Looking for a classier way to inhale, minus the carcinogens? Israel’s Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. and Tel Aviv-based Syqe Medical have signed an agreement to market and distribute what will be the world's first metered-dose marijuana inhaler.
The Syqe inhaler has been in use for over a year at Haifa’s Rambam Hospital. Both companies expect Israel's Health Ministry to approve the drug for home use within a year.
“The extent of medical cannabis use for the treatment of pain and other symptoms has increased significantly in recent years,” Professor Elon Eisenberg, director of the Pain Research Department at Rambam Medical Center, told the Times of Israel. “The main problem facing doctors and researchers is the inability to estimate the amount of cannabis that is administered via smoking or vaporization. The ability to do so forms the basis for administering proper treatment and conducting significant scientific research. The development of this inhaler fulfills our greatest hopes, to be able to administer accurate and reliable doses of cannabis. It constitutes a breakthrough in cannabis treatment and the medical use of cannabis in Israel and around the world.”
Teva is the the world's largest generic drugmaker and will be the drug's exclusive marketer and distributor. The key here is precision. Precise dosing makes the Syqe inhaler unlike any other product that delivers marijuana. Until now, cannabis users generally had no idea exactly how much marijuana they've smoked, other that deducting that amount from their stash. Doctors and prohibitionists that have argued that medical marijuana cannot be dosed properly now have to consider the precision of inhalers.
The other selling point is that many medical marijuana users are embarrassed and reluctant to smoke in public or admit to smoking marijuana. The inhaler solves this problem by disguising itself as any other asthma inhaler. The Syqe Inhaler is the solution to a number of illnesses that are approved for medical marijuana from the nation's Health Ministry.
