Does the Pot Pill Work?

The Government Says a Pill Called Marinol Offers the Same Benefits as Medical Marijuana. Is it True?

(CBS)  "Medical marijuana," the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration says, "already exists."

They don't just mean in California. A pill known as Marinol has been legal and approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use with a prescription anywhere in America since 1985.

It's active ingredient? Dronabinol, better known as THC, the primary psychoactive element of the cannabis plant.

"Marinol provides standardized THC concentrations, does not contain the other 400 uncharacterized substances found in smoked marijuana, such as carcinogens or fungal spores, and is not associated with the quick high of smoked marijuana," said Neil Hirsch, a spokesman for Marinol manufacturer Solvay Pharmaceuticals.

But Marinol is not the same thing as traditional, smokable marijuana. It is a less complex substance lacking both some of the good components found in traditional marijuana (such as cannabidiol, which has been found to have anti-seizure effects) and the bad or not-yet-fully-understood components (among them potential carcinogens) that can also come with the drug.

Ken Trainer, a 60-year-old Massachusetts resident who has battled Multiple Sclerosis for 25 years, said he has long been smoking marijuana to deal with the regular tremors he gets in his arms and legs.

"If I smoke a joint, the tremors go away most times before the joint is gone," he said. "It makes my life a little easier." Marinol, by contrast, "didn't really do much of anything for me," he said.

56-year-old Des Moines resident Jeff Elton, who was diagnosed with gastroparesis six years ago, had a similar experience when he was prescribed Marinol to deal with his chronic nausea and vomiting.

"I felt no relief, I didn't feel ill, I felt nothing," he said. "It might as well be M&M's."

Elton said he switched to marijuana, which he smokes through a vaporizer - a device that heats the active ingredients into a vapor instead of burning them. He said it allows him to keep down his food and regain some of the weight he lost while on Marinol.

"[One] problem with Marinol is that it's orally administered," Dr. Mitch Earleywine, an associate professor of Clinical Psychology at the State University of New York at Albany, said in an email. "Therefore, it takes longer to work than cannabis inhaled from a vaporizer. (Usually 90 minutes at best rather than 15 seconds - a meaningful amount of time to the nauseated.)"

"It's harder to control dosage, too, so folks end up discombobulated or without symptom relief," he added. "In addition, folks who are vomiting can't hold down the pills." Earleywine also said that a dose Marinol costs three to five times as much as a comparable dose of medical marijuana.

Defenders note that Marinol is not meant to be a cure-all: It has been approved specifically for treating nausea and vomiting associated with cancer chemotherapy and for treating anorexia associated with weight loss in patients with AIDS.

"When the whole push for the smoked product came along, it was often for those two indications," said Dr. Herbert Kleber, a professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University and the former deputy drug czar under President George H.W. Bush. "And in general, I've not seen any need for the smoked form of marijuana for those two indications. Marinol had already been shown to be quite effective for those two things."

"Are there actions in the whole plant that you don't get from just the Marinol? I would be surprised if there wasn't," he continued. "The problem is that most of the data about the potential medical actions of the smoked form are anecdotal."

Research into the effects of medical marijuana is ongoing: The University of California, San Diego, for example, boasts a Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research engaged in "focused controlled clinical trials on the efficacy of cannabis in patients diagnosed with HIV/AIDS, cancer, seizures or muscle spasms associated with a chronic debilitating condition, or any other serious condition providing sufficient theoretical justification." (The director of the UCSD program, Dr. Igor Grant, was out of the country and could not be reached for this story.)

The Los Angeles Times, which offers a nice overview of the current research, writes that "a growing body of research supports [medical marijuana's] medical usage, but some of it is cautionary." Marijuana has been found to be effective in counteracting severe pain, nausea and loss of appetite, though questions remain about the drawbacks, among them possible respiratory damage and increased cancer risk.

Dr. Kleber, who said he has prescribed Marinol to a patient and found it to be effective, points to what he characterizes as a significant advantage of the pill over traditional marijuana: "People don't abuse it."

"Marijuana addiction is becoming common and as a result I'm seeing an increasing number of people who have trouble stopping marijuana," he said. "Contrary to popular beliefs that there is no marijuana withdrawal, there is marijuana withdrawal. It's very clear cut."

The calculus, then, isn't quite as simple as the Drug Enforcement Administration suggests: Marinol and medical marijuana may share an active ingredient, but they offer somewhat different benefits and different drawbacks. Proponents of medicinal marijuana say it's disingenuous to hold up Marinol as a direct alternative to the more traditional form of the plant.

"I just don't understand how they won't let me smoke a joint, but they're more than happy to write me out prescriptions for anything that I want," Trainer said.

[cbsmakesmoney]

marinol is 100 times more effective then anything else on the market and safer then anything else on the fda market for a lot of hard to treat "pains" even if it is not as good as the natural source of thc or as much fun to use if you really need it it is much appreciated and solves alot of pain problems. For me overnight after using marinol i no longer get debilitating migraines, daily vomiting, gagging, on food nausea, anxiety,attention problems, and a cramp in my funny bone that lasted 8 months. yes no joke all these problems that were constant every day for 2 or more years went away and have not returned. when people complain about the neurocognative side effects of the medicine i know they are truely minimal when compaired to the life shattering "pains" this medicine gets rid of. in all fairness it seems wrong that medicine this effective would be sold and not distributed for free. For me i would pay anything for it it is keeping me alive, they could charge anything they want for it and they would get it from me, i am a slave to this company and the only alternative at this present time would involve risking going to jail and i am not willing to do that.

