“Most people in our industry said it was impossible to turn cannabis into a prescription medicine. We had to rewrite the rule book. We have the first approval of a plant extract drug in modern history. It has 420 molecules, whereas every other drug has just one”Â
(Geoffrey Guy, CEO/Founder, GW Pharmaceuticals).
GW Pharmaceuticals, which was founded just a couple of years after scientists discovered the existence of our endocannabinoid system, was licensed during the mid-1990s under the Blair administration. Its purpose? To research the potential of cannabis as medicine.Â
Of course, there was no mention of this in the British media at that time; probably because cannabis was illegal and still played a starring role in the ‘war on drugs.’ But scientific reports were clear; all mammals, including humans, have an endocannabinoid system, and this system (which can be triggered via cannabis), is in charge of our health and that strongly implies that cannabis is a very powerful medicine. The problem for the pharmaceuticals, however, was (and still is) how to harness the plant’s power within a pharmaceutical (scientific model).
So what exactly is the scientific model?
Prior to the introduction of pharmaceutical drugs, ‘humans used whole plants or parts of the plant to treat ailments because something about the plant worked.‘Â The problem was they didn’t know exactly what part of the plant was medicinally beneficial and the . This situation changed with the emergence of chemistry, which enabled scientists to isolate the potential elements in nature that brought about healing, and then create a chemical copy.Â
This significantly shifted the goalposts. No longer did scientists need to understand the complexity of plant medicine – they just had to synthesise the compound responsible for the healing effects, and ensure it was efficient and safe for medicinal use via random, clinical trials.Â
Unfortunately, this process, which is globally viewed as the gold-standard and, as such, the only valid method for licensing medicines, leaves no room for anything else – including those that nature provides. So when patients and their healthcare professionals reported that smoking cannabis significantly reduced the symptoms of AIDS, as well as some of the side effects of chemotherapy treatments, the pharmaceutical industry’s response was a chemical version of THC (the substance that makes you stoned).
Marinol (nabilone), which is pure THC in a gel cap, was licensed in the early 1980s. Like all pharmaceutical drugs, Marinol was incredibly expensive when licensed, and described by the FDA as being “far superior” to the “crude drug” cannabis. However, patients and their healthcare providers disagreed. Even the lowest dose left people “lying on the sofa for days, just totally drugged and unproductive,” and its effects described as “anxiety-provoking, intense, and like walking into a short story by Flannery.’ In other words, the real thing (you know, that “crude drug”) was far better.Â
Of course, there was no possibility of cannabis being studied further back then (let alone legalised for medical use), because of its starring role in the ongoing ‘war on drugs.’ However, there were (and still are) scientists studying the plant in Israel, and it was their research that discovered the existence of this new system in our bodies – way back in 1992! Once again, this important news was not reported in mainstream British media, and even today, some thirty years later, most people in Britain have no idea they have an endocannabinoid system – despite the essential roles in plays in maintaining our health.Â
This new discovery did, however, lead to a flurry of research as scientists across the world began studying the role of cannabis in healthcare, and the reports that followed show beyond any doubt that cannabis is not only medicine – it is one of the most powerful medicines known to humanity. In fact, cannabis is such a diverse and powerful medicine that it is often called a botanical powerhouse and a pharmaceutical treasure trove. This is why more than forty countries have legalised cannabis for medical use, and more and more are relaxing their laws on its recreational use.Â
“Most people in our industry said it was impossible to turn cannabis into a prescription medicine. We had to rewrite the rule book. We have the first approval of a plant extract drug in modern history. It has 420 molecules, whereas every other drug has just one."
Medical Cannabis is Herbal Medicine
Until recently, it was impossible to license herbal remedies as medicine because of the complexity of plant materials (e.g. plant parts, roots, berries, or flowers, tree bark, etc.). Plants, including cannabis, have hundreds of different substances; many of which are still unknown, whereas the majority of pharmaceutical medicines have one substance, and two at the very most. As such, modern medicines are man-made chemicals that can be controlled and studied via random clinical trials, whereas cannabis, like other plant medicines, cannot be researched in this way. Or, so one would think.
