As I read the following article today, I grew angrier and angrier.
I can just see corporate America finally, after three quarters of a century spent lying and abusing peaceful citizens and sick people, suddenly having an epiphany and seeing the light.
“Cannabis is medicine after all, now that we’ve found a way to capitalize on it and reserve most of the enormous profit potential for ourselves,” proclaim the executives. Yeah, I can just see it now, and it disgusts me. Health care and medicine will always be reserved for those who can pay the exorbitant costs required to keep the few filthy rich, no matter how many have to suffer and die.
I may not believe in “God” in the conventional sense most people understand the term, but I do believe human beings evolved on this planet with every other plant, animal, fungus, and microbe, and we are all – living things – connected and dependent upon each other. Everything we need to survive and thrive exists in the environment we evolved within, and cannabis is part of that environment. Natural organisms cannot be patented and licensed for profit, or they shouldn’t, and that’s why so many companies like Monsanto, Pfizer, and others are determined to replace what nature has provided with poisons and freakish monsters of their own design, no matter what the cost or long term damage.<
Nature exists for all of us, and everyone has the natural right to natural food and medicine. THAT is the American way.
Crushed Beneath the Medicine Wheel, by Kassy Fatooh
(SOURCE: Toke of the Town) In a scheme they think capable of making billions, a US corporation not only plans to market a delivery system for medicinal cannabis, but also hopes to cut out small time farmers and private growers by introducing prohibitive protocols through state health departments.
In the course of following the medical story of myalgic encephalomyelitis, I’ve learned things I wish I didn’t know about the big business of medicine, about government agencies charged with public health, and about Big Pharma’s vendetta against alternative healing practices.
Our pain is their payday. Today’s story is one of cold avarice.
The corporation is called MMDS: Medical Marijuana Delivery Systems LLC, marketing its medical cannabis delivery system through its “Medicine Wheel” subsidiary. They hold this patent for the Tetracan transdermal patch: like Nicoderm, but it delivers cannabinoids instead of nicotine.
They advertise it as providing all the benefits of medical marijuana, without the “health-destroying smoke.”
The principal is Jim Alekson, a multi-firm entrepreneur about whom, more later. So, isn’t that a great thing, this Tetracan patch that is promised to hit the sales counters at dispensaries in the second quarter of this year?
Tetracan publicity ignores the fact that there are many other delivery systems already available, as alternatives to smoking. A patient can consume cannabis in baked goods, dissolve a lozenge under the tongue, take tinctures and other extracts, and get the health benefits without the “risk” of smoking.
Right: I don’t use unmotivated quotation marks, so, “risk?”
Tetracan publicity also ignores this study recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Twenty years of research have proven that smoking moderate amounts of marijuana daily over years actually improves pulmonary function in comparison not only with tobacco smokers but with healthy non-smoking controls.
Theories as to why this is, suggest the credit may go to biophysics: the exercise of pulling cannabis smoke into the lungs, holding one’s breath, then exhaling; or biochemistry: the anti-inflammatory action of cannabis.
Though JAMA itself didn’t emphasize the point, other authors picked up on and publicized this fact that marijuana smoking apparently improves lung capacity. In this article, for instance, one of the study’s authors is quoted:
“We don’t know for sure,” he said, “but a very reasonable possibility is that THC may actually interfere with the development of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.”
Nevertheless, MMDS is pushing the benefits of their transdermal patch as a healthier alternative to smoking, via its “Medicine Wheel Project.”
Here is their business plan [PDF]. <
Page through it and you’ll see some amazing things, like, yes, here are the billions, on page 12:
TOTAL GROSS REVENUE: $2,843,540,662
Now, to make even more money by paying less than the usual costs of launching a pharmaceutical product, they’re cleverly trying to play both sides of the game with government agencies, avoiding FDA requirements by representing the patch as an alternative therapy…
The TETRACAN™ Patch does not require U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval because it will be marketed as a holistic therapy in the same manner as Medical Marijuana is marketed and sold through Medical Marijuana Dispensaries across the United States. (Plan, page 7)
…while simultaneously acting to keep marijuana’s status different from any herb like basil that anybody could grow in their garden, or even a medicinal herb which patients could be licensed to grow, as it is now in Medical Marijuana states: MMDS plans to manipulate the law to further their monopoly beyond the patented patch and into growing rights. The Plan states, on lucky page 13,
“There are no Rules, Regulations or Protocols governing the manner in which Medical Marijuana is cultivated, harvested or processed in any of the Medical Marijuana States or the District of Columbia.”
