Medical Marijuana: Ancient and Modern History, Current Therapeutic Eruptions

I am also heartened by the knowledge that maybe there are about a thousand MJ Dispensaries in California and the Governator tacitly approves of them.

Life Magazine Oct. 31, 1969

(MOLALLA, Ore.) - The ancient history of cannabis/marijuana is even more interesting than its present use as a modern medical miracle.

To make sure that knowledgeable readers don’t accuse me of plagiarism I will confess it at the outset. I am stealing from a best friend, Todafumi Mikuriya, his real name. I believe I am one of the last persons to talk to him before his tragic death and his work and influence were tragically lost.

I am stealing from Marijuana Medical Papers 1839–1972. This is the best medically historical book on the subject and an everlasting monument to him. Jack Herer’s book The Emperor Wears No Clothes is a close second but different in scope. Jack’s books are and have been revised and reprinted many times. Tod’s book is/was a one-time bombshell.

Starting with O’Shaughnessy’s book in 1839, Tod wrote about the outstanding marijuana research papers, twelve of them, up to 1900 when marijuana was somewhat replaced by synthetic drugs. Cannabis/marijuana was so complex, nobody could do much with it for standardization and prescriptions.

The strange thing about those “crude” preparations is that they were found effective for many diseases that we are finding out about now, 150 years later.

The really big “lash-up” was when poor folks who couldn’t get to a doctor discovered they could smoke it for relief and not have to spend scarce money to go to a doctor.

What is really strange is that a few of our first Presidents grew it in their gardens, and obviously used it for oral medicine.

Cannabis in any form was made illegal in 1937, and you might imagine it just medically disappeared. This is not the case at all. Much medical research was done in the immediately following years. This was illegal also.

This ended in 1968 with Dr. Andrew Weil's article Clinical and Physiological Effects of Marijuana in Man, published in Science, 162, page 1234, 1968. This work was done while Dr. Weil was a medical student at Harvard, and the inference is on purpose. The work was done through Boston University, because Harvard was getting nervous about Dr. Tim O’leary, of LSD notoriety.

This was really a very scholarly work, and launched Dr. Weil into the spotlight he still enjoys. It’s a pity he can’t write for medical MJ permits.

Harvard has continued to be a hotspot for marijuana. Dr. Lester Grinspoon was one of Dr. Weil's professors, and is equally well known.

The greatest surprise about the two above paragraphs, is a full-color cover of Life Magazine from Oct. 31, 1969 entitled "At Least 12 Million Americans Have Now Tried It". A recent add-on email to the article, Old Tokers Group Messages, stated "50 million are using it now!"

After Dr. Weil's article, research and publications erupted. Quite probably well over 2000 articles indicating marijuana's medical efficacy.

As a medical marijuana advocate with about 5000 patients on MMJ, I am heartened by the stance of President Obama, who KNOWS MJ is not harmful, but in fact beneficial, and by Attorney General Holder who has told the DEA and other goons to leave legal medical marijuana permit holders and providers alone.

I am also heartened by the knowledge that maybe there are about a thousand MMJ Dispensaries in California, and the "Governator" tacitly approves of them.

Two more promising signs are the two cannabis cafes in Portland, Oregon and legal cannabis dispensaries in Maine.

I say to my Leveque cousins in Maine, Voulez Vous Fumez un Chanvre? Bravo! Yes we are making progress.

IT’S ABOUT TIME!

Before any of that, Phil Leveque was a Combat Infantryman in the U.S. Army in WWII. He suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder more than 60 years after the war, and specialized in treating Veterans with PTSD during his years as a doctor in Molalla, Oregon.

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