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Meds Cannabis History

momofthegoons

Vapor Accessory Addict
Staff member
Cannabis discovered in Viking grave

One of the women on the Oseberg ship was found with a small leather sack full of cannabis. Scientists wonder how she used the plant.
The Oseberg mound dates back to 834 AD, and is the richest Viking burial ground that has ever been discovered. It was dug up in the year of 1904, and consisted of a Viking ship with two women in it, a young person around 50 years old, and an elderly person between the ages of 70 and 80. They brought with them seven beds, several woven tapestries, a richly decorated chariot, and four horse sleighs. There were also animal bones discovered from 14 or 15 horses, four dogs, a cow, a bull, a red-breasted merganser, and a Eurasian woodcock. The objects were very well preserved bearing in mind how long they had been buried.

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The Oseberg ship Photo Credit:
It was so well preserved because of the dense clay and peat that it was buried in. During the excavations, archaeologists discovered a bucket of apples which were still red, as well as cress and blueberries. Additionally, they discovered a lump of raised bread dough that could have intended as a funerary gift; something for the women to cook immediately after they reached the afterlife.

The most interesting puzzle is the two female skeletons. Who were these ladies?

They must have been quite influential within their community to be given such a burial. Average people were not buried in ships or with so many valuable objects. So these women might have been religious and political leaders. It is unclear which of the two women held the most power.

It appears that one woman was bigger than the other. The older woman definitely was eating very well, she was close to 80 years old, which was very old for a Viking woman. The younger one was 50 years old.

Their skeletons showed that they lived for a while, and the oldest had different health issues; it was most likely cancer that was the root of her death.

Cannabis in a Leather Pouch
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Cannabis
The older woman was holding a leather sack that has received a lot of attention because of its contents. She would have suffered from a lot of pain because of her illness, and it is speculated that the cannabis that was discovered in her sack was used as a painkiller. Given her possible status as a religious leader, it may have had spiritual connotations and been used in rituals.

The Vikings had an outstanding knowledge of which plants could be utilized for what, some could be used to cure diseases and alleviate pain, whilst others were intoxicants, like cannabis.


There is another possible explanation for the cannabis discovered within the Oseberg ship; in the Viking Age people used hemp to create rope and clothes, it might have been intended for the women to use the cannabis in the afterlife as a building material.
 
10 Ancient Uses for Medicial Cannabis



Medical cannabis is by no means a new thing for human beings. Medical cannabis was probably one of the earliest medical developments for human beings and has a plethora of ancient uses. In fact, all of the uses we are finding for medical cannabis in modern society have a lot to do with the ancient uses that our ancestors found for it thousands of years ago.


So, this is about appreciating marijuana throughout history. Taking a look at the history of medical cannabis use gives some perspective on what we are doing with it today, and how we are doing it. These are only 10 of the many ancient uses for medical cannabis.

1. Anaesthetic

One of the first medical uses of cannabis was as an anaesthetic. The Chinese, as early as the year 140, were the first people to use it for its anaesthetic properties. They crushed it into a powder, mixed it with wine, and administered it before surgery.

2. Suppositories

The Ancient Egyptians used cannabis and applied it as suppositories for treatment of hemorrhoids. It was mainly used to treat the pain because of its physical properties.

3. Childbirth

In India, cannabis was used for a plethora of medicinal and spiritual purposes, ranging anywhere from nausea and diarrhoea to headaches and insomnia. But the Indians were using cannabis quite frequently to relieve the pain of childbirth!

4. Healing Horses

The Ancient Greeks were using cannabis to treat the sores and wounds that their horses came into contact with during their battles and journeys. They would rub dry cannabis leaves or make a salve and apply it to the wound for faster and better healing.

6. Worms

The Greeks were also using cannabis to treat people who were suffering from tapeworms. Eating the seeds of the cannabis plant would expel the tapeworms from the body.

7. Anti-Epileptic

Using cannabis to treat epilepsy has just become more popular in recent times. And in fact, people are fighting for the rights to treat their epileptic children with cannabis. But this is actually an ancient anti-epilepsy medication that began with the Arabs. It was a popular way to treat epilepsy in the medieval Islamic world.

8. Inflammation

The Ancient Greeks also used to use cannabis to treat inflammation, both internal and external. For inflammation on the skin, they would steep the seeds in warm water or wine. Later, they would take the warm, potent extract and apply it to inflamed areas, especially in the ears.

9. Hair Loss

Ok, this is probably one of the more unexpected ancient uses of medical cannabis, but it came from the Chinese. Cannabis once played an enormous role in Chinese medicine, and in fact, almost every part of the plant was used for some kind of medicine. The oil of the cannabis plant was used to treat hair that was falling out.

10. Poisoning

The Chinese were also using cannabis in Chinese medicine to treat a wide variety of poisonings. Medical cannabis was used to treat vermillion poisoning, sulfur poisoning, scorpion stings among a plethora more of other ways that a person can get poisoned
 
Okay.... pack up your vape and have some extra at hand. This is a time commitment but is fascinating.

Cannabis Extracts throughout History: Part 1

In order to advance our understanding of the potential of cannabis as a medicine, it is helpful to look back through history at the many times and places that this plant has emerged into the local materia medica. Cannabis may be set for an archaic revival as modern science is now exploring the neuroprotective qualities discovered by emperor Shen Nung close to 4500 years ago.

This Article is complimented by short videos made by myself and Ted Smith to accompany his Textbook, Hempology 101: The History and Uses of Cannabis Sativa. You can find sources for all of the references to ancient texts that mention cannabis extracts here.

Shen Nung (the patron of pharmacists) may well have been a creation of Chinese folklore, as the Pen Ts’ao was compiled from ancient fragments around 150 BCE, however the recent archaeological discovery of a site of “789 grams of dried cannabis […] buried alongside a light-haired, blue-eyed Caucasian man, likely a shaman of the Gushi culture, near Turpan in northwestern China” dating back three millennia, adds credence to his legend. The Pen Ts’ao shares that “hemp grows along rivers and valleys at T’ai-shan, but it is now common everywhere.”

With wild cannabis growing in abundance, ancient medicine makers began to develop basic techniques to separate the desired ingredients from the crude plant matter. In the extensive review, History of Cannabis and Its Preparations in Saga, Science, and Sobriquet, Dr. Ethan Russo determines three categories of herbal cannabis: Bhang, Ganja, and Charas. Bhang is referred to as a mixture of flower, seed, leaf, and stalk; Ganja is the manicured, seedless, “feminized,” “sensimilla” flower buds alone; and Charas is resin collected by simple techniques, commonly known as hashish. Ancient methods of gathering Charas include washing or beating the plant over fabric screens, or just rubbing the plant to gather the resin on one’s hands or body.




Cannabis before the Common Era

Clay tablets found in the ancient city of Nineveh represent the collected medical knowledge of the first two centuries BCE in Mesopotamia. These document the early use of cannabis or A.ZAL.LA as an anticonvulsant taken orally, cutaneously, and as an enema. These ancient doctors utilized all parts of the plant to treat an extensive list of conditions from impotence to nocturnal epilepsy. In nearby India, an early Ayurvedic text, the Atharva Veda, exalts cannabis or bhanga as one of five herbs employed “to release us from anxiety.” The ingredients of the legendary Vedic holy drink Soma are hotly debated among academics. Author and historian Chris Bennett supplies compelling evidence for the inclusion of cannabis in his book Cannabis and the Soma Solution.



Cannabis drinks have been popular for tens of thousands of years. Chris uses archaeological and etymological evidence to illuminate cannabis as a consistent ingredient in ritual beverages—techniques advancing from ancient times when the oil from the seeded flowers of wild cannabis were crushed and pressed after becoming enriched with the oil soluble cannabinoids, to advanced techniques for cultivating feminine cannabis and extracting the cannabinoids into forms of hashish.






The Perfume of the Pharaohs

In Ancient Egypt, incense cones of Kyphi (kief hash loaded perfume) placed on the head would melt in the sunlight and by body heat releasing fragrant cannabis onto the skin. (WATCH THIS VIDEO) In 2002, scientists from L’Oreal and C2RMF recreated the “perfume of the pharaohs” which included pistachios, mint, cinnamon, juniper, cannabis, and myrrh. French researcher Videault noted, “Kyphi will never be sold because some of the ingredients are illegal substances. In any case the smell is probably much too pungent for the modern world.”

It is still common in Egypt to use steam distillation to produce a cannabis flower essential oil rich with therapeutic terpenes as a scent for perfumes, cosmetics, soaps, and candles, and to add sweetness to baked goods and candies. The essential oil is anti-fungal and can also be mixed with water and sprayed onto plants for protection. Although the varieties of cannabis used in today’s products are low THC, this method could be applied to medicinal grade cannabis.

