While the U.S. Federal Government continues to classify the marijuana plant as an illegal drug as part of the "Controlled Substances Act," the FDA has now approved patented drugs derived from the plant for medical use.
One marijuana FDA-approved pharmaceutical product is currently being used to treat children for epilepsy, and the FDA is expected to approve another marijuana-based drug soon for treating multiple sclerosis.
According to Fierce Pharma, the company with the first FDA-approved marijuana drug is investing $100 million to grow more pot, although if you try to grow some for yourself, depending on which state you live in, you could be arrested, spend time in prison, and have your children removed from your custody.
In Idaho, for example, a state where marijuana sales still remain illegal, the new Jazz Pharmaceutical marijuana drug for treating multiple sclerosis that the FDA is expected to approve soon, needed a special bill in Idaho, and law makers who are against families using the natural marijuana plant and are all too willing to medically kidnap their children if they dare to use it, all of a sudden are pro-marijuana because a pharmaceutical company now sells it, and the FDA approves it.
So while Idaho Senator Scott Grow supports marijuana if it is approved by the FDA as a drug, if it is not, he wants those who use the natural plant to be treated like criminals "to protect Idaho families."
And that pretty much summarizes those who oppose marijuana as a natural plant, which is mainly among "Conservative" lawmakers.
Treat loving parents as criminals if they use the natural plant and then take their children away from them, but treat the criminal FDA and Big Pharma as saints for providing marijuana patented drugs that can be prescribed by doctors.
Meanwhile, a Bill to end the Federal ban on natural marijuana comes before the House this week.
This is usually considered a "liberal Democratic" issue, as most Republican Conservatives support the "war on drugs" which is actually a war on natural herbal medicines which cannot be patented, in most cases, to protect the pharmaceutical industry.
With Democrats in control of the House and Senate, as well as the White House, does this bill have a chance? Or will the pharmaceutical lobby make sure it never sees the light of day, as it has done for past many decades?