The United States federal government has been waging a war on cannabis users for more than 80 years.
It is no secret that federal cannabis prohibition is a failed public policy. Countless numbers of lives have been harmed for possessing the cannabis plant.
Even those that haven’t been prosecuted for cannabis have still seen their lives harmed by prohibition via the stigma that surrounds cannabis.
For many people, just expressing support for cannabis reform is enough to experience a backlash in their lives.
Members of the current White House administration, especially Jeff Sessions, have been on a reefer madness tour since taking over and have made it clear that they do not intend to end federal cannabis prohibition.
Knowing all of this, it is incredibly hypocritical that the same federal government which prohibits cannabis also holds a patent on cannabis’ medical value.
What is patent number 6,630,507
The United States owns a cannabis patent and has since 2003.
That patent number is 6,630,507, and it involves cannabis’ antioxidant properties. The properties can be used to treat the following:
- Ischemia
- Age-related inflammatory and autoimmune diseases
- Neurological damage
- Alzheimer’s disease
- Parkinson’s disease
- HIV dementia
According to the patent filing:
“Nonpsychoactive cannabinoids, such as cannabidiol, are particularly advantageous to use because they avoid toxicity that is encountered with psychoactive cannabinoids at high doses useful in the method of the present invention.”
Cannabis is currently a Schedule I controlled substance according to the federal government, indicating that it has no medical value.
How can the United States government hold a patent on cannabis’ medical value, while at the same time claiming for enforcement purposes that cannabis has zero medical value?
It makes no sense!
Why own a cannabis patent?
It doesn’t take a conspiracy theorist to see that there is something fishy going on here.
All one needs to do is consider the reason for obtaining a patent.
Below is an explanation via MIT:
A patent is an exclusive right granted by a country to an inventor, allowing the inventor to exclude others from making, using or selling his or her invention in that country during the life of the patent.
Just the fact that someone is trying to gain a monopoly on cannabis antioxidant properties is alarming, and that it’s our own federal government doing so makes it that much more upsetting.
The federal government should not be able to play it both ways in pushing for a cannabis monopoly while at the same time arresting people for simply being in possession of cannabis.
Other examples of the federal government’s cannabis hypocrisy
Below are other examples of the federal government’s cannabis hypocrisy:
- The federal government cultivates cannabis at the University of Mississippi and has been since 1968
- The cannabis is being grown for research purposes and is the only licensed federal facility in the country that is allowed to grow cannabis
- Federal cannabis is distributed to federal medical cannabis patients
The same federal government that classifies cannabis as a Schedule I substance and has historically tried to hinder state-level medical cannabis programs grows and distributes cannabis for medical purposes.
The United States government, via the Compassionate Investigational New Drug program, has been distributing medical cannabis to patients since the 1970s.
What is the federal government’s future plans for cannabis?
It isn’t a stretch to believe that the federal government is trying to corner the cannabis market.
If a person looks at the facts, it’s pretty clear what the federal government is trying to do.
They are trying to research cannabis in the shadows, prohibit others from doing so, and in the process likely trying to eventually gain a significant market share of the cannabis industry.
This could have a huge impact on the future of cannabis, both for the industry as well as consumers.
A government monopoly, or close to one, on medical cannabis would be bad for patients and entrepreneurs.
Fortunately medical and adult-use legalization at the state level and the booming industry that was born out of the reforms is raining on the federal government’s cannabis parade.
With Pandora out of the box, it will be very difficult if not impossible for the federal government to carry out its perceived plans.
But that doesn’t mean that thwarting the plan will be automatic.
We all need to do our part and continue to fight for reform at the state level, and keep the pressure on federal officials to end federal prohibition!