Egypt provides us with rich insight into the medical practices of the ancient world from the extensive papyrus that have been discovered and decoded. Three notable entries from the second millennium BCE are the Papyrus Ramesseum III: “A treatment for the eyes: celery; hemp is ground and left in the dew over night. Both eyes of the patient are to be washed with it early in the morning.” This could have been used to treat glaucoma or for the anti-inflammatory effects. The Ebers Papyrus records cannabis used for obstetrics: “ground in honey; introduced into her vagina to cool the uterus and eliminate its heat,” further suggesting anti-inflammatory properties. The Berlin Papyrus prescribes cannabis as an “ointment to prepare for driving away fever” and as a “plaster.”



Cannabis before Christ

Although our translations of these ancient writings are subject to speculation, it is clear that the knowledge of this medicine was widespread throughout Ancient Egypt. It is a curious note that Moses, the leader of the Hebrew people, receives the recipe for a holy anointing oil containing large amounts of cannabis or Kaneh Bosm soon after leaving Egypt. The highly revered anointing oil is later applied topically by Jesus and his followers to fight epilepsy, skin diseases, eye, and menstrual problems.



Greek historian Herodotus wrote detailed accounts of Scythian vapour hotbox rituals around 450 BCE. “First they anoint and rinse their hair, then for their bodies, they lean three poles against one another, cover the poles with felted woollen blankets, making sure that they fit together as tightly as possible, and then put red-hot stones from the fire on to a dish which has been placed in the middle of the pole-and-blanket structure […] the Scythians take cannabis seeds, crawl in under the felt blankets, and throw the seeds on to the glowing stones. The seeds then emit dense smoke and fumes, much more than any vapour-bath in Greece. The Scythians shriek with delight at the fumes.”



This is only the start of a four part journey through the history of Cannabis Extraction. Stay tuned to the Cannabis Digest Blogs and watch out for Part 2 by Owen Smith next week.
 
I should highlight that Kaneh bosom being interpreted to mean cannabis is not widely supported by historical scholars IME. It strikes me as a fringe belief of a small number of historians.

Not to say that this isn't a fascinating article all the same! Also I do get the impression that Chris Bennet is a very nice guy and quite learned of course, and mean no negative toward him.
 
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Cannabis in the Common Era

In the first part of this series on Cannabis Extracts in History I looked at references from Before the Common Era or 1CE. In China, where we find the earliest advancements in cannabis/hemp production (5000 BCE), physicians beginning with Hoa-Tho (200 CE) prescribed cannabis mixed with wine as an analgesic during surgical procedures.1 The (570 CE) Taoist encyclopaedia Wushang Biyao (Supreme Secret Essentials), recorded adding cannabis into ritual censers. Sinologist and historian Joseph Needham believed that the founding scriptures of the Shangqing School of Taoism were written by Yang Xi (330-386 CE) during alleged visitations by Taoist immortals, “aided almost certainly by cannabis.”2

In the earliest known compendium of pharmacology in Arabic (9th Century), cannabis juice extract from the flowers and seeds is to be administered through the nostril to treat migraine, aching pains including uterine, and to prevent miscarriage.3 During this same period, the renowned physician and scientist Al-Kindi gave the first report of its muscle relaxant properties in relation to what was known as “the trembling.”4

One of the first of the great English botanists, John Parkinson, writes in 1640 that cannabis roots in a poultice are effective for treating tumours and other inflammation. “[…]the same decoction of the rootes, easeth the paines of the goute, the hard tumours, or knots of the joynts, the paines and shrinking of the sinewes, and other the like paines of the hippes: it is good to be used, for any place that hath beene burnt by fire, if the fresh juyce be mixed with a little oyle or butter” (source)

By the dawn of Western medicine, it was clear that cannabis was being used as a medicine in diverse ways for a wide range of conditions: successfully treating cholera,6 tetanus,7 and bubonic plague.8 Queen Victoria’s personal physician, Sir Russell Reynolds, prescribed cannabis for her menstrual cramps. He claims in the first issue of The Lancet, that cannabis “When pure and administered carefully, is one of the most valuable medicines we possess.”9

The popular method of directly inhaling the smoke from crushed cannabis flowers didn’t begin until the 16th century, and the introduction of tobacco from the new world. Cannabis cigarettes were only smoked as a treatment for asthma. Inhaling the smoke from Ganja flowers is now the most common method patients use to medicate. This is in part due to the risk associated with processing cannabis and the de facto moratorium on phytocannabinoid research.

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The scarcity of accurate information has previously isolated the cannabis culture into small groups preventing the development of articulated guides to cannabis medicine. The rising availability of the internet and discussion forums has given the culture a place to build upon their collective knowledge despite the slippery persistence of the drug war mythology.

Cannabis prohibition is nearing its centennial in Canada, and the conditions it has created are now apparent. The persistent eradication of wild growing cannabis by law enforcement has driven gardeners to cultivate feminized Ganja indoors, in small spaces, for as much potency in as little time as possible, then either discarding or quickly processing the Bhang material into Charas. Due to the legal risks and scarcity of supply, the once free and abundant Charas is now valued in some forms at more than twice the price of gold.

Stronger than it used to be?

Prohibitionists currently claim that they are protecting society from high THC cannabis that is “much stronger than it was years ago,”13 however, the move to high THC cannabis strains began in 1840 when western physicians such as W.B. O’Shaughnessy began to draw wide attention to its use. Tests from the 1970s show THC levels as high as they are today.14 The recent rise in THC is consistent with the retreat of the plant into highly controlled, indoor grow operations.

Studies of sifted trichomes in Morocco and Afghanistan have revealed that “Cannabis fields in […] generations past would tend to yield equal proportions of THC and CBD.” This prohibitionist war cry is further diluted by their advocacy of pure synthetic THC pills, which have consistently been shown inferior to whole plant cannabis in medical applications. In past articles I have explained how CBD competes with THC for the CB1 cannabinoid receptor, effectively protecting vulnerable individuals from an undesirable THC dominant experience.

In the third part of the Cannabis Extract in History Series I will catch us up to the present and look to the horizons at the modern revival of this ancient art.


References:

1. M.S. Julien, C. R. Hebd. Seances Acad. Sci. 1849, 28, 223.
2. J. Needham, L. Gwei-Djen, 1974, ‘Science and Civilisation in China: Volume 5, Chemistry and Chemical Technology; Part 2, Spagyrical Discovery and Invention: Magisteries of Gold and Immortality’ Cambridge University Press, Cambridge,
3. Didier M. Lambert, 2009, Cannabinoids in Nature and Medicine, 38
4. W. P. Farquhar-Smith, M. Egertova, E. J. Bradbury, S. B. McMahon, A. S. Rice, M. R. Elphick,
2000, Mol. Cell Neurosci.15, 510.
5. J. Parkinson, T.Bonham, M.d.L’Obel, 1640, Theatrum botanicum: The theater of plants; p.[16], 1756 www.scribd.com/doc/76626218/Russo-History-of-Cannabis-Chem-Biodiversity-2007 6. E.B. Russo, Cannabis in India: Ancient lore and modern medicine, Ed. R. Mechoulam,
BirkhUuser Verlag, Basel, 2005, pp.1–22.
7. 1972 National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse – Appendix, Chapter One, Part I
8. L.R. Aubert-Roche, De la peste, ou typhus d’Orient, Paris, 1843, p.400.
9. J.R. Reynolds, Lancet 1890, 1, 637.
10. forums.cannabisculture.com/forums/
11. U.S.D.E.A., 2010, Speaking out against drug legalization, www.justice.gov/dea/demand/speakout/index.html
12. www.cannabisdispensary.ca/node/13
13. J. Kabelik, Z. Krejei, F. Santavy, Bull. 1960, Narcotics 12, 5.
14. D. C. Perry. 1977, Pharm.-Chem. Newsletter 6, 1.
15. Russo, 2007, History of Cannabis and its Preperations in Saga, Science, and Sobriquet onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cbdv.200790144/pdf
16. Smith, 2011. Cannabis Digest, Issue 30, Eating Cannabis as Medicine www.cannabisdigest.ca/cms/2011/07/eating-cannabis-as-medicine
 
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Cannabis in the Modern Era

In the second part of this series on Cannabis Extracts in History I looked at references from 1CE to the 17th century when cannabis began to emerge in the west as a prominent medicine. The modern era is dominated by prohibition. Check out this ‘History of marijuana law in the U.S.A.’ Graphic Timeline by Dr. David Allen and Cannabis Digest editor Judith Stamps new timeline on the Absurdities in the Drug War.

