ACT

Since January 1999, a pharmacy in Frankfurt/Main offers dronabinol (THC) for about one quarter of the horrendous price, that has to paid in Germany for the US dronabinol preparation Marinol.

It is the Bock-Pharmacy (address: Leipziger Strasse 71, 60487 Frankfurt, Phone +49-69-9706370, Fax +49-69-97063777, info@thc-pharm.de).
Dronabinol is manufactured in the pharmacy in cooperation with the company THC Pharm GmbH, The Health Concept, and can be delivered as an ordinary formula. This procedure is a transition model, used until the granting of a trade permission. Then, dronabinol can be delivered to all German pharmacies.

The following formulas are available:
- Dronabinol solved in sesame oil and packed in hard gelatine capsules
- Dronabinol solved in alcoholic liquid.

25 capsules of 5 mg cost 354,10 DM (German marks, about $220) and 25 capsules of 10 mg cost 684,70 DM (about $430). 10 ml liquid with 1 percent THC cost 269,70 DM and 10 ml liquid with 2 percent THC cost 534,12 DM.

More pharmacies in other cities will follow.

Starting point of the manufacturing is industrial hemp, from which the CBD (Cannabidiol) is extracted and than converted to THC in a laboratory. THC-Pharm can as well deliver CBD to other pharmacies.

Price comparison:
5 milligrams of THC/Dronabinol cost
- about 8 DM ($5) as a Marinol capsule in the USA
- about 60 DM ($38) as a Marinol capsule in Germany
- about 14 DM ($9) as a dronabinol capsule of THC Pharm
- about 1 DM ($0.6) as 0.1 gram marijuana of medium quality.

Source: ACM (Association for Cannabis as Medicine)-Bulletin of 24 January 1999