FDA To Examine Marijuana Based Mouth Spray For Cancer Patients

British firm GW Pharma is hoping to have a marijuana-based mouth spray ready for FDA approval by 2013. Known as Sativex the company is already engaged in advanced clinical trials on the drug. According to the company Sativex is the first pharmaceutical developed directly from raw marijuana.

The drug contains several ingredients found in marijuana including delta 9-THC and cannabidiol and has already been approved in Canada, New Zealand and eight European nations.

Speaking to the Associated Press  pharmacology professor and president of the International Cannabinoid Research Society noted:

“There is a real disconnect between what the public seems to be demanding and what the states have pushed for, and what the market is providing.”

That comment comes at a time when states have fought for medical marijuana rights while the U.S. Federal government has continued to intervene and arrest and shut down marijuana dispensaries under the power of federal law. Calfornia has in particular been hit hard by Federal agents looking to push out California laws.

GW Pharma currently grows its marijuana in Great Britain and is one of a handful of company’s working to make marijuana available to patients in need by creating marijuana derivatives.

The last marijuana based drug accepted by the FDA was in 1985 and those capsules contained synthetic rather then raw materials and were used in the treatment of chemotherapy side-effects and to stimulate the appetite of AIDS sufferers.

Do you believe that pharma drugs based on raw marijuana materials is the answer or should regularly grown marijuana be made available legally instead?