Our modern era war on cannabis has been declared a failure by successive teams of scientists from around the world(1). Criminal punishments have not effectively deterred individuals from seeking out this undeniably useful medicine. The DEA’s own Judge Francis Young concluded at the end of a lengthy legal process in 1988 that “Marijuana in its natural form is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man.”(2) I find it strangely ironic that modern day drug warriors celebrate a successful bust in the same manner that our primitive ancestors celebrated a successful boom, by openly burning large amounts of cannabis.(3)

Politicians and physicians continue to address the issue with lacklustre, pointing to the problem of smoking and reciting the carcinogenic properties of burnt vegetable matter. It has become apparent on our historical journey that not only is cannabis a diverse and effective medicine, but that this has been well known by diligent individuals since time immemorial. With even the most basic of techniques, these individuals separated the active ingredients from the vegetative mass, averting these feared pitfalls, to create medicines superior to their modern synthetic counterparts.

Whole Plant Horizons

With the recent BC Court of Appeal decision opening the door to patients who make whole plant medicinal cannabis extracts, the Canadian government has been given a year to adapt their regulations. Health Canada’s attempt to treat cannabis more like a pharmaceutical has been a slow and expensive process that leaves those presently suffering at a loss and in pain. The inherent difficulty in studying this complex and dynamic plant for the purpose of isolating and synthesizing patented products for the pharmacy lingers in the background of the Canadian Medical Associations’ lament for more research. For the great number of people who have an immediate need for a steady supply of cannabis extract, but can’t make it for themselves, the only options are a local dispensary or a compassionate caregiver.

Community dispensaries like the V-CBC are always trying to meet the diverse needs of their growing membership by focussing and expanding their product lines. The creation of seven different massage oil combinations (cannabis + Arnica, Comfrey, St. John’s Wart) has created an array of topical options for members seeking to treat circulation, respiratory, bone, deep muscle, nerve, and hormonal conditions. Publishing all of the methods and recipes online (4) has helped members make their own medicine as the demand for the club’s products expands.

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Chinese medicine may be poised to offer unique insights into the use of cannabis in herbal remedies, recipes for which may stretch back thousands of years. Dr. Luc Duchesne, an Ottawa-based businessman and biochemist, wrote in InvestorIntel, “Chinese traditional medicine is poised to take advantage of a growing trend. The writing is on the wall: Westernised Chinese traditional medicine is coming to a dispensary near you.”

In the 1990s, scientists discovered the endocannabinoid system (5) and the receptor sites for THC in our brain.(6) In 2000, a study in Spain showed cannabis to “inhibit the growth of tumour cells in culture and animal models.”(7) With research breaking out in areas where cannabis laws are loosening, there is a great deal of anticipation as to the miracles of healing that phytocannabinoid therapeutics still has to offer.

23 U.S. states now have medical cannabis legislation, and the states of Colorado and Washington have legalized its use for adults. A wave of support has followed the revelation of cannabis as a treatment for rare forms of epilepsy in children. In my final blog on the history of cannabis extracts I will explore some potentials achievements for medicinal cannabis extracts in the 21st Century.


References

1. Global war on drugs a failure, high-level panel says http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/02/us-drugs-commission-idUSTRE7513XW20110602
2. US Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Administration, “In the Matter of Marijuana Rescheduling Petition,” [Docket #86-22], (September 6, 1988), pp. 6, 58, 68.
www.iowamedicalmarijuana.org/pdfs/young.pdf
3. 58 held in Mexico’s biggest marijuana farm bust www.usatoday.com/news/world/2011-07-15-drug-war-mexico_n.htm
4. www.cbc-canada.ca/recipes/cbcoc-official-recipe-book
5. www.jaoa.org/content/108/10/586.full
6. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2165569
7. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14570037
 
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Cannabis in the 21st Century


During the past three blogs I have swept over the history of cannabis extracts to show that simple extraction techniques were common knowledge among medicine makers in ancient times. From Taoist sages to the Queens personal physician; from Egyptian Papyri to the labs of modern scientists at L’Oreal: the lineage of cannabis extraction offers up many potentials for the future of our relationship with this bountiful plant. The discovery of the endocannabinoid system has uniquely linked cannabis to the health of all vertebrates since time immemorial.

I am acutely interested in the future uses of cannabis as over the past 5 years I have been attempting to relay the critical importance of basic extraction for any cannabis based medicine in court to the Canadian federal government. My victory in court in 2012 was recently upheld by the BC Court of Appeal, which has given the government 1 year to regulate the production of cannabis extracts. The government claims that due to the lack of double-blind, blue-ribbon, placebo-controlled, clinical trials, cannabis is not proven safe. My expert witness, Dr. David Pate suggested that “cannabis has undergone a multiyear open-label clinical trial by virtue of being in such popular use both medically and recreationally for an extended period of time, essentially hundreds of years.” (source)

At the same time as my trial, extracts were becoming widely available in the United States. With two states (and more to come) now permitting their legal production for recreational use, the future of cannabis culture is about to be blown wide open. Among recent revelations are the use of cannabis extracts for various emerging forms of cancer and epilepsy as well as it’s superior nutritional value when juiced raw. A 9th century Arabic compendium of pharmacology recommended the use of cannabis juice extract and the renowned Arabic physician Al-Kindirecognized the plants’ use for a condition known as ‘the trembling’ which resembles the recent revelation of its’ anti-spasmodic properties among children with seizure disorders.

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(Charlotte Figi’s story is covered in detail by CNN’s Sanjay Gupta)

Studies of sifted trichomes in Morocco and Afghanistan have revealed that “Cannabis fields in […] generations past would tend to yield equal proportions of THC and CBD.” The 1:1 ratio has become a popular choice for patients with epilepsy as cultivars are disseminated through the emerging distribution networks. The semi-cultivated cannabis of ancient times is probably closer to modern hemp than the indoor grown, manicured, feminized, seedless clones that have dominated the black market for decades.

In Canada, industrial hemp is grown specifically to contain very little THC, so it can’t get you stoned. However, hemp seed oil has been found to contain CBD and terpenes likely as “the result of contamination from glandular hairs during oil processing.” CBD is among many cannabinoids currently being explored for a wide range of medicinal effects. Although the levels of CBD within hemp seed oil are typically small, many health benefits may still be gained from its presence. A recent H.P.L.C. analysis indicated that the juiced leaves of Saskatchewan hemp contained five times as much CBD as THC and showed ten times as much CBDa.

The modern era has suffered from a failed global effort at cannabis prohibition which has stalled the cannabis culture while science and technology have advanced massively. 1 Billion grams of potentially life-saving medicine from this years Canadian hemp harvest will go to waste in the fields. Although setback by the destruction of useful cultivars at the dawn of prohibition, the hemp industry is utilizing the modern advances in science and technology that have it poised to grow beyond anything possible in ancient times.

A former U.S. Navy nuclear submarine technician designs and sells supercritical CO2 extraction machines that isolate the cannabinoid oils from the plant material (source) . While these machines are far more expensive than the Naptha and a rice cooker method used by Rick Simpson, they have zero potential for toxic solvent residue.

The supercritical CO2 extraction machine is currently being used to ceate concentrated oils from naturally grown hemp stalk and seed that contain high amounts of CBD. This oil is used to make ‘Real Scientific Hemp Oil’, which is an 18% CBD extract of hemp, administered in syringes. Dixie Botanicals science director, Tamar Wise asserted in 2012 that “the hemp oil we use is biologically created in hemp plants and our methodology isolates and extracts it”. Wise later criticized Dixie for using hemp that is “contaminated with microbial life, residual solvents and other toxins”(source). As detailed in my trial, CBD is stored in the head of glandular trichomes that protrude from the surface of the plant like blades of grass topped by beads of dew. The removal of the precariously dangling resin heads (called trichomes) from the plant prior to extraction greatly reduces the presence of contaminants that reside in the body of the plant.

