you cant patent a weed. thats part of DuPont's original reason to regulate it, and half the reason it's still illegal.
you can get marinol and soon maybe even sativex. it's all legal weed products. but, as everyone who's compared them to the real thing, they are overpowering and useless, and everyone knows that the people making those drugs, along with hundreds of other drugs will be out of bussiiness quick. it's common medical knowledge that marijuana is practically a cure-all. aside from all the benificial effects it has on cancer, aids, glaucoma, etc. patients, it also works great for killing headaches, motion sickness, gastrointestinal distress, a sleep aid and anxiety remedy, and also works wonders for arthiritis, back pain, diabetes and diabetes related pain, PTSD, depression, you name it and the good weed can probably help. marijuana, if legalized, would take 90% of our pharmecuticals off the shelves, people will simply stop buying them.
take for example Asprin. for millions of years, people have used various species of willow tree for a variety of uses, it's active ingredient being Salicylic acid. this natural form of asprin's only known side effect besides from overdose is minor digestive discomfort. the willow tree, and therefore slicylic acid are not patentable, therefore no one can really make much money off of it. it's a natural product, people can get it in their backyard. lo and behold, in the 19th century some guys working for bayer figured out that if you change salicylic acid into acetylsalicylic acid you can patent it, and make money off of it. the goverment aproved this, because it will generate more money "for the greater good", even though acetylsalicylic acid had a much higher side-effect profile than it's natural cousin - it cause reyes syndrome, platlet depletion, kidney problems, and a much much lower l.d.-50 to boot.
personally, i trust mother nature much more than some scientist in a lab. nature has a much better track record, by far. in fact, it nature's genius makes humans look like blundering idiots - which we all in fact are.
