Reply to post: Re: Alternate and Traditional Medicine

Why does herbal cough syrup work so well? It may be full of morphine

Pompous Git Silver badge

Re: Alternate and Traditional Medicine

Another thought that touches back on the quality of products is that if eg glucosamine is accepted as a medicinal treatment, then it needs licensing and suitable distribution as a medicine not flogged from Holland and Barretts as a "supplement" and that moves it into the pharma industry's sphere and it's no longer "alternative medicine".

The problem here is that registering a pharmaceutical is eyewateringly expensive. Thus registering a product that is already generic only benefits your competitors; your costs go up, but theirs don't. Obviously this didn't apply in the past. We have many registered plant extracts in common use: ephedrine (ephedra), digitalis (foxglove), alliicin (garlic), morphine (opium poppy)... There are more than a hundred.

The pharmaceutical industry focusses on identifying the active ingredient in the effective plants, then attempts with varying degrees of success to create a variant that they can patent. A problem here is identifying the active ingredient. Plants contain ever so many chemicals and sometimes the pharmacological effect is very likely due to multiple chemicals.

Then there is the problem of an illegal plant being the only known source of a cure. Cannabis contains two classes of pharmacologically active compounds: cannabinols and cannabinoids. Cannabinols are what creates the stone that hippies (and others) are so fond of. Cannabinoids OTOH are a potent anti-inflammatory and a good friend, a retired anaesthetist, recalls cannabis use in anaesthesia in the UK well into the 1970s.

Recently, cannabis rich in cannabinoids has been discovered to prevent potentially fatal seizures in juveniles that are not controlled by any known registered pharmaceutical. The Tasmanian government has taken the view that sufferers can await the arrival of registered cannabinoids. The police I am happy to report have taken the view that these children do not deserve to suffer, or die and are pointedly ignoring this unauthorised use.

A Canadian business recently approached the Tasmanian government for permission to grow and manufacture cannabinoids, but were refused. The reason for choosing Tasmania is that we already produce a great deal of thebaine (raw ingredient for codeine) and have decades of experience in growing Class A drugs and controlling public access. So it goes...

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