It is now clear that the reason is that the big pharmaceutical companies are getting patents in place on a whole bunch of marijuana derivatives, GM modified, drugs.
Soon we will all be able to get high legally, by getting a scrip from the doc.
Here is the abstract from one patent that has been granted by the US Patent Office. Makes me feel good that someone has clearly done the research to determine that cannabinoids inhibit all those age related diseases!
Cannabinoids have been found to have antioxidant properties, unrelated to NMDA receptor antagonism. This new found property makes cannabinoids useful in the treatment and prophylaxis of wide variety of oxidation associated diseases, such as ischemic, age-related, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. The cannabinoids are found to have particular application as neuroprotectants, for example in limiting neurological damage following ischemic insults, such as stroke and trauma, or in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and HIV dementia.
