The Emergence of Medical Marijuana: A Look into GW Pharmaceuticals and Bayer's Partnership

Proposal for Investigative Article on Medical Marijuana

First and foremost keep in mind that you are trying to sell me on the idea. Your writing should convey some sense of enthusiasm for the project, and a sense that the story is important, and needs to be told. Here's a link to an article about the pharmaceutical giant Bayer's attempts to enter the field of medical marijuana that was published by one of our faculty writers in Walrus Magazine in 2005: / Have a look at that story.... now below you will find the pitch that the author wrote to the editors at Walrus magazine to convince them that they should send him to England to research the story. Note that the pitch has a kind of informal tone, but shows that he had already done plenty of research and had a handle on the story. The proposal begins now: WRITER: Brian Preston Medical Marijuana Proposal May 26, 2004 The future of medical marijuana is about to reveal itself, and it ain’t a bunch of neo-hippies belching clouds of smoke in Compassion Clubs. A British doctor and medical researcher named Geoffrey Guy is on the verge of becoming famous (infamous) as the creator of a monopoly on medical marijuana, for the pharmaceutical giant Bayer. Approval from the British government is expected sometime this year for Geoffrey Guy’s company, GW Pharmaceuticals, in a joint partnership with Bayer, to market Sativex, the first consistent-dosage licensed cannabis extract. Sativex mixes THC with another cannabinoid, CBD, and will be legally available to sufferers of multiple sclerosis and neuropathic pain. GW Pharmaceuticals has invested in what it calls an Advanced Dispensing System, which looks like a cell phone mating with an asthma inhaler. Sativex is a mist you spray in the mouth. Check out the picture on the GW website. You have to scroll down a bit to see the photo of the dispenser The whole point of the cell-phone-like apparatus is that it limits the dosage to a certain number of shots per day, at certain times, so there’s no passing it around like a bong. It’s tamper-resistant, whatever that means. I’ve been following this Dr. Guy for years now. He got an exclusive license from the British government in 1998 to grow pot for medical research, and has been growing 10,000 plants at a time since then in “secret” greenhouses in rural Britain. When the Canadian government was looking into growing medical marijuana Allan Rock went to England and begged Guy and GW to come set up a Canadian company to produce a crop here. GW passed and the Flin Flon people got the contract. But Health Canada has been dragging its heels on distributing the Flin Flon cannabis, impatiently waiting for Guy to get his controlled-dose system to the market. Then they’ll be able to wash their hands of the whole issue and hand it over to Bayer. Geoffrey Guy got his original seed strains by entering into an agreement with Hortapharm, a Dutch company run by ex-pat Americans who fled the drug war years ago. These Americans are publicity shy but everyone in the pot world knows who they are. Anyway Hortapharm sold GW its living archive of seeds and strains so GW could work on perfecting plants that consistently produce high amounts of the various cannabinoids. It would be interesting to talk to the Hortapharm folks, some of whom I met in Amsterdam when I was doing my book, about the irony of hippies fleeing the drug war, setting up shop in Holland, then selling the catalogue to a company that turns around and sells the results to Bayer, best known as the inventors of aspirin, the funders of Mengele’s research at Auschwitz, and, more recently, the guys caught overcharging for Cipro, the anti-anthrax drug. From what I’ve seen, Geoffrey Guy is a very open, transparent, articulate, ah, guy. This is a chance to get in and profile him before the story breaks and he’s deluged with media requests. Once that happens there’ll be no strolling around the greenhouse with him. So far he’s been quite sympathetic to recreational users (although he claims he’s never tried it), and good about answering the criticisms of those who want the plant legalized. He’s spoken publicly pretty much exclusively through the magazine Cannabis Culture. Here’s his response to their worries he’s going to monopolize the business through patents on the plant itself. "The pharmaceutical industry is a business, and everybody seeks to patent their processes, materials and products," he says. "We've spent a lot of our own money and investors' money developing these products, and we would not have done this if there was no chance to make profits. Nobody in the industry was seriously looking into cannabis research when we first started. We've spent five years doing research, and Hortapharm was doing work for ten years before that. If we had not done the work, there would have been little advance in cannabis research. Now that we have done the work, some other companies want to copy that, and we have to protect ourselves. We deserve to make a fair return on our investment, and that's why we pursued patents for our plants, extracts, processes, and delivery devices." Of course, no one was doing the work in the US because the feds wouldn’t allow it. The Americans who founded Hortapharm were driven offshore, so now a European multinational gets the spoils. Bayer will become the dominant global cannabis supplier. Anyway I think we should go to Britain, meet Guy, and see the facilities where he’s currently producing 10 tons of top-grade buds a year (and gearing for much more on approval of Sativex). Also go to Amsterdam and talk to the American ex-pats behind Hortapharm, and see how they justify selling out, or even if they see it that way. Let me know what you think. All the best, Brian Preston 1. Story plan Prepare a comprehensive plan that: a) identifies the topic you have chosen for your final assignment and explains why you have chosen this topic b) outlines the primary and secondary research sources you will be using (Note, you don’t have to have found every source but you must identify the organizations or types of organizations where you will go to find those sources. But if you know the sources already, include them.) (Note, your only primary source should be your interview.) c) describes the specific types of information you will be seeking and why (what kinds of data are you expecting to find, what kinds of stories do you expect to gather) d) identifies the person you will be interviewing and explains why this person is important and relevant to the article e) provides a list of the topics and/or questions you plan on asking the subject during the interview (remember they can only answer about things within their jobs/lives/jurisdiction, and you can’t ask them to answer for other people or organizations) Note: you may choose a topic of current public/media interest, historical interest, or something with a human interest angle. Your topic must be investigative, and not just a story. You must dig into a topic to dig up facts and statistics, information and research, insights and human interest. The instructor is offering one-on-one meetings with each student to help them figure out their topic. You’d be wise to take advantage of this offer. If you get the story plan right, you can ace the other assignments. If you get it wrong, you may not be able to pass the others. This story plan should be written in a manner that helps to sell the story. In other words, it should not be dry and academic. In the real world, often an editor is persuaded by the enthusiasm of the pitcher and the fact that the proposal itself is so well-written and gripping. Your proposal will likely be 1-3 pages long, but there is no required length or format. Be sure to put your name and student number on it!