Medical Marijuana Inc. in the U.S. are harvesting 1,000 Acres of European Hemp into 2,000 kilograms of raw hemp oil to be used in DixeX high CBD Hemp products. On their website, DixieX presents “A revolution in Hemp-Powered Wellness Products” (source) with a salve, a pill and a tincture “manufactured from non-THC, high CBD concentrate […] industrial Hemp products ranging from 100-500 milligrams”. These products can be shipped to consumers in all 50 states in the U.S. The FDA considers industrial hemp as a food or dietary supplement product and Medical Marijuana Inc. imports its raw CBD oil under approved tariff codes to its FDA registered facility.” (source)

Some of the elements needed to start a high-CBD medicine in Canada have been embedded in the developing hemp industry and medical marijuana movement over the past decade. In 2003 Canada grew 66,700 acres of hemp. CMH biotech, who currently test for THC levels in hemp, have been developing analytical methods to test other cannabinoid compounds, including CBD (cannabidiol), CBN (cannabinol), CBG (cannabigerol), CBL (cannabicyclol), CBC (canna- bichromene), Δ8-THC, THCV (Δ9- tetrahydrocannabivarin), and their acid forms.

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(Manitoba hemp harvest under mandatory inspection for THC)

Creating CBD-rich products just became a recognized charter protected right for federally registered patients in Canada. Licensed Producers under the MMPR have laboratories to test the purity and potency of their products and many are invested in Research and Development. I see potential for the medical cannabis industry in utilizing the rolling fields of industrial hemp. With ingenuity and modern technology, farmers may someday be able to separate and collect mountains of hemp hash to be processed into clean and effective medicine.

A recent Canadian hemp industry report out of Alberta states that a “License to grow industrial hemp for grain or fibre is issued for one calendar year for crops of four hectares (10 acres) or more, and if cultivating for seed not less than one hectare. There is no minimum plot size for plant breeding.” The report also shows a gradual increase in hemp production in correspondence with the emergence of processing facilities and entrepreneurs to market and sell hemp products. On Apr. 1, 2012 Hemp Oil Canada Inc. based in Manitoba announced that it is first in the world to gain international food safety accreditation for hemp foods ( source ).

This plant continues to unfold medical wonders from its symbiosis with human beings. From the better-known effects of medical cannabis to the hidden secrets of raw industrial hemp, the offerings continue to emerge. With international support growing and people from all over the world uniting over our need for economic independence, industrial hemp shines behind the green high beams of the medical cannabis movement. When thinking of the tens of thousands of acres of hemp, whose leaves lay to compost, I am reminded of the passage from Revelation 22:2 and feel we are witnessing the return of this tree of life, where “The leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations”.
 
Total fluff piece.... but sort of fun that they found what they did.... :biggrin:

World’s Oldest Weed Found In An Unexpected Place

We knew cannabis was grown thousands of years ago in China, but now, 2 pounds of the world’s oldest weed has be discovered.

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We knew cannabis was grown thousands of years ago in China, but usually just for its hemp. But now the oldest weed, found in a tomb in the Gobi Desert, proves that the ancients were big fans of the herb.

Ancient Herbs
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Scientists determined that the 2,700-year-old remains of lightly “beaten” plant matter were that of marijuana. The marijuana buds were carefully packed in a leather basket next to the head of the tomb’s owner. Scientists described the mummified inhabitant as being Caucasian with blue eyes. He was most likely a shaman or medicine man from the time, and because of his appearance, it is possible that he traveled quite a bit.

One thing is for sure – marijuana was an important plant to take into the afterlife. The scientist determined that the majority of the male flowers were removed from the leather bag leaving the more THC potent buds.

The blue-eyed man was probably a heavy smoker – they found more than 2 pounds of ancient herb buried with him. Either that or he had some stories to tell in the afterlife, making sure he had plenty of bud to share with his audience was probably a good idea.

All that weed, but there were no pipes or bongs discovered in the tomb. This medicine man probably ate the marijuana or burned large quantities for ceremonial purposes.

Ghost Weed
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We should probably get the chance to smoke some of that ancient herb. It might be a little dry, but we know some pretty good ways to bring life back to that pre-historic smoke.

I wonder if we would see the ghost of the man buried in the tomb if we smoke his marijuana. Something directly out of the pages of the movie “How High”.

Imagine what people will think when they dig up some of our weed 3,000 years from now. If the past 50 years of marijuana innovation is any indicator, the weed from the future will be insane.
 
Dr. Raphael Mechoulam: The Father of Cannabis Research

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The research of Dr. Raphael Mechoulam has provided much of the foundation for what we know about cannabis today.

By Heather Ritchie, Staff Writer for Terpenes and Testing Magazine

If Sir William O’Shaughnessy was the grandfather of cannabis, then Dr. Raphael Mechoulam is the father of cannabis. He is best known for his 1963 discovery of the structure of cannabidiol (CBD) and the isolation and synthesis of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). “Mechoulam’s total synthesis of cannabinoids eventually led him to the discovery of the human endocannabinoid system two decades later.”

Dr. Mechoulam was born on November 5th, 1930 in Sofia, Bulgaria. He was raised in a wealthy Jewish family that eventually had to leave their hometown because of antisemitism. To escape the threat, his family led a semi-nomadic life, wandering to and from various Balkan villages.

In 1949, the family moved to Israel after his father survived a Nazi concentration camp. Mechoulam was studying chemical engineering in college when he decided to switch his major to chemistry. His venture into the science of cannabis came naturally because of his fascination with research and inherent curiosity.

Dr. Mechoulam’s Early Cannabis Research

Initially, Dr. Mechoulam was interested in studying the active ingredients in cannabis while he was a post-doctoral student at the Weizmann Institute. He found it interesting that the active components of opium and cocaine were isolated a hundred years before, yet cannabis remained a mystery. Mechoulam conducted his first experiments at the beginning of the 1960’s using hash that he obtained from the leader of the investigative section of the Israeli national police.

Nobody was working on the secrets of cannabis at the time, and he was rejected for a National Institute of Health (NIH) grant because cannabis wasn’t deemed an American problem. They told him to return with something more relevant. After his team managed to isolate THC, the NIH recognized the importance of the discovery and eventually they gave him the grant.

It was through his experiments that he found the incredible medical and psychoactive potential in cannabis. Once he isolated CBD, Mechoulam was surprised by its medical efficacy. It could be used as a neuroleptic agent and to treat seizures and pain without the psychoactive effects.

Twenty years later, his synthesis of cannabinoids helped him uncover the endocannabinoid system. The cannabis industry is indebted to Mechoulam for discovering the relationship between human psychology and cannabinoids and for pushing the science into the mainstream. In 1992, Mechoulam found that people naturally make their own cannabinoids that are integral to the regulation of memory, pain, mood, and more. This is when he found anandamide, a fatty acid transmitter linked to many benefits, including the suppression of the proliferation of cancer cells.

Later Cannabis Research

Today, Mechoulam researches endogenous cannabinoids because he thinks they are the next step for cannabis research. They are a key connection in human biology and have significant medical potential. In 1998, Mechoulam and Shimon Ben-Shabbat presented the entourage effect. The entourage effect is the hypothesis that the natural components of cannabis, like terpenes and cannabinoids, combine synergistically to complement and enhance their therapeutic benefits.

Pharmaceutical companies used the entourage effect concept to reformulate the medications that they prepared with THC only to include an equal amount of CBD. These formulations achieved increased medicinal benefits. Scientists working on breeding specific chemovars of cannabis that treat certain health problems also utilize this concept.

Interestingly, despite his distinction in cannabis science, Mechoulam’s name isn’t often associated with mainstream discussions about CBD, THC, and the endocannabinoid system. He’s received awards, but it wasn’t until recently that he reached the greater masses.

He achieved the Israel Prize in 2000. Mechoulam has also received many awards for lifetime achievements and in 2012, the Rothschild Prize for his research on how natural compounds effect human behavior. Currently, he’s 86 and still teaches at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. An inspiration to many, Mechoulam’s research has helped solidify the foundation on which cannabis science has been erected.
 
I think this book might be an interesting read.....

Mila Jansen’s Autobiography Chronicles Her Journey to Becoming the Hash Queen


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It was 1994 in Amsterdam, Holland, and Mila Jansen realized she was on to something. She watched her kids’ clothes tumble and spin in the dryer. Little did she know this mundane experience would revolutionize the art of separating “hash from trash,” and inspire one of her famous catchphrases.

In an industry where women’s contributions are often overlooked—and at a cultural moment when this is beginning to shift—it’s essential to know our weed herstory, in which Jansen is at the center. Her recent autobiography Mila: How I Became the Hash Queenchronicles these historic entrepreneurial endeavors; and illustrates her intimate relationship with cannabis through the lens of a transglobal adventure.

Hash making’s been around for years, so there’s an array of methods to separate trichomes from the plant. But Jansen’s dryer-inspired invention made it simple. The Pollinator machine’s screen-covered spinning drum allows the crystals to gently separate from the leaf and collected easily from the tray at the bottom of the box. To say this invention single-handedly altered the course of the industry is an understatement: it’s a defining moment in the modern history of western cannabis.

Jansen steadily built a company based on the equipment she designed for solventless extraction, causing her to blossom into an international icon and mentor to a new generation of hash makers, one of whom is Nikka T of Essential Extracts. She was also named one of the top 100 most influential people in cannabis by High Times Magazine.


Growing up in the enchanted gardens of her childhood home in England, Jansen always had a green thumb. As a young woman, she worked in greenhouses but quickly found her calling growing the mother of all sacred plants. In marijuana greenhouses and secret urban gardens around Amsterdam, Mila was part of the burgeoning underground that made the city famous for weed. During the thick of prohibition, Mila and her fellow clandestine gardeners grew and tragically lost thousands of plants due to busts. But that didn’t stop her.

While the newspapers heralded the Nederweed explosion, police tracked electric bills and suspicious warehouses and often found the hidden grows they were looking for. Carefully tended for months, gardens were often confiscated just at harvest time—a disaster many American growers can relate to, pre-legalization.

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Courtesy of Mila Jansen

Looking innocent riding her bicycle around town, Jansen often went out as a scout—with a bunch of leeks in her basket, as though headed home to make soup—to check if the grow had been compromised. She developed the street-wit to discern whether cops were staking out or if it was already busted. In true revolutionary spirit, for every lost crop there was another underway. Somehow Jansen and her crew managed to successfully grow a plethora of stellar weed, which meant plenty of great trim—an opportunity only a hash queen would recognize.


Her love of weed—more specifically, hash—sent her on a mission around the world to taste and procure the crème de la crème. The profound knowledge she gained from her travels ultimately paved the path to becoming cannabis royalty.

In 1968, she jumped in her van with her small daughter and a few friends, and decided to join the migration of people headed East. They set out overland through Turkey, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and into India. They hitched a ride in the back of a truck in Ladakh, only to discover they were bouncing around on boxes of explosives. Jansen had pounds of cream hash tucked into her backpack as she and her friends casually crossed borders. She bartered the drab clothes on her back for ornate embroidery with villagers who had never seen Westerners before.

Finally, they arrived in India—a place Jansen connected with so deeply, it became her home for 14 years. She got to know sadhus and smoked chillums of hand-rubbed hash. She spent time in Tibetan monasteries and even took robes as a Buddhist nun for a time. She trekked with horses in some of the most arduous parts of the Himalayas, slept under the stars, and was welcomed into nomads’ camps. A true citizen of the world, Mila raised her kids and made her many business ventures flourish despite life’s many challenges.


In the 24 years since the invention of the Pollinator, Jansen has added an array of products to her company. She was the first to produce Ice-o-Lator bags and invented the Bubbleator, both of which make cold water extraction an easy process for home and professional use.

But Jansen is now famous to a whole new scene of young cannabis enthusiasts thanks to Dab-a-Doo, intimate dab connoisseur competitions she organizes around the world. At the most recent event in Mexico, some participants traveled as much as 5000 miles to attend. These gatherings have quickly become one of the coolest fam-vibe celebrations of all the cups and canna-fests, as it so faithfully maintains the root culture of the cannabis community.

“It is normal to want to always push farther in terms of refinement,” says Jansen, who prefers to puff dabs in joint form. “Hash culture grew out of the weed culture…I guess it is the same with dabbing culture being the next step after hash. It’s the progression of things, we have to move with the times. The most important thing is that we are a community and we love this plant.”

To read Mila’s book: look on Amazon for Mila: How I Became the Hash Queen. (published in 2018 by Mama Editions, Paris) www.mamaeditions.com. Mila’s company website is www.pollinator.nl
 
MEDICAL CANNABIS - A SHORT GRAPHICAL HISTORY
ITS GOLDEN AGE



1840 - 1937
The Golden Age of Medical Cannabis
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ADVERTISEMENT - 1917
While western doctors had made use of Cannabis for a variety of minor ailments ever since the days of Galen. It wasn't until O'Shaughnessy (an Irish doctor, who while in India learned about Cannabis from local Mohammedan and Hindu physicians), returned from the Bengal (1839) and published his findings, that the western world begin to take notice. At a time when western medicine had few if any reliable drugs, here was an analgesic (painkiller), a sedative and antispasmodic agent all in one. And best of all, it had a very low toxicity rate (to this day no one has died from its use) and could be grown almost anywhere in commercial quantities.

For obvious reasons, Cannabis Indica or Medical Marihuana soon became an indispensable part of western medicine. In fact, it spread throughout the western world like wildfire, and within a few years would be as common a medical ingredient in medicines as aspirin is today.

What Was The First (known) Antique Cannabis Medicine?
What Year Was It Made In?
What Firm Manufactured It?


The following is a short article, taken from the June 1890 (page 104) issue of the American Druggist. Extract of Cannabis Indica
Dr. Cripps Lawrence warns prescribers to be careful regarding the use of this extract, which is well known to be of exceedingly variable activity, owing to the crude drug being sometimes inert and sometimes active. He mentions that five years ago Messers, Squire & sons informed him that from the time Dr. O’Shaughnessy first introduced cannabis indica into England, and gave some to the late Mr. Peter Squire in order to make it into an extract, up to the present day, they have been continuously supplied by the original collectors of the plant, and each sample has proved good, yielding efficient preparations; but they have found that the active principles vary in different specimens of the plant from year to year, so that they cannot predicate the actual degree of potency to be attributed to an extract or tincture prepared under identical conditions, until the preparation has been adequately tested for any given year. In this connection we may recall the advice of Dr. George Watt contained in a communication to the Chemist and Druggist (Feb. 19th, 1887), in which he recommends “chemists desirous of making the very best extracts of Indian hemp to pay the full price for Bengal ‘Ganja,’ and to import the article from Calcutta instead of from Bombay, when there would be every chance that the defects complained of in the extract as now prepared would disappear completely.” The reason of this recommendation is that the greatest care is taken in Bengal to insure that the female plants are not fertilized by the male, so that the full narcotic power of the drug may be retained. This it loses after fertilization. Thus it can be stated that the very first (known) Antique Cannabis Medicine was bottled in London England (1840).

NOTE: This museum only deals with Brand or Trade name products manufactured by established firms, not with generic products. Thus in terms of Western Medicine, 1840 is our starting date. However, it is still very much possible that some (let us say), Indian medical products could pre-date the above product, but at least for now, none that we know of.


QUESTION: On a Brand or Trade Name Basis; How Many (legal) pre-1937 Medical Cannabis Medicines were there?

ANSWER: World-Wide, somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000 --- That’s not a joke, that’s the answer. In case this is a little hard to swallow, maybe an explanation, by way of a fictional story, is in order.


THE DOPE ADVENTURES OF DARLA DARE:[A]
It was a public forum . . . the city council was debating whether or not to impose a ban on all medical cannabis dispensaries in the city. Darla Dare sat patiently as one speaker after another spoke out on the ordinance. One narcotics official stated:

  • “Medical Cannabis has no medical uses” and . . . “those who thought that way were in denial, YES there’re in denial.”

Darla Dare pointed to various posters showing old Cannabis Medicines.
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Another said that, “Proper medicines come in pill form and you buy them in a drug store.” Therefore he was not in support of anyone using Medical Cannabis.

Yet another spoke about a conspiracy of the un-washed hippy. That he deliberately got Cancer, just so he would have an excuse to use Medical Cannabis ; But that we were going to stop him. . . . . And on and on the speakers went on, until it was Darla Dare’s turn to speak.

“My name is Darla Dare, I am with a pro-Medical Cannabis museum. Our museum has documented well over 600 pre-1937 (meaning legal) medical cannabis medicines; ALL of which incidentally were sold in drugstores on a brand or trade name bases.”

Darla Dare now pointed to various posters she had brought with her showing pictures of old Antique Cannabis Medicines and went on. “Here are examples of some of these pre-1937 pharmaceutical medicines.”

At this point, there was now an obvious tension in the meeting room, just a few speakers earlier a narcotics police spokeswoman had stated that, Medical Marihuana had NO MEDICAL uses. “That it never had and never would.” Yet here was actual proof, that this just wasn’t the case. The tension was so high that one of the city council members had to interrupt Darla Dare and ask a question. “Young woman, you stated well over 600 such medicines? I find that a little hard to believe.”

“Well actually our museum has probably documented over 2,000 by now, there were just so many that we stopped counting some ten years or so ago at six hundred.” "WHAT," said the council member, obviously taken aback, "How can there have been so many and what do you mean by document?"