GW Pharmaceuticals obtained its license to market their products abroad back in 2013 (although it has been suggested they were doing so far earlier), and it led the way to the UK being the world’s largest exporter of cannabis products (since 2017). Despite its illegality, GW had produced two products that are made entirely from cannabis, but which have both been licensed via the pharmaceutical model, thus enabling Big Pharma to profit at our expense. And as GW’s former CEO freely admits, “They had to change the rule book” (British law), in order to do so. That means that cannabis is legal for Big Business, but illegal to British citizens.
Conversely, the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries have historically derived plant-based medicines by describing them as being ‘quackery,’ ‘old wives’ tales,’ and even ‘superstitious nonsense.’ In order to obtain the gold standard, which states that an evidence-based approach to licensing medicines is the only way to assure their efficacy and safety, GW has standardised the plants they grow – a practice that changes and regulates the plant’s natural characteristics, thus producing medicine that contains what it says on the lid (Sativex: ratio 50/50 CBD/THC; Epidiolex 100% CBD).
The problem is that the practice of standardisation is fiercely contested by professional herbalists, who argue that growing plants in this way has negative outcomes such as weakening the plant’s healing powers. The fact that patients and their caregivers report that both medicines are far less effective than those obtained via the black market, perhaps proves their point. Nevertheless, these are the only medical cannabis products available in the UK, and whether effective or not, very few people are able to obtain a prescription via the NHS, despite the 2018 cannabis reform that would supposedly legalise medical cannabis.
Rewriting the 'Rule Book' - a.k.a 'British Law'
The pharmaceutical industry, although aware of the medicinal potential of cannabis, has historically ignored its potential because of: (a) strict regulatory laws relating to plant (herbal) medicines; and (b) the difficulty of obtaining a patent due to cannabis being a plant (nature cannot be patented). Without overcoming these obstacles, there was no profits to be made. G.W Pharmaceuticals, however, has managed to obtain licensing for medicinal cannabis products that are made from plants alone, and the company also managed to patent their cannabis hybrids.
Most importantly, G.W Pharmaceuticals was able to ‘rewrite the rule book’ to obtain ‘the first approval of a plant extract drug in modern history,’ and they achieved this with the collaboration of ‘regulators, legislators, payors and the medical community.‘ One of these legislators was the then Prime Minister, Theresa May, and she had/has an invested interest in keeping cannabis illegal, as did other prominent politicians at that time. As such, the changes made to British law in 2018 ensured the profitability of pharmaceutical products, but also made sure that cannabis remained illegal for the masses. Although supposedly aimed at enabling patient access to medical cannabis, the reality is that very few people have been able to access cannabis medicine since the so-called cannabis ‘reforms’ took place.
The reasons for this are very possibly due to what has happened in places where cannabis reform has taken place overseas. In Canada, where cannabis has been fully legalised, not only has the pharmaceutical industry lost billions of dollars, but the quality of ‘street’ cannabis is significantly cheaper and has a better quality that that produced by professional growers. An independent report, for example, states states ‘that the black market accounted for 86% of cannabis sale’, and that ‘On average [..] legal cannabis was selling for about $10.23 per gram versus $5.59 found on the black market.’
The legalisation of cannabis would significantly impact the British cannabis industry. The fact is that NO ONE has EVER died from cannabis and that it is IMPOSSIBLE to overdose means that medical cannabis is safer than most (if not all) prescription medicines. That is the truth. Although some people smoke cannabis for medicinal reasons, the vast majority of medical cannabis patients are treating their health condition with oils, extracts, and tinctures that they either make themselves or buy illegally. And as word spreads, so does the practice of growing and making one’s own medicine, despite it being illegal.
