The Cannabis Conundrum

By: Bill BreenWed Dec 19, 2007 at 12:46 AM

As the founder of a British pharmaceutical company puts it, if it weren't called marijuana there would be an entire biotech business built around this plant. And that's just what's starting to happen (but not for the U.S. drug industry or the American patients these medicines might help).

In September, a California physician who had just returned from a two-day conference of the International Association of Cannabis as Medicine at Germany's University of Cologne--which brought together the world's best minds in the field--bemoaned this country's stunted research environment. "It is frustrating to watch the advancements in research on cannabis and cannabinoids taking place that we here in the USA can only dream of," he wrote in a well-circulated email. "The dark ages of medicine and science imposed by the American disease, prohibitionism, is painfully apparent."

If Geoffrey Guy realizes his dream, Sativex will simply be the first of many such drugs to sweep through Europe and Canada. Meanwhile, the politics of pot insure that cannabis-based medicines will remain out of reach for U.S. patients and the U.S. pharmaceutical industry alike.

Bill Breen is a Fast Company senior writer. He did no product sampling in reporting this story.