There is something inherently funny about marijuana (see: Jon Stewart’s wonderful performance in “Half Baked”).There is something even more inherently funny about a company growing a secret underground lair full of cannabis — akin to Dr. No’s secret hideout — for the sole purpose of creating a marijuana that doesn’t have the terrible effects of giving the user a euphoric high.Talk about the beginning of the most boring espionage thriller ever.As amusing and ridiculous as it sounds, it’s happening. Right now. Perhaps the secret lair isn’t underground or mysterious. It exists somewhere in Southern England, but “for clear security reasons we do not divulge the precise location.”The “we” in question is GW Pharmaceuticals, the creators of the new cannabinoid pharmaceutical product Sativex which is “administered as an oral spray which is absorbed by the patient’s mouth,” according to the company’s Web site.There are probably a lot of important things to say about this, but I just can’t shake the image of a couple of men, dressed head to toe in black, puffing out clouds of baby powder then dancing around a dazzling system of lasers that, if touched, would alert the head of security of GW Pharmaceuticals, whose evil (and bald, of course) leader would rush in to stop the spies from stealing their stash.Nor can I lose the image of a bunch of college kids passing a spray around a cheap apartment with “Dark Side of the Moon” slipping from speakers while “The Wizard of Oz” silently flashes from the TV.The obvious question: Why did this company want to create a new form of marijuana, essentially, for medicinal purposes? It seems overly controversial for something that has already been done (in some form, see Cesamet and Marinol — both synthetic, both cause laughter and euphoria) in the past.According to Slate, GW Pharmaceuticals thinks that smoking marijuana as a medicine is somewhat counter-productive and, anyway, creating a spray to get the job done without the munchies, giggling and an insatiable desire for distorted guitars “makes more sense than letting everybody grow and smoke the herb, with all the resulting variability, fraud, and side effects.”The spray, a derivative of the cannabis plant, is not ready for the States and the UK quite yet. Rather, “Sativex is currently undergoing late-stage clinical development in Europe and the United States.”But it’s been used in Canada for at least four years. In April 2005, it began being used as “symptomatic relief of neuropathic pain in Multiple Sclerosis,” and in August 2007, it began usage “as adjunctive analgesic treatment in patients with advanced cancer who experience moderate to severe pain during the highest tolerated dose of strong opioid therapy for persistent background pain.”At the moment, Sativex is making headlines because GW Pharmaceuticals has requested European approval for the product.There isn’t much information on how users will react to things like drug tests, though it sounds as if passing them might be a problem. Like that classic “Seinfeld” episode in which Elaine can’t pass drug tests because she’s been eating poppy-seed muffins, a couple of good sprays might be enough to come up positive and lose a job.But Americans shouldn’t worry about that quite yet. Bayer Healthcare is the product’s marketer in Canada, but Americans will have to take a trip north to get a spray. The drug is currently only being used in FDA tests in the States and pending approval for general usage.Interestingly, some of the side effects of the drug are “somnolence (sleepiness), nausea, and dizziness.” The first and last make sense, but nausea is one of the symptoms of chemotherapy that marijuana helps keep down, allowing the patients to eat when they would otherwise be fairly unable.Though the drug probably won’t cause much outrage either way in the United States, assuming it passes FDA regulations, it is an interesting neutrality in the war on drugs. Like Switzerland, it’s right in the thick of the things — I mean, it’s made from pot that’s hidden in perhaps a dungeon in Southern England! — but it doesn’t actually have any reason to be looked down on from any side. Two similar drugs are already in usage here, and if it works, everyone will benefit.‘Cept maybe those darn kids who’ll start drinking bottles and wondering why their ding-dongs are tasting better.—-Contact Travis Andrews at [email protected]