Outlawing/Patenting Nature Is Wrong

The above graphic makes a very good point. Marijuana is not a derivative of a plant or made in a laboratory. It is simply the plant itself -- and it grows in nearly all parts of the world. That is one reason why making it illegal is silly, and why marijuana prohibition will never work. It is just too easy to grow, no matter where you live.

And there is something else that is just as stupid -- allowing corporations to patent the marijuana plant (or any product that comes from that plant). But that is exactly what our government has done. They evidently don't want people to enjoy the medicinal effects of the plant (like in cancer prevention or cure) unless they are fattening the bank account of some giant corporation.

My firend and fellow blogger, Thurman Hubbard at Thurman's SOAPBOX, has written an excellent post about this insanity -- and since I doubt I could improve on what he's written, I present his post here (and urge you to read his blog):

They’ve gone and done it. On March 7 of this year, the U.S. Patent Office granted a patent to Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd of Tokyo, Japan and GW Pharma Ltd of Salisbury, Great Britain for essentially the entire marijuana plant, to treat… wait for it… cancer!

To be absolutely clear, our federal government has GIVEN a pair of pharmaceutical giants the full rights to every compound the cannabis plant produces for the treatment of cancers of the: prostate, breast, skin, glioma, colon, lung or a bone or lymph metastasis.

This is the same government, you’ll remember, that insists, by refusing to remove marijuana from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, that cannabis has no accepted medical value. This is also the same government that itself patented parts of the same plant in 2003 for medicinal purposes.

Our government has been jailing people, breaking apart families, and ruining careers for more than 75 years and now they have simply given away the greatest potential cure for most forms of cancer to ever be discovered.

This is worse than adding insult to injury; it’s a crime against humanity.

Marijuana should be legalized for medicinal purposes and as a dietary supplement for any adult to grow, possess, and consume any way they see fit. Immediately and forevermore. That would be a step in the right direction, and a start toward reparation for the injustices perpetrated against our citizens for more than three quarters of a century.

Here’s a link to the patent information; I urge you to read the whole thing for yourself.

What this means, essentially, is that our government, in collusion with the pharmaceutical industry, is conspiring and setting the stage to the mas marketing of cannabis medicine in a way that will maintain the current prohibitions against regular folks like you and me growing our own and treating ourselves, or, more importantly, consuming the raw plant as a dietary supplement that could possibly prevent us from ever getting cancer to begin with, and that’s not profitable to any corporate interest anywhere.

This cannot go unchallenged, but I don’t know how we can fight such a horrible injustice in such a terribly corrupt system.