The Medicine Wheel Project LLC, an associate company of MMDS, plans to introduce Growing Protocols to State Health Departments as it begins to organize the Medical Marijuana Industry under one umbrella organization.
Emphasis added because I’m aghast at the blatant intent to influence state health departments to serve corporate ends.
So that’s where politics play a role. Remember the name Jim Alekson, from above? He’s the principal in the patch company, and heads up many intriguingly related business ventures.
Here he is playing politics with a friendly article. Touting the jobs to be created by the medical marijuana industry, Medicine Wheel has been blogging up the UK cannabis movement, engaging in friendly chats on a UK forum, and Alekson got his blog reposted on the official website of single-issue, pro-cannabis UK political party CLEAR (formerly Cannabis Law Reform).
CLEAR leader Peter Reynolds appeared on the scene only recently, taking over the party with a massive vote of nearly 40 members, and changing its name and direction, while censoring and even ousting anyone who questioned his policies. More on that story can be read here and here.
Meanwhile, back in the USA, it could prove interesting to delve into the names and natures of politicians and perhaps tribal leaders supporting Alekson’s scheme. Medicine Wheel is an interesting name for the project, with its mellow, First Nations overtones. But this Kimosabe Connection isn’t the only business headed by Alekson. His interest in things tribal appears to extend beyond image, or even medicine. Spinning the wheels to make some deals…
For example, it’s also about real estate develoment of tribal lands …
…within the scope of his broader real estate goals as the Alekson Group …
…plus, a huge contract to provide electricity to tribal lands …
….within the broader scope of Energy Pointe Partners, which is yet another Alekson company…
…and if it’s not enough of a monopoly to own a piece of politics, a patent, growing rights, land and energy, there are also the industrial scale hydroponic greenhouses mentioned on Alekson’s profile at LinkedIn.
A friend suggested that all this might be empty scheming with no money behind it, but it seems from Alekson’s creds on pages 40-49 of his stock offering that he really is accustomed to running with the big boys.
Let me repeat the big numbers quoted for the transdermal patch trade alone:
TOTAL GROSS REVENUE: $2,843,540,662
Add real estate, greenhouse construction, energy supply and a growing monopoly, and potential profits are plenty motivation for all the behind-the-scenes political manipulation implied in corporate documents, and more.
None of this vast corporate empire is in the best interest of patients, of course, who typically suffer from the doings of Big Pharma — not even Big Pharma in Alternative Medicine clothing is actually helpful to medical cannabis patients.
As it currently stands in a Medical Marijuana state like my own, patients can buy, carry and use medicinal cannabis and cultivate it for their own use, and it can also be grown by licensed farmers with an agreement to supply it only to licensed dispensaries. Patients here can obtain high quality, organic cannabis in a variety of strains specifically developed with high levels of the compounds that best address their specific pain, inflammation or other health issues, from a safe, state-licensed dispensary; or simply grow their own.
Everyone from the patients who require those varied strains to the growers who developed the strains, to the general public which is asked to criminalize actions because they run counter to corporate profit, everyone stands to lose, if Medicine Wheel gains its ends. Cannabis helps so many conditions from cancer to MS to Alzheimer’s, plus is enjoyed by recreational users with far less danger than alcohol or cigarettes.
The battle against prohibition doesn’t end with legally-grown medicinal cannabis, and it can only be set back further by interference from a multi-billion dollar patent medicine show. The ultimate objective of cannabis campaigning is to get cannabis beyond the medicine cabinet and into the mainstream as a healthy alternative to dangerous substances used socially and for relaxation, such as alcohol and cigarettes.
