter for patients.”8 Te fact that botanical marijuana is


typically cheaper than synthetic marijuana makes the case. Drugs like Marinol are sold for $18 per 5 mg capsule, the equivalent of $3,600 per gram. In contrast, botanical marijuana can be obtained for $15 a gram, though potency and price of the plant can vary. For patients without insurance, legal botanical marijuana provides an affordable option to relieve their symptoms.9


Insys


made huge contributions to the Arizona effort to pass a medical marijuana initiative in 2016 and has been deemed instrumental in stymieing that effort.10


legalization speculated that Insys was atempting “to kill a non-pharmaceutical market for marijuana in order to line their own pockets.”11


legalization of both recreational and medical marijuana in 2016, according to the Senate Office of Public Records.” 12 Tat is not to say that the pharmaceutical


industry in general would not profit if the reclassification does indeed occur. Te pharmaceutical industry would likely have significant opportunities to develop new cannabinoid-based drugs for a multitude of medical conditions now being addressed by medical marijuana. For example, there is a growing body of evidence that marijuana is working for chronic pain.13 “Te pharmaceutical industry is salivating over trying to find products that will spare opioids or reduce exposure to opioids. Whether or not the pharmaceutical industry can produce a substance it can call a drug that would be approved for a pain indication remains the question.”14 Declassifying marijuana would also slow


“Tose supporting “Pharmaceutical Research


and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) spent $19.7 million on lobbying against the


the continued growth of the behemoth marijuana Canadian companies. Medical marijuana has been legal in all of Canada since 2001, and recreational marijuana, too, is now legal. Tis status has afforded the Canadian marijuana companies to trade on the stock exchange and has given them a “leg up” on U.S. marijuana companies. Te American companies are only raking in one- tenth of the revenue gained by Canadian marijuana companies. “Two of the largest Canadian marijuana corporations, Canopy Growth Corp. and Aurora Cannabis, have respective market caps of $5.51 billion and $3.28 billion, whereas the largest among the American corporations, Terra Tech Corp. and Kush Botles, have only achieved respective market caps of $122.98 million and $342.79 million.”15 As the world’s marijuana companies


are growing, they are being eyed by the world’s alcohol industry. “Te former chief


winter 2019


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