Big Pharma Starts Using Cannabis For Making Drugs In Earnest

For decades, cannabis or marijuana as it is more commonly known has been treated as an illegal substance that could land offenders in prison for a long time. After the movement to make marijuana legal gained steam, several U.S. states have since changed their tune and legalized its use. Now, a pharmaceutical company is considering developing drugs with cannabis as one of the main ingredients.

The drug company in question is GrowBlox Life Sciences LLC and it recently announced that it will be creating a new medication for curing and preventing cardiovascular diseases using marijuana as one of the ingredients, Futurism reports. One of the main driving forces behind the move is Dr. Alexander Stokes from the University of Hawaii.

In 2015, Stokes received a patent for developing a therapy method involving the treatment of heart diseases with cannabis as the principal component. When asked about it a year ago, Stokes explained that the main problems that cause heart disease in the first place have to do with increasing the strain placed on it. By giving the heart a bit of support, this workload can be redistributed.

“Many types of diseases ultimately affect the heart by making it work harder,” Stokes had said at the time. “The heart muscle compensates by getting bigger (cardiac hypertrophy). The heart becomes stiffer and less functional and eventually starts to fail. We have a way of protecting the heart with a completely new therapeutic approach—a therapy that allows the heart to compensate for the extra work it needs to perform, without losing function and failing.”

The main idea is to basically bind the receptor called TRPV1 with the cannabinoid in marijuana. Since TRPV1 is considered one of the main things that ultimately contribute to heart failure, keeping it in check will go a long way towards preventing a heart attack.