Darla Dare politely looked about her, it was obvious that after so many negative speakers that some were doubting her statements. But she politely replied, “By documentation, I mean something that will stand up in court. As example:

  • An old medical patent application specifically mentioning the use of Medical Cannabis.
  • Corporate sales leaflets, or magazine advertisements, specifically mentioning the use of Medical Cannabis in their products.
  • A reputable Trade or Medical magazine article -- specifically mentioning the medical product and the fact that Medical Cannabis in used.
  • Old Pharmaceutical Price and Product Catalogs etc.

    “All of which make excellent sources of documentation. For example," and here Darla Dare, reached into a backpack and pulled out an old 'Eli Lilly' Price and Product catalog from the year 1920. “This old catalog documents that in 1920 the Eli Lilly Co., was making and selling around 20 medicines that in one form or another made use of Medical Cannabis.”

    What? Said the city council member again, exactly how many ways of smoking this stuff did they have?

    Darla Dare replied, “Well they didn't, in fact of all the brand or trade name medicines that we have been able to document so far, only 'one' is smokable. All the rest are either external lotions or oral medications. As you can see by the pictures, before being outlawed, Medical Cannabis came in pill form and you bought it in a drug store. However, many of these medicines were what we now call, 'compound medicines' ; Meaning that there was more then one ingredient in them. Are you able to follow?”

    Yes, I guess I can, but please go on -- you were saying.

    “I was merely going to point out that this old catalog (year 1920) predates the Reefer Madness dis-information campaign by about a decade or so. That means that there are no stories yet about scanty clad girls (jumping out of windows), no boys (under the influence of Medical Cannabis) grabbing axes and killing whole families, etc. That at this time Medical Cannabis was just another ho-hum but legal medicine and thus no reason not to include it in one's corporate sales catalogs. I believe that another firm, Parke-Davies, holds the record with over 74 Cannabis medicines in just one of their catalogs.” The audience at the city council meeting was now silent; no one had ever brought up these facts before.

    "But", interrupted yet another council member, isn’t that figure 2,000 medicines, especially as you stated on a Brand or Trade name bases, a little on the high side?

    “Actually NO,” said Darla Dare. “These are the ones that we have been able to fully document, we know for a fact that they existed. But please don’t take my word for it. Our museum has collected over a hundred of these old pharmaceutical price and product catalogs, and religiously computer scanned selected pages. I'm not trying to hock anything here, but we do make this documentation available to the public in CD-rom format at cost.”

    But to specifically answer your question, we believe that in total there were probably between 20,000 and 30,000 of these legal pre-1937 medicines. Again, all being sold under a specific brand or trade name.

    What, now wait a minute”, screamed one of the city council women. Already the room was in an uproar, some saying that this had to be a lie, others that it was the drug police had been lying to them for years. But it was obvious that some who had spoken earlier were somewhat uncomfortable with the situation.

    “Young woman, this is not very funny,” stated the councilwomen. “I feel you should provide some level of proof to your statements or apologize to everyone in this room.”

    “Gladly” said Darla Dare. “I stated earlier that our museum has been able to obtain over a hundred of these old pre-1937 pharmaceutical price and product catalogs. The problem is that between 1850 and 1937 (the years most Antique Cannabis Medicines come from), there were probably over one-thousand pharmaceutical manufacturers in the New York City area alone. And I can assure you that N.Y. was not the only pharmaceutical hub that we had back then. In effect, this means that we have only skimmed the surface of what’s out there to document. And please understand that it’s not for lack of will but lack of finances that prevent us from obtaining yet more.“ [C]

    “But be that as it may, we must also take into account that our museum mostly deals with English language North Americanpharmaceutical antiques. The devil only knows how many German, Swedish, Italian . . . etc., antique Cannabis medicines were out there. But between twenty and thirty thousand world-wide is about right.”

    “But young woman” said the city council member. “I’m still having a little trouble believing you. How could Medical Cannabis have been used in so many medicines?”

    “Please forgive me,” said Darla Dare, “I’ll speak in terms that you can understand.” “Back in 1840 a Dr. O’Shaughnessy, documented that Cannabis had three major uses, those being:

  • As a sedative
  • As a pain killer
  • As an anti-spasmodic

    At a time when even aspirin had not yet been invented and western medicine had few reliable drugs ; anyone of the above uses made Medical Cannabis a wonder drug. But soon doctors found numerous other medical uses, as well as numerous sub-uses for Cannabis."

    "Uses, Sub-uses, what's the difference?," asked a councilwomen.

    "Oh, I guess that could be confusing," said Darla Dare. "Let me give you a couple of examples. When used as a sedative, Medical Cannabis is great, but if a doctor recommends a stronger dosage, it than acts as a safe sleeping agent. That's an example of a sub-use. On the other hand, a good example of a major medical use occured some forty years after O'Shaughnessy. That was when drug manufacturers discovered that Cannabis could also be used in cough syrups, etc. Our website has a good list of it uses - [www.AntiqueCannabisBook.com].”

    Your words certainly contradict what our narcotics police are saying”
    “Yes they certainly do” said Darla Dare. “But then the axis of Evil, always seems to have an axe to grind.” To which a bit of laughter broke out in the room.

    “I protest,” said one of the narcotics officials who had spoken earlier claiming no medical uses. Many of these drugs she was speaking about are repeats, the same drug simply made by two different manufacturers.

    “That is true” said Darla Dare, “Back in the 19th Century, most manufacturers produced what were essentially the same drugs, with extremely small modifications between them. No one is denying that, in fact our museum website even has a whole sub-section dealing with this factor.”

    “What section is this?”, asked the narc. “The section on Chlorodyne” answered Darla Dare.

    “Now wait a minute”, broke in one of the City Council members. “Isn’t that a bit like cheating? I mean some of these medicines are being counted twice, aren’t they?”

    “More than twice, I would think,” said Darla Dare, “At this point, I believe we’ve found about 20 manufacturers that made Chlorodyne alone. Would you like me to expand on the subject?”
    “Please do”, said the narc, as did the City Council member.

    “Well as I’ve already said, many of the drugs sold before 1937 were generic in nature, meaning that more than one pharmaceutical company was manufacturing it. However, as they were sold under different brand or trade names (as a museum, we do count them multiple times. And additionally, if I may add, it is also possible for one manufacturer to package (essentially the same drug) in pill as well as tablet form, and our museum would also count this twice.

    “But” Darla Dare went on, “Allow me to ask all of you a trick question: How many legal makers of pre-1937 Cannabis medicines were there in this country?

    After waiting for a few seconds, she went on, “The answer is probably somewhere between two hundred and three hundred thousand.” At this point there was almost dead silence in the meeting room. "How could this be?" everyone was thinking.

    “Maybe an explanation is in order. To most people the very concept behind home-brew medicines, (the art of making batches of one's own medicines at home), must seem a little bit odd at best. And not without good reason, as the practice must have been a haphazard one at best. Yet at one time, home brewed medicines were very common. In fact, from an ideological viewpoint, they were part of the Jeffersonian ideals. Perhaps the following quote best describes this viewpoint: ‘It bestowed upon everyone the alleged ability to heal themselves apart from the pretensions of the allopathic physician. Such a therapeutic system resonated with a Jacksonian democracy attempting to divest itself of what it viewed as elitist European notions that skill and knowledge are reserved only for those of rank and privilege. ---‘John Uri Lloyd’ by Michael Flannery - pp30 “For good or for bad, Jeffersonian ideals lead at least in part to the creation of the public school systems and with the ability to read and write, lots and lots of 'How To Do It' books. One didn’t have to go far during this era to locate a book of recipes on medicines for various ailments. I guess one could say, everyone was encouraged to be his or her own doctor.

    However, I think you can all see how this situation could led to a little over counting.” Some laughter broke out among the audience. . . “Which is why we only count them if they were sold under a specific Brand or Trade name; Essentially to eliminate this problem. We also have adopted a couple of other restrictions:
    • Manufacturing had to have taken place in an area specifically set up for pharmaceutical manufacturing -- not in someone’s back yard.

    • The manufacturing firm in question had to have had the proper business licensing for the given era.
    We’ve found that these restrictions pretty much prevent grannies hooch as well as the fly-by-nights, but we do devote a whole subsection on our website to Quack medicines, -- of which there weren’t very many.” At this time, it was becoming obvious that public opinion was now shifting away from the narc's and their anti-Cannabis dispensatory ordinance.

    “But Ms. (ah) Dare”, said one of the anti-Medical Cannabis City Council Members. “We still have the fact that many of these thousands of pre-1937 (ah) Antique Cannabis Medicines are duplicate counts. Isn’t that cheating?”

