Cannabis cures COVID? The elusive Holy Grail the marijuana industry needs for federal legalization

This article originally appeared on Cannabis.net and has been republished with permission.

This week broke the news that cannabis may help fight COVID-19, and almost the entire non-cannabis world grabbed the headline from Oregon State University’s study on cannabis and cellular signaling pathways used by the COVID virus to enter the body.

Luckily, almost everyone in the cannabis industry kept their cool and said no, marijuana doesn’t stop or cure the COVID virus, but it does have the potential to help in some way. First, it can reduce the spread of the virus by binding to receptors that the virus uses to spread throughout the body. Second, since cannabis has natural anti-inflammatory properties, it can reduce symptoms associated with the virus. Up to this point, marijuana cannot cure COVID or prevent you from getting the virus.

Photo by Mike Cox via Unsplash

As the article “The Cannabis Grinch” pointed out, hopes for rapid federal legalization of marijuana in 2022 are dwindling unless there is a long bet like cannabis that has a major impact on transmission or remission from COVID . The article also points out that the news must come from a Big 4 pharmaceutical company that currently has tremendous appeal to the White House and the CDC.

The reason for this goes back to the story, “Cannabis can inhibit pathways that the COVID viruses use to spread, so it closes doors that the virus uses to gain strength,” shared almost two years ago with Dr. Kovelchuk in Canada began. You can watch the full interview with Dr. Watch Kovelchuk here and listen as he explains his findings prior to the peer-to-peer review. Fast forward to Dr. Richard Van Breeman’s Oregon State study, based on Dr. Kovelchuk’s thesis is building, and you can see how the cannabis and COVID headlines could start to get out of hand.

One problem is that for the federal marijuana industry to see a real push toward legalizing cannabis for COVID research and use, the study must come from a company or lab like Pfizer or Johnson & Johnson. Will these labs making millions a day from vaccines want to bring a cannabis-COVID alternative to the plate? Under no circumstance. As some medical professionals have also pointed out, the work of Dr. Van Breeman is a start, but there is still a long way to go from a petri dish and mass spectrometer predictions.

While the marijuana industry perked up at the news of a possible holy grail of rapid cannabis legalization, the facts summarized by Dan Adams in The Boston Globe are as follows:

researchers at Oregon State University‘s Hemp Woof used some sophisticated computer modeling and mass spectrometry techniques to make predictions about how well a variety of organic compounds would bind to the coronavirus’ “protein spike,” which allows it to infect human cells. They then sent their list of top candidates to the Oregon Health & Science University, which has a special security facility authorized to work with live samples of dangerous pathogens such as the coronavirus.

The tests at OHSA (sic – OSHU, not the Occupational Health and Safety Act) showed that two hemp-derived cannabinoid compounds bind strongly to the tip and block the viral cells’ ability to infect human cells.

Photo by Fusion Medical Animation via Unsplash

However, the effect has not yet been studied on humans, only on Petri dishes. Also, the compounds in question are found in very small amounts in most cannabis and hemp strains and can only be ingested through solvent-made extracts, not through smoking or cooked edibles.

Assuming the clinical trials go well, the researchers’ hope is that a pill containing purified versions of the cannabis compounds could be developed as a supplement to vaccination, to be used after a known exposure or by those with compromised immune systems.

RELATED: Why Smoking Weed Won’t Protect You From COVID-19

Whenever there is a positive clinical trial on cannabis and COVID, marijuana stocks skyrocket and the world rejoices in the medicinal potential of marijuana as a medicine. Then the details emerge, and they’re never as groundbreaking as the click-bait headlines.

While cannabis has the potential to heal and benefit the human body in myriad ways, medical testing has been kept in the dark for the past 58 years thanks to the federal government’s Schedule 1 listing of the plant. The research was banned by the federal authorities in almost all cases. Medical school for the last 7-8 years of state legalization is just beginning to catch up with modern medical standards, but in a way we are starting research again like it’s 1958.

RELATED: Is Big Pharma Weed Coming With Pfizer’s Recent Purchase?

Does Big Pharma want marijuana legalized right now? Based on studies showing that patients discontinue more than half of their prescription medications once they begin a cannabis therapy program, the reasonable answer would be no. Why would Big Pharma want to see the full legalization of a plant that would theoretically cut their profits by 50%? Ditto for Big Alcohol and Big Tobacco at this point.

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Billions of dollars in anti-marijuana lobbying money, paving the way for full legalization of marijuana at the federal level, is a pipe dream right now. While voters overwhelmingly want legalization, big corporations involved in lobbying and election finance currently don’t want it.

RELATED: Should Republican’s bill legalize marijuana DOA if Mitch McConnell doesn’t back it?

Federal legalization of marijuana will happen when Mitch McConnell says it will because he has the key votes and influence in the Senate to pass or end marijuana legalization. So far, the Kentucky senator has shown no interest in helping a “democratic” cause and legalizing marijuana at the federal level. Without strong Republican support, federal legalization is dead, and the SAFE Banking Act now looks like a long shot even in 2022.

These facts are propelling the marijuana industry into “Hail Mary” or “Holy Grail” mode. While there’s no obvious path to federal legalization right now, especially with midterm elections due later this year, the industry needs to have an outlier or long shot to make a groundbreaking cannabis move. Curing cannabis or preventing COVID is certainly headline news, if it turns out to be true it could do just that. Barring a major medical finding at the cancer or COVID level, 2022 doesn’t look like the year for federal marijuana legalization.

This article originally appeared on Cannabis.net and has been republished with permission.