[FONT=book antiqua, times new roman, times]The problem with this synthetic strategy was most quickly evident to patients. Marinol isn't marijuana. The synthetic solution failed because Marinol is only marginally effective.
The difference between marijuana and THC was apparent from the outset. Cancer patients quickly discovered smoking marijuana is far more effective than swallowing oral THC pills.
(45) During the DEA hearings before Judge Young, one researcher, Norman Zinberg, M.D., testified that during his 1974 research nearly half the patients quit his legal, THC-based study in order to obtain illegal, but more effective, marijuana.
(46)
Zinberg's observations were amplified in an internal National Cancer Institute (NCI) memo from mid-1978. Synthetic THC is described as "erratic," "unpredictable," and finally dismissed as "unfit" for human use. Marijuana cigarettes, by contrast, are described as "reliable" and "highly predictable." After reviewing the available evidence the cancer specialists at NCI concluded, "All in all the [marijuana] cigarette may be the best means of delivering the drug."
(47)
After reviewing the available evidence DEA Judge Francis L. Young concluded Marinol is not an adequate substitute for marijuana.
(48) [/FONT]