    Darla Dare replied, “I guess so, if you wish to view it as such --- after all this was an era of generic drugs. However, IF WE WANTED TO CHEAT as you say, we would simply start counting the 500 tablet bottle, as opposed to the 50 or 100 tablet bottles, multiple times. That would make for a really big count real fast."

    Laughter once more broke out among the audience, with even some of the City council members joining in.

    “Please forgive me” said Darla Dare. “I was only trying to show that, before the passage of the anti-Medical Marihuana laws and contrary to what some of the previous speakers would have you think, Cannabis was in widespread medical use. And as you see by the fact that so many Medical Cannabis dispensaries exist (where legal), it still is to this very day.”

    “I think you made your point,” said another member of the city council. It was now obvious, even to the narc’s that their anti-medical Cannabis dispensary law wasn’t going to pass. The public had lost all support for it, . . .

    FOOTNOTES:
    [A]-
    Darla Dare herself is a fictional character modeled after Earle Rowell’s (author of Marihuana the weed of madness 1939) own fictional character David Dare. However all incidents actually have happened in real life.
    - This figure comes to us via (what we would now term) old phone books, city directories, trade magazines etc.
    [C]- If anyone out there has an extra $1,000, this museum curator knows where to go and document yet another 500 more Medical Cannabis Antiques. It's not the lack of will but the lack of $$$ that is holding things back.
 
High levels of THC found at ancient Chinese cemetery site

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Evidence of marijuana use in ancient China was found on 10 wooden braziers containing stones with burn marks that were discovered in eight tombs. (Xinhua Wu/Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History)


Marijuana chemical residue has been found in incense burners apparently used during funerary rites at a mountainous site in western China in about 500 BC, providing what may be the oldest evidence of smoking cannabis for its mind-altering properties.

The evidence was found on 10 wooden braziers containing stones with burn marks that were discovered in eight tombs at the Jirzankal Cemetery site in the Pamir Mountains in China's Xinjiang region, scientists said on Wednesday. The tombs also bore human skeletons and artifacts including a type of angular harp used in ancient funerals and sacrificial ceremonies.

The researchers used a method called gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to identify organic material preserved in the braziers, detecting marijuana's chemical signature. They found a higher level of THC, the plant's main psychoactive constituent, than the low levels typically seen in wild cannabis plants, indicating it was chosen for its mind-altering qualities.

"We can start to piece together an image of funerary rites that included flames, rhythmic music and hallucinogen smoke, all intended to guide people into an altered state of mind," perhaps to try to communicate with the divine or the dead, the researchers wrote in the study published in the journal Science Advances.

'A long, intimate history with cannabis'
Yimin Yang, an archeological scientist at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences and the study's leader, called the findings the earliest unambiguous evidence of marijuana use for its psychoactive properties.

"We believe that the plants were burned to induce some level of psychoactive effect, although these plants would not have been as potent as many modern cultivated varieties," added Robert Spengler, director of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History's Paleoethnobotanical Laboratories in Germany.

"I think it should come as no surprise that humans have had a long, intimate history with cannabis, as they have had with all of the plants that eventually became domesticated," Spengler added.

The elevated THC levels raise the question of whether the people used wild cannabis varieties with naturally high THC levels or plants bred to be more potent. The marijuana was not smoked in the same way as today — in pipes or rolled in cigarettes — but rather inhaled while burning in the braziers.

Pot seemingly used widely in ancient world
Cannabis, one of the most widely used psychoactive drugs in the world today, was initially used in ancient East Asia as an oil seed crop and in making hemp textiles and rope. The timing for the use of a different cannabis subspecies as a drug has been a contentious issue among scientists, but ancient texts and recent archeological discoveries have shed light on the matter.

Herodotus, the ancient Greek historian, wrote in about 440 BC of people, apparently in the Caspian region, inhaling marijuana smoke in a tent as the plant was burned in a bowl with hot stones. The Jirzankal Cemetery findings also fits with other ancient evidence for cannabis use at burial sites in the Altai Mountains of Russia.

"This study is important for understanding the antiquity of drug use," Spengler said, adding that evidence now points to a wide geographic distribution of marijuana use in the ancient world.

The cemetery site is situated near the ancient Silk Road, indicating that the old trade route linking China and the Middle East may have facilitated the spread of marijuana use as a drug.

The cemetery, reaching across three terraces at a rocky and arid site up to 3,080 metres above sea level, includes black and white stone strips created on the landscape using pebbles, marking the tomb surfaces, and circular mounds with rings of stones underneath.

Some buried skulls were perforated and there were signs of fatal cuts and breaks in several bones, suggestive of human sacrifice, though this remains uncertain, the researchers said.

"We know very little about these people beyond what has been recovered from this cemetery," Spengler said, though he noted that some of the artifacts such as glass beads, metal items and ceramics resemble those from farther west in Central Asia, suggesting cultural links.
 
Cannabis discovered in Viking grave

One of the women on the Oseberg ship was found with a small leather sack full of cannabis. Scientists wonder how she used the plant.
The Oseberg mound dates back to 834 AD, and is the richest Viking burial ground that has ever been discovered. It was dug up in the year of 1904, and consisted of a Viking ship with two women in it, a young person around 50 years old, and an elderly person between the ages of 70 and 80. They brought with them seven beds, several woven tapestries, a richly decorated chariot, and four horse sleighs. There were also animal bones discovered from 14 or 15 horses, four dogs, a cow, a bull, a red-breasted merganser, and a Eurasian woodcock. The objects were very well preserved bearing in mind how long they had been buried.

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The Oseberg ship Photo Credit:
It was so well preserved because of the dense clay and peat that it was buried in. During the excavations, archaeologists discovered a bucket of apples which were still red, as well as cress and blueberries. Additionally, they discovered a lump of raised bread dough that could have intended as a funerary gift; something for the women to cook immediately after they reached the afterlife.

The most interesting puzzle is the two female skeletons. Who were these ladies?

They must have been quite influential within their community to be given such a burial. Average people were not buried in ships or with so many valuable objects. So these women might have been religious and political leaders. It is unclear which of the two women held the most power.

It appears that one woman was bigger than the other. The older woman definitely was eating very well, she was close to 80 years old, which was very old for a Viking woman. The younger one was 50 years old.

Their skeletons showed that they lived for a while, and the oldest had different health issues; it was most likely cancer that was the root of her death.

Cannabis in a Leather Pouch
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Cannabis
The older woman was holding a leather sack that has received a lot of attention because of its contents. She would have suffered from a lot of pain because of her illness, and it is speculated that the cannabis that was discovered in her sack was used as a painkiller. Given her possible status as a religious leader, it may have had spiritual connotations and been used in rituals.

The Vikings had an outstanding knowledge of which plants could be utilized for what, some could be used to cure diseases and alleviate pain, whilst others were intoxicants, like cannabis.


There is another possible explanation for the cannabis discovered within the Oseberg ship; in the Viking Age people used hemp to create rope and clothes, it might have been intended for the women to use the cannabis in the afterlife as a building material.
Or maybe the women were using for all of the above. An amazing plant for these amazing women.
 
I saw this article this morning and it reminded me of the conversation that's going on in Random Thoughts about how Cannabis has changed since the early days....

How Cannabis Has Changed Since the ‘60s

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One of the most jolting things about growing up is realizing that your parents have gone through most of the same things you have. Sure, times change, but many touchpoint moments remain the same: your first kiss, your first drink, and your first experience with cannabis.

Today, cannabis is legal, and if you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you’ve been waiting a while for that to happen – but not as long as your parents had to wait. Because while a lot has changed from their generation to yours (don’t get us started on the housing market), cannabis consumption is a big one. From the potency to the options, the nearly six decades between today and the 1960s might as well be a century when it comes to Indicas, Sativas, and CBD. If you want to understand how different cannabis was for your parents in the ‘60s, here are the most profound ways the experience has changed.

Legalization doesn’t mean “fewer laws”

When cannabis first became illegal in Canada in 1923, most Canadians had never heard of it. In fact, the first time Canadian police had to seize cannabis was more than a decade later, in 1937. But that all changed during the counterculture movement of the ‘60s, when educated young people of higher means began to embrace marijuana, along with clothing, music, and a lifestyle that their conservative parents didn’t understand. The Canadian government responded to the new awareness with stricter laws, including six months imprisonment and a $1,000 fine for small amounts of the suddenly popular plant.

From there, convictions increased drastically throughout the ‘60s, from 20 cases in 1962 to 2,300 in 1968. By 1972, Canadian courts saw 12,000 cannabis-related convictions.

