The Union: The Business Behind Getting High Page #12

the country grew 946%,

almost 2 1/2 times

the rate in which

spending on education

increased.

And prisons aren't the only

thing money's being spent on.

( Stephen B. )

There are millions

of drug tests per year.

There's money to be

made on that, it's huge.

It started off with

people saying,

"We really need to test people

in dangerous occupations."

Things like police officers

should be tested,

pilots in airplanes.

Then somebody said,

"Well, our athletes,

we should probably test them

for drugs, too."

Then somebody

came along and said,

"Well, it's not just the

professional athletes.

"How about the athletes

in colleges and high schools ?

They need to be tested, too."

And then they thought a little

harder and they said,

"Well, suppose

we just test everybody

"that goes out for an

extracurricular activity.

"That should be constitutional

because they don't

have to do that."

So now if you want to join

the chess club at school

or the French club,

you gotta pee in a bottle.

Now they're pushing to make laws

to test all children at school.

All the studies show this

doesn't have anything to do

with whether kids use

drugs or not,

so it looks to me

like this has a lot more to do

with the money that's being made

for drug testing.

Can you imagine how

much money will be involved

if we can randomly test every

child in a school ?

( Greg )

A lot of these places

that have been urine-testing

have refused to continue

to do it,

because the only thing

that these urine tests

are finding is marijuana.

The other drugs that people take

dissipate from their systems

fast enough to not be found.

( Jack )

If they smoke

a marijuana cigarette,

pee in a bottle,

they're gonna show

that they've had a drug.

But if they use a hard drug--

heroin, cocaine,

methamphetamine--

in a long weekend,

nobody can tell that they've

used that drug.

So what does that say

to our young people ?

It says if you

don't wanna get caught,

don't use the soft drugs--

use the hard drugs.

( Stephen B. )

It's not just urine anymore,

it's hair and saliva.

They'll do blood testing.

There's industry there,

this is money.

They're not doing

in it for free.

The most profitable industry

in the United States

is pharmaceuticals.

Dollars involved

is just... staggering.

Can it really be ?

Has medicine really

become that profitable ?

The fact is it has.

In 2005,

U.S. prescription-drug sales

rose 5.4% to $251 billion,

and global

pharmaceutical sales

rose 7% to $602 billion.

Now, why would pharmaceuticals

be threatened by a plant ?

The answer may be as

simple as one word, "natural,"

because a significant amount

of research to date

has confirmed or suggested that

marijuana in its natural state

is still

the most effective form.

Can you imagine a world

where you or I wouldn't

have to pay

for certain medicines ?

After dealing with about 10,000

patients over the last 15 years,

I would say that over 200

different medical conditions

respond favorably to cannabis.

( John )

It appears to have benefits that

we never, ever knew about.

Glaucoma.

Epilepsy, muscular dystrophy.

Arthritis.

Multiple sclerosis.

Wasting syndrome.

Nausea, chronic pain.

Depression, anxiety,

hepatitis "C," cancer.

Chemo.

AIDS patients.

( host )

Is there a product

out there today

that provides as many medical

benefits as cannabis ?

No.

It remains an un-utilized

major resource.

( Lester )

The way to riches in

the pharmaceutical industry

is to have a drug which

can be patented.

( Todd )

Cannabis is problematic

right from the start

because it's

a multi-molecule drug.

( Paul )

In 1930, it wasn't possible

to patent plants,

and that's the reason that

Pharma never picked up on this,

because by synthesizing

and owning compounds,

that's where the profit motive

comes into

the pharmaceutical industry.

The patent in the United States

lasts for 20 years.

You can charge

whatever you want at that time,

and that's where you

make the killing.

There's no money to be

made off natural plants.

If you can use

a natural medicine

that you can grow in your own

home which costs pennies to use,

you're gonna do that.

( Joe )

You need water and dirt.

Not only that, you have

that plant forever.

( James )

Prime motivation behind any drug

company is to make money,

and as much money as possible.

( Joe )

They're corporations, and

corporations, everybody knows,

it's like that diffusion of

responsibility thing.

There's so many people

working for corporations

that they lose their humanity.

( Dana )

So those potential customers for

these pharmaceutical companies

that are not there if they're

using a natural plant.

It's unlimited.

Grow more, you get more

medicine.

Pharmaceutical

companies don't want you

growing your own medicine.

The government supported

a small drug company

by the name of Unimed

to take a synthetic THC,

tetrahydrocannabinol,

and to put it into capsules

to be used

as a oral medicine.

This became Marinol.

This THC in Marinol is exactly

the same 21-carbon molecule

that's in herbal marijuana.

But it's not the same

as medical marijuana.

It's not a crude mixture

of things,

and there's no guarantee

that you get the same results.

( Paul )

You can make a synthetic

delta 9-tetrahydrocannabinol

in a test tube.

It'll have exactly the same

number of atoms

in the same arrangement,

but how in the test tube can you

put the electron spins together,

the subatomic quirks and quarks,

if you like, of that compound,

in the same way that

a biological-enzyme system

will put it together--

it can't happen.

( James )

In the case of

a synthetic compound,

if it's only an ingredient

from the cannabis,

they can formulate

that as a drug

and make a lot more money

out of it.

( host )

We're confused

that if, you know,

you keep hearing that there's

no scientific proof

to medicinal benefits

of marijuana,

why are there drugs

like Marinol on the market ?

Why do they even exist ?

( Lester )

Well, that's part of this

double-talk about it.

If we take

and change it a little bit

so youbelieve

it isn't marijuana,

then it's okay, it's

a great medicine.

You know, they're trying

to make marijuana into medicine

because itismedicine !

Why did the government

actually grow marijuana ?

I mean, the government has had

marijuana programs

that existed since the '70s.

It's impossible

for me to believe

that the government even

believes their own propaganda.

What I do believe is this,

that you can fool some of

the people some of the time,

and they're doing an excellent

job of that.

And for all

the claims of these drugs

being a more viable medicine

because there's no high,

we checked some

of the side effects.

For Marinol-- dizziness,

feelings of exaggerated

happiness, drowsiness.

Last time I checked, those were

signs of getting high.

If it is indeed

side effects of marijuana

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes