January 16, 2016 From Fred Gardner That was a very informative piece you wrote about Bial’s tragic trial of a FAAH-inhibitor drug. Thanks for citing of Marisol Touraine’s disclaimer, “Contrary to several reports in the French news media, the drug was not a cannabis-based painkiller.” Those reports have been ricocheting around the internet.
The reason drug companies are striving to bring FAAH inhibitors to market (as you undoubtedly know) is that Cannabis is illegal. The scientists’ strategy —raising anandamide levels to increase CB1-receptor activation— seems like an end-run around prohibition. But it’s really a Hail Mary pass, given that the range of effects in humans are unknown, and might even include that most dreaded one, euphoria.
