Forbidden herbs? The effects of cannabis were a controversial topic 250 years ago (Press Release) (original) (raw)

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Cannabis Britannica: A History of the Present

ephemera, 2006

© ephemera 2006 ISSN 1473-2866 www. ephemeraweb. org volume 6 (2): 205-214 205 ephemera theory & politics in organization reviews Cannabis Britannica: A History of the Present Beatriz Acevedo J. Mills (2003) Cannabis Britannica: Empire, Trade and Prohibition, Oxford: ...

History of Cannabis and Its Preparations in Saga, Science, and Sobriquet

Chemistry & Biodiversity, 2007

Cannabis sativa L. is possibly one of the oldest plants cultivated by man, but has remained a source of controversy throughout its history. Whether pariah or panacea, this most versatile botanical has provided a mirror to medicine and has pointed the way in the last two decades toward a host of medical challenges from analgesia to weight loss through the discovery of its myriad biochemical attributes and the endocannabinoid system wherein many of its components operate. This study surveys the history of cannabis, its genetics and preparations. A review of cannabis usage in Ancient Egypt will serve as an archetype, while examining first mentions from various Old World cultures and their pertinence for contemporary scientific investigation. Cannabis historians of the past have provided promising clues to potential treatments for a wide array of currently puzzling medical syndromes including chronic pain, spasticity, cancer, seizure disorders, nausea, anorexia, and infectious disease that remain challenges for 21st century medicine. Information gleaned from the history of cannabis administration in its various forms may provide useful points of departure for research into novel delivery techniques and standardization of cannabis-based medicines that will allow their prescription for treatment of these intractable medical conditions. Contents 2. The Ticklish Matter of Taxonomy.-Cannabis is a unique dioecious annual plant, generally placed in the Cannabaceae family (occasionally rendered, Cannabidaceae) along with hops, Humulus spp. However, it has also been assigned at various times to the Moraceae or Urticaceae. Recently, it has been suggested that cannabis should properly belong in the Celtidaceae on the basis of chloroplast restriction site maps [24], and chloroplast mat K gene sequences [25]. While the generic nomenclature of cannabis is less controversial, the species classification is quite so. The name Cannabis sativa, or cultivated cannabis, was probably first employed by Fuchs in his herbal of 1542 accompanied by a splendid illustration of European hemp [26], thus pre-dating the monotypic assignation of Linneaus in his Species Plantarum [27] by some 211 years. Soon thereafter, Lamarck described Cannabis indica, a short, psychoactive upstart from the Indian subcontinent, as morphologically distinct [28], and a lasting consensus on the issue has never been regained. Two basic camps remain, favoring single or multiple species. The former group has been championed by Ernest Small [29] and others, with more recent support on morphological grounds [30], and from research into short tandem repeat DNA markers of cannabis that failed to clearly differentiate fiber and drug strains [31]. A polytypic treatment of cannabis was advanced by Schultes et al. [32] and Anderson [33] a generation ago based on morphological attributes. These botanists described three putative species, Cannabis sativa L. (tall, branched plants for fiber, seed or psychoactive use), Cannabis indica Lam. (short, broad-leafed plants from Afghanistan with equal complements of THC and CBD utilized to produce hashish), and Cannabis ruderalis Jan. (short, unbranched roadside plants usually weak in cannabinoids; Fig. 2, a-c, plant examples). The taxonomic debate over the number of cannabis species even led to judicial disputes, as court cases involving cannabis in the USA were occasionally challenged on the basis of imprecise legislative language prohibiting solely Cannabis sativa. The multi-species concept has recently gained credibility based on systematic chemotaxonomic work by Karl Hillig with Paul Mahlberg. They conducted a genetic analysis of 157 cannabis accessions of known geographic origin. A principal component analysis of allozyme frequencies at 17 gene loci revealed two major groupings [34]. A sativa gene pool included East European ruderal (roadside) accessions, as well as hemp fiber and seed landraces from Europe and Central Asia. The indica gene pool included Far Eastern fiber and seed landraces, narrow-leaflet drug strains from Southern Asia, Africa and South America, wide-leaflet drug strains from Afghanistan and Pakistan, and feral populations from Nepal and India. Ruderal accessions (Cannabis ruderalis) from Central Asia formed a putative third gene pool. A geographic map based on the results depicted an epicenter of origin for C. sativa in current Kazakhstan, and one for C. indica in the Western Himalayas. Hillig concluded that the number and frequency of allozyme mutations in both gene pools was indicative of an ancient split between sativa and indica that may pre-date human intervention. Not surprisingly, the greatest evidence for narrowing of the gene pool was observed in drug strains, particularly the narrow-leaflet indica strains. This may be partly due to a restriction in the number of pollinators in these strains since staminate plants are often culled during cultivation to maximize THC production (vide infra). This process has accelerated notably in the last 30 years with selective breeding pressure.

