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Monday, October 11, 2010

Catch this if you can: Tuesday 10 AM MDT

LIVE CHAT: Medical marijuana proponents
Join Medical marijuana advocates Emmett Reistroffer, campaign director for South Dakota Coalition for Compassion, and coalition member Tony Ryan for a live chat Tuesday at 10 a.m.

1 comment:

Bill Dithmer said...

The live chat was interesting. Other then Art O the people asking the questions were civil and the exchange was informative.
One of the questions that was asked was about patents on cannabis. I might be able to answer that. Cannabis is a natural plant and therefore would not be patentable. But just like in the case of Monsanto genetically modified grains it might be possible to patent the genetic versions of the plant. That is going to be a tough sell because first they would have to demonstrate that the genetics were different in some way from the original plant. And that difference couldn’t happen in nature itself. Right now the research on these plants is basically in it childhood. For the most part researchers don’t even know how the different Cannabinoids react to each other or why their interactions make the plant itself useful in treating so many illnesses. That is the one reason that drugs that have THC anent as effective as the plant. And it is also the reason that marinol hasn’t been more widely excepted then it has. And then there is that pesky $500 to $800 a month for the drug that in most cases is less effective has much worse side effects and is not nearly as safe.