11/17/2017
Medical Ma*****na History
Ma*****na is produced from the h**p plant that was traditionally used for making ropes and sails back in the 17th century. Nowadays it’s often found in the health food store in the form of h**p oil and h**p seeds, both rich sources of dietary fiber, protein and minerals.
You may not have known this and might think pot is a drug of the 60s, but people have been using the plant medically for generations. With all the misconceptions and misinformation available about ma*****na, the following facts from Leaf Science might surprise you:
The first records of ma*****na being used medically come from China. As far back as 2737 BC, the pharmacologist and Emperor Shennong wrote a medical book that cited ma*****na as a treatment for a variety of conditions, such as absent-mindedness, rheumatism, constipation and gout. Emperor Shennong carried out his research on himself to find out the medical value and use of hundreds of herbs.
The ancient Greeks used cannabis on their animals. Battle-wounded horses had their wounds dressed with cannabis after battle. Furthermore, the ancient Greeks used cannabis on themselves to treat inflammation, ear pain and more. It’s thought that using medical cannabis in Arabic countries was spread by the ancient Greeks.
The drug was introduced to us in the West in the mid-1800s. During a trip to India in the 1830s, an Irish doctor named William Brooke O’Shaughnessy witnessed the use of medical ma*****na. From there, he studied it in detail and brought the drug back to England to be used in the treatment of conditions like pain, epilepsy, muscle spasms and rheumatism. The popularity of this “new” drug quickly spread throughout North America and Europe.
The first society to use ma*****na for tumors was Ancient Egypt. An ancient Egyptian text from the 2nd century, known as the Fayyum Medical Papyrus, is thought to contain the first ever recorded use of cannabis as a cancer medicine. Interestingly, there is still a great deal of interest in ma*****na as a cancer treatment today.
The drug was listed from 1851 to 1941 in the United States Pharmacopeia (USP). Cannabis was listed as an acceptable medical product for many years here in the U.S. In fact, preparations containing ma*****na were often prescribed in the late 1800s. It then began to be replaced by synthetic medicines in the 20th century. After the 1937 Ma*****na Tax act was passed, it became very difficult to prescribe the drug, and people began to forget about it. Cannabis was finally removed from the USP back in 1942 and has remained that way ever since.
So, you see, medically speaking, people have long known about the vast benefits of medical ma*****na. This forgotten knowledge is something that’s very relevant in the treatment and management of many illnesses and conditions today.