The fight for legalization began in large part after cannabis use spiked in the ‘60s, but most of the cries for decriminalization quickly burnt out. During the 2015 election, citing concerns over the illegal market, Justin Trudeau proposed a Canada-wide legalization that would go beyond the medical cannabis market. Legal cannabis consumption arrived in 2018, and with it came a new set of laws. Possession limits were set (30 grams of dried flower or an equivalent non-dried form, like oil), impaired driving laws had to be reassessed, and penalties for providing cannabis to anyone below the age of 18 had to be strictly enforced.

But those were just the basics. Canadian lawmakers also had to consider public consumption, advertising regulations, domestic and international travel, and countless other fine-print issues surrounding legalization. While you can no longer be arrested for smoking or possessing limited amounts of cannabis in Canada, you can still be fined or fired depending on bylaws and company policies.

A new consumer experience

Walk into any government-run or private retail cannabis store today, and you can expect to leave with a quality product that’s void of stems, seeds, and any other non-smokable part of the plant. That wasn’t so for most cannabis users in the ‘60s, when “knowing a guy who knows a guy” was the black-market entry point, and people who partook would often purchase whatever was available.

The halfway point between the old way of purchasing cannabis and the new legal way was the emergence of black-market shops that began popping up in bigger cities not long after Trudeau declared his intent to legalize. These storefronts were illegal and were regularly raided by law enforcement.

Now that cannabis is officially legal, how it’s sold differs depending on the province. But with online stores in every province and territory, and storefronts continuing to open across the country, buying cannabis has never been easier. Eventually the novelty will wear off, but for now you can expect a surreal experience the first time you walk out of a store with a product that was illegal just a short time ago.

Meet your “budtender”

For anyone in the ‘60s, the prospect of walking into a government-run store and perusing a menu of cannabis products with different attributes and flavour profiles would have sounded like something from the streets of Amsterdam. From understanding the difference between THC and CBD to choosing between Indica and Sativa, today’s cannabis menus offer a lot more than the old way of doing things.

There was once a time when beer was just beer, and the evolution of cannabis has followed suit – in the era of IPAs and craft beers, craft cannabis is quickly catching up. But variety is the spice of life and having options has made cannabis consumption more palatable for everyone. Some people want the munchies; others want to relax after a hard day at the office. Some want deep, pain-free sleep, while others want to stare at the stars and bliss out in their backyard. Because of legalization, it’s possible to customize your experience.

Say goodbye to the stigma

Despite decades of propaganda in Canada – starting in the 1920s, when police magistrate Emily Murphy penned a series of anti-cannabis articles for Maclean’s magazine – we now know that cannabis won’t turn you into a crazed killer, and that it won’t perma-fry your brain. But the stigma was much stronger in the ‘60s. Fictional characters like Maynard G. Krebs, the lazy “beatnik” on the CBS sitcom The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (1959-63), helped to solidify the image of cannabis users as deadbeat layabouts, and insults like “pothead,” “burnout,” and “dirty hippy” entered popular culture.

Yes, burnouts still exist, but for every negative stereotype, there’s a successful CEO. From Bill Gates and Steve Jobs to Richard Branson, there are a number of successful, passionate, and inspiring leaders who’ve supported legalization.

The neighbours won’t mind

According to StatsCan, there was an unsurprising surge of cannabis use in the second half of the 1960s, with more than 45 percent of Canadians aged 18 to 24 trying it. Experimentation for that age group declined in the ‘70s and remained fairly level, despite another dip during the ‘90s. By 2012, approximately 3.4 million Canadians admitted to having used cannabis in the past year, meaning the stigma may have always been overblown.

Still, people who used cannabis outside of the medical framework before legalization often felt the need to hide it. But with legalization comes the end of the taboo, so enjoying cannabis in your backyard or on your condo balcony won’t produce the feeling that someone is watching you. It’s a luxury we never knew we needed, but it’s made an already relaxing act even more so.

The future is edible

The next phase of legalization is set to include edibles, which can mean everything from THC-infused gummies to cannabis-infused sugars. Edibles have more precise cannabis doses, like oils, making it easier to know what you’re getting into – which is helpful, because the experience of edibles can be quite powerful. Exact-dose edibles can also help you understand how to use cannabis for the desired benefits, whether you want to treat pain or simply unwind after a long day. Of course, whether you want to partake with your parents is a different story.
 
impaired driving laws had to be reassessed... you can still be fined

I mostly grow my own, so legalisation in many ways has not changed my lifestyle or behavior. Maybe in a few years the seasonal plants may be planted in less obscure spots, maybe.

The one change has been this idea of testing for THC on the road. Several times now, I've been stopped at checkpoints on the highway. They ask where I'm going a whether I've been drinking alcohol and if I've smoked marijuana in the last 24 hours. I always say no. They have never tested me, but I'm certain that I would fail their test because I vape weed every single day.

This never happened when it was illegal. So in this respect, legalisation has made me less comfortable with my consumption, even though I NEVER EVER drive stoned.
 
High levels of THC found at ancient Chinese cemetery site

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Evidence of marijuana use in ancient China was found on 10 wooden braziers containing stones with burn marks that were discovered in eight tombs. (Xinhua Wu/Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History)


Marijuana chemical residue has been found in incense burners apparently used during funerary rites at a mountainous site in western China in about 500 BC, providing what may be the oldest evidence of smoking cannabis for its mind-altering properties.

The evidence was found on 10 wooden braziers containing stones with burn marks that were discovered in eight tombs at the Jirzankal Cemetery site in the Pamir Mountains in China's Xinjiang region, scientists said on Wednesday. The tombs also bore human skeletons and artifacts including a type of angular harp used in ancient funerals and sacrificial ceremonies.

The researchers used a method called gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to identify organic material preserved in the braziers, detecting marijuana's chemical signature. They found a higher level of THC, the plant's main psychoactive constituent, than the low levels typically seen in wild cannabis plants, indicating it was chosen for its mind-altering qualities.

"We can start to piece together an image of funerary rites that included flames, rhythmic music and hallucinogen smoke, all intended to guide people into an altered state of mind," perhaps to try to communicate with the divine or the dead, the researchers wrote in the study published in the journal Science Advances.

'A long, intimate history with cannabis'
Yimin Yang, an archeological scientist at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences and the study's leader, called the findings the earliest unambiguous evidence of marijuana use for its psychoactive properties.

"We believe that the plants were burned to induce some level of psychoactive effect, although these plants would not have been as potent as many modern cultivated varieties," added Robert Spengler, director of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History's Paleoethnobotanical Laboratories in Germany.

"I think it should come as no surprise that humans have had a long, intimate history with cannabis, as they have had with all of the plants that eventually became domesticated," Spengler added.

The elevated THC levels raise the question of whether the people used wild cannabis varieties with naturally high THC levels or plants bred to be more potent. The marijuana was not smoked in the same way as today — in pipes or rolled in cigarettes — but rather inhaled while burning in the braziers.

Pot seemingly used widely in ancient world
Cannabis, one of the most widely used psychoactive drugs in the world today, was initially used in ancient East Asia as an oil seed crop and in making hemp textiles and rope. The timing for the use of a different cannabis subspecies as a drug has been a contentious issue among scientists, but ancient texts and recent archeological discoveries have shed light on the matter.

Herodotus, the ancient Greek historian, wrote in about 440 BC of people, apparently in the Caspian region, inhaling marijuana smoke in a tent as the plant was burned in a bowl with hot stones. The Jirzankal Cemetery findings also fits with other ancient evidence for cannabis use at burial sites in the Altai Mountains of Russia.

"This study is important for understanding the antiquity of drug use," Spengler said, adding that evidence now points to a wide geographic distribution of marijuana use in the ancient world.

The cemetery site is situated near the ancient Silk Road, indicating that the old trade route linking China and the Middle East may have facilitated the spread of marijuana use as a drug.

The cemetery, reaching across three terraces at a rocky and arid site up to 3,080 metres above sea level, includes black and white stone strips created on the landscape using pebbles, marking the tomb surfaces, and circular mounds with rings of stones underneath.

Some buried skulls were perforated and there were signs of fatal cuts and breaks in several bones, suggestive of human sacrifice, though this remains uncertain, the researchers said.

"We know very little about these people beyond what has been recovered from this cemetery," Spengler said, though he noted that some of the artifacts such as glass beads, metal items and ceramics resemble those from farther west in Central Asia, suggesting cultural links.
Very good article!
B-4 PHILOSOPHY in a GREEK SPA CANNABIS 2200 year’s ago!
COLAS with other herbs were put on hot coal’s to VAPE out the room!
 

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