This could cost a lot of corporations a lot of money, but think what it would save taxpayers by abolishing the prosecution of all cannabis users. Some 20 million American citizens have been convicted of marijuana offenses since 1937. In 2005, alone, 800,000 Americans were arrested on pot charges, costing taxpayers over a billion dollars.
Now, whose pockets do we want to put a billion dollars into? Jim Alekson’s, or the taxpayers’? And whom do we wish to see benefit from the health-giving properties of cannabis? Patients, or profiteers? We need to be vigilant, lest AgriCannaBusiness squeeze small farmers out of one more market, and lest patients be denied the right to grow our own few plants for personal use.
Note: since I first drafted this blog post, news has come out in Canada that shows the collusion of governments and corporations to keep cannabis profitable, as it’s currently playing out in interpretation and enforcement of Canadian law:
Health Canada is now in the process of consulting with the marijuana community to reorganize the program, and has proposed eliminating personal production licences and setting up a system of large-scale commercial growers. Established medical marijuana dispensaries were not mentioned in the government’s new plans.
These are the multi-billion-dollar shenanigans we have to be on the lookout for, worldwide.
Even if you get compassionate medical cannabis laws passed, the governments and corporations collude to make it impossible to grow your own or operate small growing operations that serve local dispensaries.
The result: cannabis is just more Agribusiness and Big Pharma.
Kassy Fatooh blogs as “Creek” at “It’s only ME, it’s not my mind.“ She is a native of Northern California, a writer, a mama of teens, and a sufferer from ME, which in the United States if often mislabeled “chronic fatigue syndrome.”
That’s an amazing read–but sadly not surprising. It boils down to serving the 1% exclusively, whether it’s their profiting from health care or receiving the best health benefits themselves down the road.
Hey, Thurman! Thanks for picking up my article. It is anger-making, isn’t it? As each piece fell into place and I saw how little regard there is among money men for health, for nature, for equitable economy or for the law—how little regard for anything real—well, I just had to write it up. I’m glad I did, and grateful to you for helping get the word out there.
I like your take on deity. I figure if anything is sacred, it’s Everything. And like John Muir said, “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.” What those corporate cash-crazed corporates are doing, is defiling the sacred connections.
And yes, we all evolved together on this planet, to the mutual benefit of all organisms, except for a few corporates who maybe were busy sharpening their pencils when the How To Evolve worksheet was passed out.
On we go.
Kassy
@Kassy – I am but a sounding board. Thank you for writing this and adding your voice.
@fachiu – It’s really depressing sometimes, realize just how deeply embedded the claws of the 1% are in our society, and our bodies. Makes me so angry I literally can’t think, much less speak.
This is largely scurrilous nonsense. Thurman, I have followed your work before and been impressed but as leader of CLEAR I can tell you that nothing in the above diatribe has been checked. There has been no attempt to contact me and so “Kassy” is nothing more than an internet troll seeking to traduce CLEAR, its members and me on the basis of innuendo and falsehood. This isn’t journalism, it’s abuse.
Neither I nor CLEAR share Jim Alekson’s views on recreational cannabis use. That is self-evident from the work that we as the UK’s largest membership-based, democratically run drug reform group do every day. However, firstly Medicine Wheel is not a pharmaceutical company, secondly why attack a man for seeking to launch a new and valuable form of medicinal cannabis?
This is shabby, inaccurate, false and misleading. Please take some responsibility, behave professionally and do some checking before you publish such hogwash. “Kassy” is either dumb or malicious, perhaps both.
For those who are outside of the UK, you might be interested to read up about Peter Reynolds.
http://campaign.mondialvillage.com/
or listen to dopefiend podcasts 302, 303 and 305 here – http://dopecast.libsyn.com/
There are many reasons why 17 MPs have cut all ties with Mr Reynolds, along with the SSDP UK and Ireland (Students For Sensible Drugs Policy), UK charity Release, and why so many cannabis users are speaking out against Peter Reynolds.
He will always reply with abuse, and will rarely challenge the points raised.
