Why Prof. Raphael Mechoulam Deserves a Nobel Prize
If you don’t know who Prof. Raphael Mechoulam is – he is considered the “Father of Cannabis Research”. This man is a pioneer and helped push the cannabis debate to where it is today. In fact, in even though he has done so much for cannabis medicine worldwide – he’s on the verge to drop another revolutionary discovery that may significantly impact the world once again.
In 1963, the professor successfully synthesized a few cannabinoids for the first time in human history. These were THC, CBD 1988, Mechoulam discovered the endocannabinoid system. Nowadays, his research into cannabinoid acids are once again sending shockwaves into the scientific world and may even inspire Pharma to get more involved with cannabis medicines.
Now I know that there are some of you that read that last statement that felt a cold wave shiver down your spine – but you must understand that “pharma” isn’t inherently bad. Are there bad players within pharma? Of course – just like in virtually every other aspect of our lives.
I know the reluctance and distrust so many of you have towards Big Pharma that has frequently violated the trust of society - but once more, these are specific players within the consumer market. Pharma, with their big R & D facilities, can take cannabis medicine to a completely new level – in a way that the craft cannabis market would never be able to do.
And once you understand what Mechoulam’s new research is pointing to, you’ll probably feel far more at ease. Nobel prize winner in the future?
THCa is thousands of times more potent than THC
Mechoulam is currently looking into “living cannabinoids” which come in their acid form. The cannabinoids we are using come from “dead plants” meaning, they are formed only when the plant is being cultivated.
Before this – when the plant is alive. The cannabinoids are all in their acid form. These cannabinoids are the “microgreens” of the cannabinoid family – giving them far superior medical efficacy without all the side effects of the cannabinoids.
In other words, you’d be able to get thousands of times more THC into your system with a higher degree of bioavailability without any of the side effects of taking THC like you currently would. This means that for aggressive cancers that respond to THC – you could theoretically increase the dose of THC significantly and more importantly – at a consistent dose and potency.
It’s almost as if the gods of Ganja created these layers within the plant to satisfy all aspects of society – those that grow and those that research.
The problem with THCa and other cannabinoids in their acid form is that they are incredibly unstable. Think of them as quantum particles before being observed. They have a lot of potential but a slight change within their environment will begin triggering their degradation to these “lower cannabinoid forms”.
This is why perhaps only Pharma would have the potential to unlock the secrets. Of course, I’m sure there’s a bunch of independent researchers that could also help unlock these secrets, but only Pharma would be able to produce medicine at mass.
Good News for Pharma
Another good point that Mechoulam and his team makes is that with acids, you can make proprietary medicine. This has been one of the reasons why pharma has been so reluctant to go “full marijuana” because you cannot patent cannabinoids. THC is produced by a plant – not by a company.
However, by extracting specific ratios of cannabinoid acids, and in some cases – discovering new compounds – pharma can patent it and in turn, create cannabinoid-medicines of the future that aligns with their current business model.
This means more research and as a result – society also stands to benefit from this research.
"We've so far developed 14 different molecules, eight of which are completely novel discoveries, meaning that we own a very exclusive patent on them, since they are a new discovery to the scientific world," he said. "Each one of those molecules has the potential to be developed into several drugs, while many companies can do incredible things with even just one molecule." - Reshef Swisa [Source]
Just how good are these acids?
Here’s another quote from the same article;
When asked about the potency of the drug, Swisa said that their tests for colitis showed that not only did the synthesized cannabis acids far outperform CBD treatments, but they also performed similarly to the current gold standard treatments and steroids on the market, most notably, Prednisone.
"The finding was stunning. We couldn't believe it the first time so we repeated it another time, and a third time... six different times, because we just couldn't believe what we saw," Swisa told the Post.
As you can see, we may be entering into a whole new phase of medical cannabis – something I wrote about a while back.
Medical cannabis will eventually resemble the pharmaceutical model of creating medicines – which is good because it will provide a more systematic approach to dose, potency, regularity, etc.
It seems that Mechoulam by now should have received a Nobel Prize – but still hasn’t. Yet, there is evidence to suggest that he is on his way to that territory as he won the Prestigious Harvey Award which often is a precursor to the Nobel prize.
To be honest – he should have won it for the Endocannabinoid System, the synthesis of cannabinoids and well now – just revolutionizing the world once again because he’s the Godfather!
WHO IS DR. RAPHAEL MECHOULAM, READ MORE..
WHO IS THE GODFATHER OF THC? READ THIS!
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