The industry lobbying group, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association( PhRMA), twice gave Governor Otter the maximum allowable contribution, who repaid that favour many times over with the CBD bill veto.
Email records show that Figueroa reached out to PhRMA lobbyist Jeremy Pisca to discuss“ the Office of Drug Policy’ s work on the CBD oil issue.”
“ But a month after reaching out to Pisca, Figueroa was trying to steer the state legislature and the Otter administration toward an alternative to CBD oil legalisation: a limited clinical trial of a new drug. In a primer sent to Perkins on February 27, Figueroa outlined three potential outcomes for the CBD bill. The“ preferred option,” she wrote, was to“ try to kill” the CBD bill“ and promote the [ Food and Drug Administration ] trial as an alternative.”
The timeline suggests that the Office of Drug Policy was never really working with the legislature to pass a mutually agreeable version of the bill, but was moving on a parallel track from the start.”
Never let a tragedy go to waste, in the minds of pharma companies. If people are passionate about using a plant to cure seizures, keep criminalising that plant and instead develop a patented version of the plant’ s active ingredient.
Figueroa was getting advice from a physician with ties to the maker of Epidiolex. While Epidiolex, derived from CBD oil, is also showing promise for epilepsy, it’ s a long process to get patented pharma drugs to market.
Meanwhile, Idaho parents can only watch as parents in other, more enlightened states ease the suffering of their children with a plant extract – a behaviour that makes them a criminal in Idaho.
“ We’ re reminded every day when [ Julia ] has seizures of that decision, that it was vetoed,” Sara Gambassis told Boise State Public Radio.“ It’ s not just we heard the news and it was over. We see her every day having seizures. We see her having seizures and hitting her head, and because she’ s non-verbal she can’ t even tell us how it feels.”
As Boehm puts it:
“ Otter’ s veto grew out of a system controlled by powerful interests who benefit from the maintenance of the status quo. Law enforcement wants to keep fighting the war on drugs— even when that means fighting kids with seizures— because it provides an endless stream of reasons for police departments to be given more money and the latest tech, with few questions asked. And pharmaceutical companies worry that legal weed will undercut the market they’ ve spent decades capturing, because it provides an alternative for people suffering from pain, seizures, and other ailments. None of those incentives are changing, even as the edifice of marijuana
The senseless prohibition of CBD oil is wrecking families. Kelly Osbourne, a 23- year-old mother, had her kids taken by the state for attempting to give her daughter cannabis-infused butter to stop her seizures.
“ They’ ve already taken my life— they’ ve taken my kids— so at this point, I really don’ t have anything else to lose,” said Osborne.
Until the tyranny of heartless, irrational politicians— and the ruthless greed of the corporations that keep them in power— can finally be dispelled, stories like Kelly Osbourne and Josh Phillips will continue playing out in Idaho and the minority of states where cannabis prohibition reigns.
http:// thefreethoughtproject. com / police-bigpharma-shamefully-cbd /