He runs CLEAR like a stalinist organisation. Anyone who dares question or criticise his methods, actions or agenda are threatened, attacked, censored and banned. He even sacked an executive member for daring to poll CLEAR members without his consent. There is no democracy with CLEAR.
So thank you for reposting this blog. Hopefully it will help people to understand that Peter Reynolds is toxic, and that he has to immediately step down as the head of CLEAR.
Please vote – https://www.change.org/petitions/peter-reynolds-resign-as-leader-of-the-uk-political-party-clear
>Neither I nor CLEAR share Jim Alekson’s views on recreational cannabis use. That is self-evident from the work that we as the UK’s largest membership-based, democratically run drug reform group do every day.
This is nothing more than an attempted clean-up operation on Reynolds’s part.
>There has been no attempt to contact me and so “Kassy” is nothing more than an internet troll seeking to traduce CLEAR
Reynolds thinks that because nobody has contacted him that this makes Kassy an internet troll? How pathetic is that? When the evidence is already on the CLEAR web site, there is no need to contact Reynolds – the evidence on the CLEAR site is there with permission from Peter Reynolds and is thus quotable.
Reynolds has already admitted that he is working with a group of US companies on his comment on the Telegraph article (around one week ago)
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tomchiversscience/100137480/david-cameron-knows-the-drug-laws-arent-working-his-failure-to-change-them-is-simple-cowardice/#disqus_thread
“I am also working with a US group of companies that has put detailed proposals to the UK government for a medicinal cannabis industry that would produce 100,000 new jobs within five years.”
Please notice the 100,000 new jobs connection – the same 100,000 new jobs that Reynolds allowed Jim Alekson to publish about on the CLEAR website, along with a 158 page pdf document.
“100,000 Well Paid UK Jobs Through Compassionate Medicinal Cannabis Legislation”
http://clear-uk.org/100000-well-paid-uk-jobs-through-compassionate-medicinal-cannabis-legislation/
“Download the full 158 page presentation here”
http://clear-uk.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/United-Kingdom-Presentation-FINAL-FORM-Sept-14-11.pdf
on page 54 of the pdf it says:
“The Medicine Wheel Project LLC and MMDS stakeholders are adamantly opposed to the wholesale recreational use of marijuana.”
No political party allows material with which they disagree onto their media platforms – and Peter Reynolds, as leader of CLEAR, is no different, in this respect. Reynolds has been exposed – and of course, he doesn’t like it.
More referenced evidence concerning Peter Reynolds working with Jim Alekson and Victor Hamilton is fully referenced in my article here:
http://www.campaign.mondialvillage.com/Peter-Reynolds-connection-with-Big-Pharma/
I see Peter Reynolds is still calling anyone who disagrees with him a liar,
I actually though the piece was very good and I can see why Reynolds would want it surpressed
Peter Reynolds has a criminal conviction for fraud which he recieved in a UK court so I know who I’d rather trust
Peter Reynolds impersonated a Doctor-Dr.Carla Margam-for the purposes of boosting his credibility.The guy is a crook,a fraud and a liar with a very nasty mouth.The sooner he’s banishd from the UK legalisation movement the better.Apart from anything else the biggest rock prohibitionists throw is that old chestnut “cannabis causes mental health problems”.It therefore doesn’t do for the movement to be represented by someone who isn’t playing with a full deck.Another way of saying that is that he’s a few sandwiches short of a picnic and another way of saying that is that he’s stark raving bonkers.The sooner he’s in the care of Weymouth Mental Health services the better-they can put him in a straitjacket and then in a padded cell.
