Here, was a respected academic in his field, promoting the harm recuction possibilities of doing away with the prohibition of cannabis, and in doing so he was also rubbishing the 'public health' message behind government generated anti-cannabis propoganda.
Not only a respected academic, but THE respected academic in cannabis research.
Professor Pertwee is said to be a 50 percent share in the partnership which actually discovered THC, the active component in cannabis. But maybe '50% share' was a bad use of verbage? Or was it?
All of a sudden the realisation of what looks like a clumsily implemented PR campaign becomes apparent.
The mist clears..and the reasons an educated and wholly qualified academic was stumbling and bumbling over his lines (it might work, it won't work) is clear for all to see.
In 2003 Professor Roger Pertwee was appointed as 'Head of Pharmacology' at UK cannabis pioneers GW Pharmaceuticals.
GW Pharmaceuticals manufacture the cannabis based medicine 'Sativex' which is commanding so many column inch's in today's press, (its a licensed medicine, although no-one on the NHS is allowed to have it - weird huh?).
They are also the only commercial enterprise in the United Kingdom which is ideally positioned to take advantage of a relaxation in the UK's frankly ridiculous cannabis laws as they are already geared up with tens of thousands of cannabis plants already growing, today, under glass.
In an announcement dripping with platitudes for Professor Pertwee's work , GW Pharma announced to the world, "Professor Pertwee is one of the world's leading cannabinoid scientists, having researched this area for over 30 years, and is the author of over 220 publications. He is a Past President of the International Cannabinoid Research Society and is frequently consulted about the therapeutic potential of cannabis and cannabinoids by parliamentary committees as well as leading medical organisations.
So no one is doubting Professor Pertwee's credentials, and at the time the good prof himself was clearly on a scientific mission. But has the professor made a deal with the devil in securing funding for further cannabinoid research?
Professor Pertwee said of the appointment, "The prospect of exploring the pharmacological actions of individual plant cannabinoids, separately and in combination, is exciting for both scientific and clinical reasons. The setting up of the Institute [Cannabinoid Research Institute] will greatly facilitate fundamental research into the pharmacology of plant cannabinoids and the exploitation of these constituents of cannabis as medicines."
Exploitation?
Thats right. No one is going to spend millions of pounds researching something without there being some form of payback on the horizon. Thats called enterprise.
Dr Geoffrey Guy, Executive Chairman of GW, commented, "It is our aim that GW should occupy the centre ground of cannabinoid science. We are therefore building a bridge between commercial enterprise and academia by establishing the Cannabinoid Research Institute .
So it would seem as far back as 2003 (coincidentally the year Labour Home Secretary David Blunkett decided to declassify cannabis from B to C), GW Pharmaceuticals were already looking towards a day in the not too distant future when democracy (remember that Mr Cameron?) would force cannabis onto the ballot.
Well that day has come. Proposition 19 hits the voting booth's in California come November 2010, when Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will allow the electorate to decide how cannabis stands in the eyes of the law.
Here in the UK the blue-print for a mass-production facility already exists.
The only question which remains, is whether or not the average British toker is going to support a mass-produced product over something they can grow themselves for a few pounds invested at the local garden centre.
One would suspect not.
Source: PR Cannazine
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