

Marinol is prescribed for treating vomiting in chemotherapy patients and other uses. It provides relief, not a high.



NY Daily News reports that incoming CDC Chief Thomas Freidman is "in favor of developing a synthetic marijuana spray to be used for medicinal purposes." That's good news, I suppose, but what really caught my attention about the story was its repetition of the bizarre and wildly false assertion that synthetic THC doesn’t get you high:Says who? The first thing anyone who's ever taken Marinol will tell you is that the stuff gets you blasted for several hours. In fact, that's one of the primary reason patients prefer the herbal alternative. With marijuana, you can control your dose more effectively to achieve the desired effect. The spray was developed for the exact same reason, thus by suggesting that Marinol doesn’t get you high, the NY Daily News completely misses the point of why a spray even exists. It's ridiculous.We've heard this crap before and I just don’t understand why anyone would struggle with the concept that a pure THC pill would make you high as hell. I suppose it's a convenient claim for pharmaceutical execs trying to separate their product from its controversial context and it's certainly convenient for drug warriors desperately endeavoring to explain why one is medicine and the other is poison. But it's bullshit and it shouldn’t take a scientist to deduce that you will not remain sober after swallowing concentrated THC. That's like saying heroin gets you high but synthetic opiates don't.Hilariously, there's a side column of "relevant articles" on the page with the top item titled Marijuana Potency Higher Than Ever. We're actually supposed to be intrigued and perhaps alarmed by the fact that domestic marijuana potency now averages 10% THC, meanwhile the FDA has long approved a 100% THC pill that's proven to be completely safe in every way, except that some people think it's a little too strong and want weed instead.It's amazing the lengths some people will take to rationalize the mindless paradox of arresting medical marijuana patients while simultaneously trying to sell them potent THC pills.