“This is largely scurrilous nonsense. Thurman, I have followed your work before and been impressed”
So your work is impressive and agreeable up until you disagree with PR, any person revealing the truth behind Reynolds tissue of lies is a troll and abuser?, Peter Reynolds is the true troll and abuser, every time he answers
detractors his posts are full of abuse and accusations mostly designed to deflect attention from the fact he is completely unable and unwilling to answer any questions and to deflect attention from the truth of the content,
as for “no attempt to contact you” that would be pretty difficult for a person(among many) that you have banned and blocked from your sites, you have also censored and deleted any input which proves the points raised, you Peter are incapable of having an honest adult discussion about anything given your obvious lies and constant abuse,
everything you accuse others of you are most guilty of yourself, you have been caught out so many times your current position is ridiculous, any and every person that questions you or your position is instantly abused and if you are able censored,blocked, banned and deleted, democracy my arse!, Sanj canvassed the membership for their opinions which you were actively ignoring and was removed from the executive for carrying out a democratic process
that you pretend to adhere to, what “work” do you do Peter?, I see no evidence for it apart from sending out your three comment warriors aided by your sock puppets to comment on newspaper comment pages, individuals on various sites including UK420 have been doing that as a matter of course for many years before you arrived on the scene
and sought no praise for it, no doubt we will shortly see a sock puppet pop up and simultaneously praise clear and its leadership for the success in cannabis activism while simultaneously blaming your opponents for the lack of success of activism,? preceded of course by the standard abuse and wildly paranoid accusations that we have come to expect from a self serving conman, I’m still waiting for the “ongoing police investigation” you threatened me with last April after publishing my IP address and e mail address due to an argument about your suitability
to hold peoples details lol, you proved that point spectacularly by your actions and then realised your mistake
and pretended they were removed because they were part of your fiction about being part of a police investigation,
still waiting Peter but not in the slightest bit worried as it was an empty threat and a massive bluff attempting
to frighten off cannabis users that oppose you that you allegedly represent, use of police and legal action as a threat from an alleged cannabis campaigner is unbelievable, did you honestly expect such threats to ingratiate you
with the cannabis community?, an alleged campaigner against prohibition threatening to use the footsoldiers of prohibition against those he pretends to campaign for to hide his lies and obvious hypocrisy, are you really that stupid of did your burgeoning unmitigated ego and petulant anger overtake any sense and limited insight that you had?.
Your attack on Sarah McCulloch on her blog proved every accusation previously made against you and your behaviour
then and since continues to, your massive membership totals some 700 deluded souls despite your pretence that thousands of “likes” on facebook were actual paying members, we get 700 visitors/members a day on UK420 and there are crazy kitten vids on youtube that get more likes than you so we can see you are small potatoes on the scene
with a vastly inflated opinion of your presence, efficacy and ability, we have yet to see any evidence of progress
in activism from clear, BMCR failed due to a lack of security, the legalisation proposal was ignored by all
and to top it you declared cannabis was effectively decriminalised due to your complete misunderstanding and misrepresentation of the facts, in short you are a disastrous and damaging pretend campaigner that obviously lacks any knowledge and insight into the mindset and concerns of cannabis users and has a very limited knowledge of the topic you campaign about, you are a joke Peter, a sick one but a joke none the less.
CLEAR seems to be a covert marketing campaign for a pharmaceutical cannabis startup.
It sought the contact details of medical cannabis users through a vehicle called the ‘British Medical Cannabis Register’. At that time there was no disclosure of the connections CLEAR’s leader had with the business and its patents for cannabis patches etc. The obvious conclusion that the BMCR was not a petition but a list of potential clients has often been drawn publicly but never denied. Perhaps Mr Reynolds would like to deny it here, so that the matter can be discussed, as it has been made impossible to discuss such issues on the CLEAR website.
Why would anyone wish to contact Peter Reynolds?With his track record of violence and dishonesty I wouldn’t.That story he told about doing 3 months on remand in Brixton after his partner beat him up with a baseball bat is a bit like that story he told about writing a report for the House of Commons and that wordpress article written by his good friend Dr.Carla Margam.It was just another lie from the Peter Reynolds fiction factory.He’s a purveyor of bullshit to the chronically misinformed.
Thanks for all the input on both sides. I’ve made my opinion clear in the post, and I appreciate everyone’s input on the subject. It’s bad enough that this highly beneficial plant with so much to offer the world is banned in most nations, but we must never allow corporate hands to monopolize it when we finally win and get the laws reversed.
In solidarity.