You are CONFUSING two different things:
1) Applications to the government for *permission* to conduct medical research into marijuana (which must be approved by the FDA, but ALSO approved by the DEA... and since the DEA has a monopoly on marijuana, the material for the study must be *supplied* by the DEA, strict 'security requirements' mandated by the DEA (double ranks of 10'+ high chain link fencing, one row electrified, razor wire topped, other special, expensive 'security' provisions, etc., etc.)
and
2) Drugs approved by the FDA for human use.
Drugs can't get approved without years of detailed, expensive research... and if permission for the basic research is nearly always DENIED by the DEA (as it is)... then there can be no research submitted to the FDA for drug approval, thus: no drugs get approved.
Add that to the fact that the profit potential is limited (because compounds are not-patentable in this case, only processes) and you will see that medical research has been frozen for decades.
Re: "...it does not produce the harmful health effects associated with smoking marijuana."
Neither does a brownie, or a salad dressing, or an omlette, or an arthritis wrap... so what? |
