Why is Big Pharma is losing Big Money to “cannabis light” (Industrial Hemp) in Italy?
Here’s the thing,
Prohibition is NOT about ‘marijuana’.
Prohibition is about hemp, the green gold that can feed, clothe, shelter, heal & more.
For thousands of years Italy was a major hemp power, until the US said ‘no more sustainable resources’. But Italy
accidentally legalised hemp flowers in 2016, with an immediate effect on big pharma sales - even though NO ONE was
getting high.
A University of York paper, “Do-It-Yourself medicine? The impact of light cannabis liberalization on prescription drugs”
reviewed data from every Italian health district. After hemp flower became legal, all prescriptions fell by 1.6 percent,
with sedatives and psychiatric drugs taking the biggest hit. Researchers concluded, “even a mild form of liberalization
may generate a significant spillover effect on the market for pharmaceuticals.”
But, although a boom for Italian regions and farmers, the new fascists in government (citing the usual reefer madness
lies) want to re-prohibit hemp.
It reminds me of NZ First to be honest, because the brother in law of (Deputy Leader) Fletcher Tabeteau would be dead
without hemp flowers. So what’s going on? Why can’t we just improve things with simple sensible policies that improve
our health, wealth, and environment?
The reason seems simple. Big Pharma is a one point one trillion dollar industry, that’s been fined twenty five billion
dollars in fines for “anticompetitive practices” & “fraudulent marketing”.
It seems that many senior execs are corporate criminals in a dirty industry that is the third biggest killer of humans
after heart disease and cancer.
For example, the CEO of Insys was recently convicted for racketeering (lap dances for doctors to prescribe opioids etc
etc). Prior to that Insys spent $500,000 to block cannabis in Arizona, just before getting a cannabis derived medical
drug approved. Blocking legalization to protect market share? I believe it’s exactly the same here.
As Simon Bridges & Jamie Lee Ross showed us, kiwi politics is cheap. The ‘National’ party was happy to sell China two MP slots for just
$50k apiece.
-So who got the $151,105 from Medicines NZ’s secretive “election project 2017”, and for what?
Similarly, who gave Family First $616,067 in 2018 to spread lies and misinformation about cannabis nationwide? (NB.
Family First is currently appealing its second attempt by the Charities Board to de-register it.) Im curious to see
their 2019 returns.
It’s time we started to hold pharma (and the politicians they patronise) to account. Labour knows how and why hemp
supports health. National knows. NZF knows. But none of them are being honest with us about hemp or cannabis. They
aren’t leading the country to a brighter future. Are they, like the US govt, keeping us captive to the cartels who are
bankrupting the nation, killing us, and dooming our children?
Is ignorance bliss? Or is it time we wised up and started to improve things? We can, easily.
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