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Marinol, a registered trademark of Unimed Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is the commercial name for a product containing dronabinol, which is synthetic Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol.
Δ9-THC is a naturally occurring component of Marijuana.
Marinol is the only FDA-approved cannabinoid and is prescribed as an appetite stimulant, primarily for AIDS patients.
Many users complain that not only is the cost of Marinol greater than the cost of the amount of marijuana needed to produce the same effect, but it is also lacking in many of the properties of the whole plant, which contains hundreds of different cannabinoids. In addition, it takes over an hour to reach full effect, making it difficult to maintain an exact level of effect (which is important to most medical users), as well as making it useless to people suffering from nausea and vomiting, since they simply vomit it out before it has a chance to work.
In 1999, Marinol was rescheduled from Schedule II to III of the Controlled Substances Act, reflecting a finding that THC had a potential for abuse less than that of LSD, cocaine, and heroin. This rescheduling comprised part of the argument for a 2002 petition to reschedule cannabis, in which petitioner Jon Gettman noted, "Cannabis is a natural source of dronabinol (THC), the ingredient of Marinol, a Schedule III drug. There are no grounds to schedule cannabis in a more restrictive schedule than Marinol"[1] (http://www.drugscience.org/pt/b.htm).
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