A Homelie Herbe: Medicinal Cannabis in Early England

Cannabis is often regarded as a substance alien to British culture until the 1960s, at which supposed point of introduction it functioned as a marker of subversion. In fact cannabis was used as a medicinal herb by the Anglo-Saxons, and highly valued during the Tudor and Stuart periods. It remained in the British Materia medica through the 18th and 19th centuries, being well regarded by orthodox doctors. However, the type of cannabis grown in England was probably less rich in psychotropic cannabinoids than plants grown in the East.

HIGH POINTS: AN HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF CANNABIS* BARNEY WARF

High Points, 2014

Cannabis, including hemp and its psychoactive counterpart, has a long but largely overlooked historical geography. Situating the topic within varied perspectives such as world-systems theory, Foucauldian biopolitics, and the moral economy of drugs, this paper charts its diffusion over several millennia, noting the contingent and uneven ways in which it was enveloped within varying social and political circumstances. Following a brief theorization, it explores the plant's early uses in East and South Asia, its shift to the Middle East, and resultant popularity in the Arab world and Africa. Next, it turns to its expansion under colonialism, including deliberate cultivation by Portuguese and British authorities in the New World as part of the construction of a pacified labor force. The fifth section offers an overview of cannabis's contested history in the United States, in which a series of early 20 th-century moral panics led to its demonization; later, the drug enjoyed gradual liberalization.

HIgh Points: The Historical Geography of Cannabis

Cannabis, including hemp and its psychoactive counterpart, has a long but largely overlooked historical geography. Situating the topic within varied perspectives such as world-systems theory, Foucauldian biopolitics, and the moral economy of drugs, this paper charts its diffusion over several millennia, noting the contingent and uneven ways in which it was enveloped within varying social and political circumstances. Following a brief theorization, it explores the plant's early uses in East and South Asia, its shift to the Middle East, and resultant popularity in the Arab world and Africa. Next, it turns to its expansion under colonialism, including deliberate cultivation by Portuguese and British authorities in the New World as part of the construction of a pacified labor force. The fifth section offers an overview of cannabis's contested history in the United States, in which a series of early 20 th -century moral panics led to its demonization; later, the drug enjoyed gradual liberalization.

History of cannabis as a medicine: a review

Revista Brasileira De Psiquiatria, 2006

Cannabis as a medicine was used before the Christian era in Asia, mainly in India. The introduction of cannabis in the Western medicine occurred in the midst of the 19th century, reaching the climax in the last decade of that century, with the availability and usage of cannabis extracts or tinctures. In the first decades of the 20th century, the Western medical use of cannabis significantly decreased largely due to difficulties to obtain consistent results from batches of plant material of different potencies. The identification of the chemical structure of cannabis components and the possibility of obtaining its pure constituents were related to a significant increase in scientific interest in such plant, since 1965. This interest was renewed in the 1990's with the description of cannabinoid receptors and the identification of an endogenous cannabinoid system in the brain. A new and more consistent cycle of the use of cannabis derivatives as medication begins, since treatment effectiveness and safety started to be scientifically proven.

HIGH POINTS: AN HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF CANNABIS

Cannabis, including hemp and its psychoactive counterpart, has a long but largely overlooked historical geography. Situating the topic within varied perspectives such as world-systems theory, Foucauldian biopolitics, and the moral economy of drugs, this paper charts its diffusion over several millennia, noting the contingent and uneven ways in which it was enveloped within varying social and political circumstances. Following a brief theorization, it explores the plant's early uses in East and South Asia, its shift to the Middle East, and resultant popularity in the Arab world and Africa. Next, it turns to its expansion under colonialism, including deliberate cultivation by Portuguese and British authorities in the New World as part of the construction of a pacified labor force. The fifth section offers an overview of cannabis's contested history in the United States, in which a series of early 20 th-century moral panics led to its demonization; later, the drug enjoyed gradual liberalization.

Natures, Cultures and Bodies of Cannabis

Drawing from the Actor-Network-Theory of John Law and Bruno Latour, this chapter departs from ‘common-sense’ accounts of the ontological identity of drugs such as cannabis to explore the myriad relations in which cannabis is enacted. Alert to the ontological contingency of cannabis, the chapter exposes the heterogeneity of the drug, its divergent natures, cultures and materialities. I argue that cannabis should not be regarded as a stable, singular entity, given the diversity of relations, practices, semiotic registers and political squabbles in which the drug is produced as an object of knowledge and practice. The ‘object-materialities’ at work in the production of cannabis effectively distribute the drug across the three ontological registers commonly used to differentiate psychoactive substances: medicine, non-drug and drug. Cannabis is constituted as medicine in debates regarding ‘medical marijuana’, as a non-drug in cultures and practices indicative of the normalisation of cannabis, and finally as a drug in statutes prohibiting ‘cannabis’ use, and the biomedical research which legitimizes this prohibition. I close by assessing some of the policy and research implications of this divergence, offering an approach to cannabis more accommodating of its ontological proliferations.