it's not like cocaine - it's like coca leaves.
it's not like opium - it's like poppies.
it's not like aspirin - it's like willow trees.
these plants may also be used for their medical properties but their pharmaceutical/synthetic counterparts are far stronger and are processed so that the naturally occurring combination within the plants no longer exist in pill form.
Marinol is also synthetic and processed - and just one component of the plant.
so, yeah, I agree. as companies do more research into the medicinal applications of cannabis synthetics, those things can be scheduled - they will probably become more and more concentrated if they are used for targeting specific areas of the body, etc.
what's interesting is that one synthetic product they have tried to market - Rimonabant- for weight loss - has been withdrawn from the market because of the bad side effects - severe depression and type 2 diabetes. it blocks the uptake of the body's internally-produced endocannabinoid that is analogous to THC (and blocks THC from cannabis) - it was described as the "anti-THC." It was deemed too dangerous because it made people want to kill themselves when their natural endocannabinoids were blocked.
so, absolutely, those synthetic products need to be scrutinized, tested and scheduled (tho none would meet the schedule I classification either, if they're available.)
Cannabis, on the other hand, has been used in its natural form for more than 5000 years. It has been available as a medicine for far longer than it has been prohibited as the same - it's only been illegal for 70 years. Before that, it was part of every doctor's medicine chest.
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