Federal Government Patented Medical Marijuana Yet Criminalize It

Almost 10 years ago, the feds patented medical marijuana. On October 7th, 2003, the United States Government “As Represented By The Department Of Health And Human Services” issued Patent No. 6,630,507.

The abstract for the patent reads: “Cannabinoids have been found to have antioxidant properties, unrelated to NMDA receptor antagonism. This new found property makes cannabinoids useful in the treatment and prophylaxis of wide variety of oxidation associated diseases, such as ischemic, age-related, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.” Further on in the document, the scientists go further into detail about the substance’s benefits for problems in the brain: “The cannabinoids are found to have particular application as neuroprotectants, for example in limiting neurological damage following ischemic insults, such as stroke and trauma, or in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and HIV dementia.”

The Department of Health scientists discovered that even though cannabinoids have minimal effect on the receptors in the brain that allow for long-term memory and cognition, there is “a previously unanticipated antioxidant property of the cannabinoids in general (and cannabidiol in particular) that functions completely independently of antagonism at the NMDA, AMPA and kainate receptors.” It is also quite clear that they understand that cannabis, and specifically CBD can be an extremely safe medicinal drug. “Nonpsychoactive cannabinoids, such as cannabidoil, are particularly advantageous to use because they avoid toxicity that is encountered with psychoactive cannabinoids at high doses useful in the method of the present invention. No signs of toxicity or serious side effects have been observed following chronic administration of cannabidiol to healthy volunteers even in large acute doses of 700 mg/day.”

Yes, the same federal government that classifies marijuana as a Dangerous Schedule I Drug without federally recognizing any legitimate medical use (leaving it up to the states and even then, dipping in its hand when it seems like any state medical program is becoming too successful), is staking its claim where it can. If and when the drug is legalized completely, we can be sure that the feds will have a hand in the medicine, based on how they believe strongly enough in it to patent it for all the future revenues it’s sure to bring. Indeed, even methadone was given a free pass for medicinal purposes when it was found that it could be useful in detox and other helpful programs. But for now, government-sanctioned, scientifically proven patents are not enough for the little plant that could do so much.