The History of Medicinal Cannabis
Marijuana has been a useful part of human culture
for approximately 12,000 years, though its earliest uses were not
medicinal, but rather as a fiber and food source. Its use as a medicine
dates back to the 28th century BC, when Chinese Emperor Shen-Nung
prescribed it to treat beri-beri (a degenerative disease affecting the
nervous and digestive systems), constipation, "female weakness", gout,
malaria, rheumatism and absentmindedness. (Abel, 1980:12) (Bloomquist, 1971:14) Its use as a medicine was well documented in China, but its use as a
recreational drug was not condoned and it was called the "Liberator of
Sin."(Bloomquist, 1971:15)
The people of India had a much different
attitude towards using the plant than did the Chinese. Hinduism is, and
has been for millennia, the major religion if India, where cannabis use
has long been associated with religious activities. The
perception-altering effects of smoked cannabis have been used in Hinduism
to enhance concentration on prayer by inducing a removal from the usual
world and its distractions. "For centuries, until recently when a
governmentally sponsored program was begun to phase out the use of
cannabis, nearly every system of Indian philosophy and religion was
inextricably entwined with the use of Indian hemp products."(Bloomquist, 1971, 16) Aside from religious uses, variations of cannabis were used to
treat dysentery, sunstroke, indigestion, reduced appetite, speech
impediments and to bring "alertness to the body and gaiety to the mind,"
as noted
in the famous book called the Sustra, compiled
sometime before BC 1000.(Bloomquist,
1971:16)
Soon after cannabis' introduction to
India, it began to spread to other countries such as Assyria, where it was
referred to as "azallu" in BC 650. The progression of marijuana across
the Middle and Near East was accompanied by tales of a plant that grew
taller and thicker than flax and whose seeds, when burnt, cleansed the
body and mind. Near the time of Christ, the renowned physician Galen
extolled the recreational uses of cannabis and recommended its use in
curing gas pains, earaches and other ailments.(Bloomquist, 1971:17) By
500 AD cannabis was in wide use throughout most of Europe, save for the
western and northern extremities. Its use was very wide-spread,
especially in the eastern Mediterranean, but it was often condemned as it
is today. Many physicians recognized its diverse uses, but the
recreational users of the herb brought scornful looks from much of
society. One of the foundations for society's contempt for the ingestion
of cannabis came from the tale of Hasan-Ibn-Sabbah, an Eastern terrorist
from around 1050 AD, who allegedly used cannabis to persuade his followers
to perform violent acts.(Abel,
1980:44). This was, coincidentally, one of the
"concrete" examples used by the Commissioner of the Federal Bureau of
Narcotics, Harry J. Anslinger, in his 1937 efforts to put a prohibition on
marijuana. The historical truthfulness of this story has been refuted by
numerous sociologists and socio-psychiatrists.(Bloomquist, 1971:22)
The ancient use of marijuana as medicine has been documented in a great
number of cultures, including Egypt, Greece and Africa, but I haven't the
time to include descriptions of them on this page. Ernest L. Abel's book
"Marihuana: The First Twelve
Thousand Years" and Edward R. Bloomquist's
book, "Marijuana: The Second
Trip" are both great books that cover the
history of marijuana in much more detail. Although I barely used the site
directly, Marijuana,
A Signal of Misunderstanding contains excerpts from the 1972 Report of
the US National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse that contain
pertinent information. It is availible on Cliff Schaffer's Online
Drug Library, and though this site contains a lot of good information on
the topic, it is poorly organized. Modern use of cannabis in Western
culture became increasingly widespread after Napoleon's invasion of Egypt.
The year 1840 marked the beginning of European medicine's study of
cannabis as physicians, such as O'Shaughnessy, Aubert-Roche, and Moreau de
Tours began to call attention to the drugs uses in treating rheumatism and
increasing appetite. (Abel,
1980:168) Even before the commotion caused
by O'Shaughnessy, marijuana was familiar to European and American
homeopathy practitioners. The earliest American documentation of the
therapeutic properties of marijuana was in the homeopathy journal
"American Provers' Union" in 1839. The medicinal potential of marijuana
was recognized by the rest of the medical community soon after, as is
evidenced by the 1860 convention of the Committee on Cannabis Indica of
the Ohio State Medical Society. This convention reported on cannabis'
therapeutic applications in treating a vast number of ailments, including:
mania, whooping cough, asthma, chronic bronchitis, tetanus, epilepsy and
withdrawal from alcohol. Between the years of 1840 and 1860, more than
100 articles were published in the medical community recommending it for
various disorders. (Citation) From the latter
half of the 19th century up to 1937, cannabis began to be looked down upon
as its image as a medicine was replaced by an image as an intoxicant. It
began to fall out of favor of the medical community as other medicines
were being discovered that had superior effectiveness and whose dosage
could be regulated much more easily. In 1937 the passage of the
Marijuana Tax Act effectively ended marijuana's medical usage in the
United States. Since then many more discoveries of its benefits have been
discovered, but they have not been able to be used, due to its current legal status.
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