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UWI TODAY
– SUNDAY 2 JUNE 2019
SCIENCE & SOCIETY
Are the giant, international pharmaceutical
companies
trying to colonise Caribbean cannabis production? Should
we focus on more research for the medicinal potential of
cannabis or is now the time to start manufacturing and
selling products? How do we heal the divide between
traditional marijuana users such as Rastafarians, and the
scientific community? And just what exactly is “kush”?
These and other questions were the source for lively
debate at the panel discussion “Cannabis, Science and the
Issues”, held on the final day of the Faculty of Science and
Technology’s (FST’s) Science and Technology Week 2019
on May 24 at UWI St Augustine’s Teaching and Learning
Complex.
“This forum has been assembled to discuss mainly the
scientific and medical issues related to cannabis. It is not
primarily concerned with legal, social and religious issues,”
explained Dr Brian Cockburn, Dean of FST and moderator
of the event, to a packed and animated crowd of scientists,
students, cannabis enthusiasts, members of the Rastafarian
community and UWI faculty.
It went as promised, delving deep into the science
of cannabis and the many issues surrounding its use for
medicinal purposes. The panel even called into question
some of the widely accepted beliefs about marijuana,
particularly its safety.
Starting from the basics, Cockburn asked the panellists
for a definition of cannabis, which was supplied by Dr Nigel
Jalsa, a UWI lecturer in biological chemistry. Cannabis,
he said, was the name for a genus of plant that includes
strains such as hemp and marijuana. Marijuana is often
referred to as cannabis. Hemp is of course very different
from marijuana in its effects and use. That is because of
the presence of different chemical compounds in different
quantities in the respective plants. These compounds are
known as “cannabinoids”.
“There are over 100 cannabinoids in cannabis,” says
Dr Cliff Riley, Executive Director of the Science Research
Council of Jamaica.
Themostpopularcannabinoidis“tetrahydrocannabinol”
(THC), the primary psychoactive compound. In other
words, the agent of elevation. Another well known
cannabinoid is “cannabidiol” (CBD), which does not have
the same psychoactive effects and has several medical uses.
With the brief explanation of cannabis and its
components the panel then moved into the differences
between natural products and products based on the
chemical synthesis of cannabinoids.
“Why synthesise in the first place?” asked a member
Can
COMPRE
B Y J O E
of the audience from the Rastafarian community. “Can’t we
just breed it for its use?”
Dr Riley, who has intimate knowledge of Jamaica’s
medical cannabis industry (Jamaica is a regional leader in
legalisation and a producer of cannabis products), explained
that “scientists try to find solutions.” The vast majority of
pharmaceuticals come from plants but the concern is that
they will run out of crops, whether through crop damage
or destruction or because the drug requires toomuch of the
crop to be produced in a sustainable way.
Dr Jalsa agreed and gave the example of Taxol, a
chemotherapy medication. “A single dose requires this
harvesting of several trees. Synthesis is how you make the
drug available at an amount and cost for those who need it.”
They stressed however that cannabis is an abundant
plant and in recent years the shift has been made to natural
products. “
Most scientists were not aware of the abundance and
varieties of cannabis plants. What they recognise now is
that the authentic versions are better so they have started
investing more heavily into plant breeding programmes.
More and more producers are shying away from synthetics
because they are not as effective as the natural cannabinoids.”
Professor Rose-Marie Belle Antoine, Dean of the
Faculty of Law at St Augustine, who was acting in her role as
Head of the CARICOMRegional Commission ofMarijuana,
was not so trusting of the motives of drug producers:
“Could it also be that it’s not just control of the plant
and its sustainability but control of the regions where the
plant grows naturally? Could it be big firms coming to the
Caribbean to get the genotype (genetic make-up)?”
UWI St Augustine Professor of Pharmacology and
Coordinator of the Pharmacology Unit was also skeptical:
“There are many medicines that people can use and are
shown to work as the plant itself. Once you start extracting
and making it a pure compound, it now becomes a drug. It
is now regulated, and it can cost the person who is using it
100 times more than when it came from nature.”
BothDr Riley andDr Jalsa however, were of the opinion
that pharmaceutical companies performed a role that the
region could not because of the cost. “We are not going to
make pharmaceuticals from cannabis. It is too expensive.
So we have to work with what exists and guide the process.
Let us not over think it,” Riley said.
“The truth is we are behind the curve - not only for
developed country but for the region,” said Jalsa. “We have
a natural advantage. If we can develop chemical formations
from the plant that cannot be obtained anywhere else, we
Marcus Ramkissoon, certified cannabis expert and director of the Caribbean Cannabis Institute, makes a point while Professor Rose-Marie
Belle Antoine, Dean of the Faculty of Law and Head of the CARICOM Regional Commission on Marijuana, and Dr Nigel Jalsa, lecturer in
biological chemistry, look on.