[sugar_maple]

This is the reason why we still have marijuana illegal. Big Phrama wanting to control the market of treatments. They can't and never will be able to control the people's medicine - cannabis. Legalize, regulate, and finally control marijuana!

[sugar_maple]

What is so wrong with smoking or using cannabis that is it so illegal? I seriously don't and will never understand the stance on marijuana we, America, have. It is a PLANT that will grow up naturally. We don't band the growth of poppies or coca bush. Ignorant Americans.

[Tony_42]

What about Liberty? We have the right to use cannabis it is just ignored. Stand up for your rights, claim your freedom and liberty.

[anticristvs]

wow... a pill that costs a ton of $$$$
pays the Empty Sales Suit bonuses.....

for something nature gave us for free.

"NBC, CBS, ABC, & FOX happy to profit from marijuana, as long as nobody talks about legalizing it" from NORML

[DdC222]

Hey bro, thanks

Maybe these prohibitionists "writers" should practice some "reading"
Those who will not read have nothing over those who can not read.
Be well,
DdC

California Cops Are Trained 'Marijuana Is Not A Medicine'
http://www.cannabisculture.com/v2/content/california-cops-are-trained-marijuana-not-medicine
A recent court case in San Diego has revealed some California police officers are basing their sworn court testimony in medical marijuana cases on badly outdated, legally inaccurate information.

http://tinyurl.com/Journey4JusticePedal4Pot

Prison Industrial Complex Attacks Prop. 5
http://drugwarrant.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4146#4146

Getting Rich Off Prohibition

Take California?s Proposition 5, the Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act, which would require the diversion of certain non-violent offenders to drug treatment and increase funding for state-sponsored rehabilitation programs. The measure seeks to expand upon the alternative sentencing programs initially enacted by Proposition 36, which is estimated to have saved taxpayers some $1.7 billion dollars and reduced the number of people incarcerated for simple drug possession by one-third. So who would oppose this proposal?

If you guessed: the folks who make their living arresting non-violent drug offenders, you?d be right! According to the ?No on 5? website, the California State Sheriff?s Association, the California Narcotics Officers Association, the California Peace Officers Association, the Police Chiefs of California, and the California District Attorneys Association all oppose Prop. 5.

Renegade Cops & Ganja Props
http://drugwarrant.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4203#4203

Sketches of the Drug Czars
http://www.cannabisculture.com/v2/node/1909

UK: Column: Why It's Time to End the War on Drugs
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n764/a05.html?102

Benefits To Legalizing Pot You Haven't Heard About
http://cannabisnews.com/news/24/thread24953.shtml

Ganja's Impact On Brain Function "Non Existent"
http://drugwarrant.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4425#4425
Brain Releases Marijuana-Like Substance In Response To Pain 10/11/01
Cannabis Exposure Not Toxic To The Developing Brain
Cannabis Prevents Brain Damage 03/08/00
Cannabis Blocks Irreversible Brain Damage 03/18/00
Proven : Cannabis is Safe Medicine by Ian Williams Goddard
The Hype: Brain Damage and Dead Monkeys

Teddy Kennedy and The Ultimate Tragedy of Liberalism.
His Brain Tumor Is of the Type That Cannabis Might Cure.
Suppressed Research May Claim Another Drug War Victim.

[dragon8me]

I just thought of something. Cannabis is a schedule 1 narcotic, right? That means the gov say?s it has no medical value. Well in that case they?ve blown their case by making marinol legal. If it?s same as ganja then it can?t be a scedule 1 and cannabis must be reduced to sch 2. This is what it?s all about folks, at least with the government. So if it?s not THC that?s keeping it sch 1, what, fibers? Constitutional lawyers should look into this angle.

[MatterofLiberty]

Yes by having Marinol whose active ingriedient is THC be a Schedual III drug *** must be considered that either: A)Government must admit that THC can not be the active chemical in Cannabis that gets you "high". or B)That if THC is the only mind altering chemical in Cannibus then it must have equal risk of abuse as marinol which currently is considered to have low risk of abuse and available for refillable prescription. In other words does anyone else see how Marinol is basically Hashish that is marketed to be eaten???

[JamesB621]

If anyone is interested in the pretzel logic that made MJ illegal I would suggest going to history.com and look up a program entitled "Illegal Drugs, And How They Got That Way, Marijuana." That will explain in minute detail the process by which marijuana was criminalized. And yes, it was purely political.

[i2iknight]

I hope Brian Montopoli, the author of this story, reads the comments here for his education so that he does not repeat the same mistakes he made in finding sources for the story.
Which is 1) that Dr. Kleber is an idiot, and 2) marijuana, the plant, is far superior to marinol, and 3) that vaporization provides the benefits of the MANY cannabinoids without the unwanted carcinogens.
Actually, one of the leading authorities on the subject, Dr. Melemede, tell us that the cannabinoids work in concert the THC, like a virtual symphony of coinciding reactions.