Please excuse wholesale cut and paste - laziness in avoiding paraphrasing. It's a fascinating article - an excellent review - which I would recommend to anyone (and everyone): http://www.denverlawreview.org/medical-marijuana/

"In the U.S., GW insists that their lead product, once it completes the necessary number of clinical trials and wins FDA approval for the indication of cancer pain refractory to opioid therapy, should be placed in a lower Schedule separate from herbal cannabis, which should itself remain in Schedule I. In a 2005 letter to the United States Department of Health and Human Services, that GW Pharmaceuticals distributes at public relations appearances, they boast of their UK license to cultivate various cannabis strains. This author has been told by an anonymous GW employee that the exclusive license was made possible because of Chairman Guy’s personal relationship with former British Prime Minister John Major, who helped broker the company’s exclusive deal with the Home Office. They argue that their lead product, proprietary name Sativex®, is “quite different” from “generic and unrefined cannabis” and that “it cannot be said that all cannabis—or all cannabis extracts—are the same.” Finally, not wanting natural cannabis to share in any of their predicted future legitimization of their extract, they end by saying that “it would be a great irony if generic herbal cannabis were to be removed from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, and made available for general medical use, based in part on data relating to a specific product [Sativex®].” Is not the real irony that GW would have the plant on which their entire company is based, relegated to the status of irredeemably dangerous drug, while their extract of the plant is blithely elevated to the status of profitable, salable good?[13] Is that any way to thank Mother Nature?"

Just one thought: God sees everything! (Matthew 6.24)