Posted on 05/17/2006 2:38:57 PM PDT by LouAvul
Seventeen years after it was withdrawn from U.S. markets, a synthetic version of the active ingredient in marijuana is going back on sale as a prescription treatment for the vomiting and nausea that often accompany chemotherapy, the drug's manufacturer said Tuesday.
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International hopes to begin selling Cesamet in the next two to three weeks, company president Wes Wheeler said.
The Costa Mesa, California, company received Food and Drug Administration approval Monday to resume sales of the drug, which it bought from Eli Lilly and Co. in 2004. Valeant currently sells the drug, also called nabilone, in Canada.
Lilly originally received FDA approval for nabilone in 1985 but withdrew it from the market in 1989 for commercial reasons, Wheeler said. Valeant, since purchasing the drug, has revised its label and updated its manufacturing process, he added.
The drug will compete with Marinol, made by Belgium-based Solvay SA. Marinol, another synthetic version of tetrahydrocannabinol, the active ingredient in marijuana that's more commonly known as THC. It also received FDA approval in 1985.
Synthetic THC acts on the brain like the THC in smoked marijuana but eliminates having to inhale the otherwise harmful smoke contained in the illegal drug, Valeant said.
Cesamet is a Schedule II drug, meaning it has a high potential for abuse. The 1-milligram tablets are meant to be taken twice daily before cancer patients undergo chemotherapy and up to 48 hours following treatment. Side effects include euphoria, drowsiness, vertigo and dry mouth.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
OOPS! That rules it out for the warriors. The idea that someone might feel good is outrageous to them.
Then why don't you get him some?
The difference is, the former doesn't happen but I've seen the latter with my own eyes. In fact, I drank from it. :^}
The date they released that "memo" is of particular interest to those that understand what 4/20 means.
If I had the gumption to look up how to spell Rhubarb I would have posted that same thing! LOL Nice one!
Admit? HA! This pill will only see white women having sex with colored jazz musicians!
My grandma used to make a topical arthritis ointment. Somehow this came up when chatting with my mom over the weekend, and apparently marijuana was one of the ingredients she used. Considering what a straight-arrow my grandma was, I was pretty shocked when my mom told me that.
And you've now admitted that foxglove is toxic, in contrast to your earlier post that "plants work as well as the extract".
Not true for foxglove and not true for marijuana.
"Do you still have a problem with marijuana being used as medicine to give sick people comfort ..."
I've never had a problem with that. That's their choice. My problem is with those who want the rest of us to legalize that activity.
"... and to prevent blindness from glaucoma, to say the least?"
Marijuana may actually damage the optic nerve. Plus, the patient would have to be high 24hrs/day to properly treat glaucoma with marijuana.
I'm going to side with the AMA, the National Institutes of Health Report, The National Eye Institute, and the American Academy of Ophthalmology and go against smoked marijuana as medicine for glaucoma.
"My problem is with those who want the rest of us to legalize that activity".
So, it is OK with you for sick people to use marijuana as medicine but you do not want to let them legally use it?
But morphine if just fine with you, right? And it is legal for use as medicine.
I was talking about MJ being harmless and having the ability to be used as medicine without any sort of processing but drying before smoking.
You dragged in Foxglove and now you are throwing rhubarb into the mix.
Its about MJ and sythetic MJ. Not Foxglove.
I'll say it again. It's their choice. Whether that's OK with me or not OK with me is irrelevant.
Smoked marijuana as medicine is a scam. A ruse. A "red herring" to legalize marijuana for recreational use. The proponents have admitted that.
It's your side that's using the sick and dying as pawns, not me. So don't haul them out to try to make me feel guilty. Ain't gonna happen.
It's not harmless. No, it doesn't kill you. But it's not harmless.
Every time you continue to post that marijuana is harmless, I'm going to continue to ask you if a 10-year-old may smoke it -- it being harmless and all.
You have yet to answer that question.
"You dragged in Foxglove and now you are throwing rhubarb into the mix."
I dragged them in because you made the stupid generalized statement that "plants work as well as the extract". Not my fault.
"Its about MJ and sythetic MJ. Not Foxglove."
Fine. I support cannabinoids as medicine, not smoked marijuana.
"Smoked marijuana as medicine is a scam. A ruse".
A true sociopath has no feelings for anyone else.
Antisocial Personality Disorder is also known as psychopathy or sociopathy. Individuals with this disorder have little regard for the feeling and welfare of others. As a clinical diagnosis it is usually limited to those over age 18. It can be diagnosed in younger people if the they commit isolated antisocial acts and do not show signs of another mental disorder.
Antisocial Personality Disorder is chronic, beginning in adolescence and continuing throughout adulthood. There are ten general symptoms:
not learning from experience
no sense of responsibility
inability to form meaningful relationships
inability to control impulses
lack of moral sense
chronically antisocial behavior
no change in behavior after punishment
emotional immaturity
lack of guilt
self-centeredness
Grandmother: "Who ate my bowl of plastic fruits on the dining room table?!"
And God knows that they won't make a dime off something that can be grown in one's backyard.
Whoops, there goes MrLeRoy's excuse.
Describes Keith Stroup, Chairman, NORML, in a 1979 interview:
"WHEEL: How is NORML utilizing the issue of marijuana treatment of chemotherapy patients?"
"STROUP: We are trying to get marijuana reclassified medically. If we do that, (we'll do it in at least 20 states this year for chemotherapy patients) we'll be using the issue as a red herring to give marijuana a good name. That's our way of getting to them (New Right) indirectly, just like the paraphernalia laws are their way at getting to us."
Which is the real reason the pharmaceuticals aren't interested in investing tens of millions of dollars to research medical marijuana. NOT that the government won't let them.
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