Outlawed plant to cure all ills
Name: Cannabis (Cannabis sativa)
Otherwise known as: Marijuana, Ganja, Weed, Indian Hemp
Habitat: A bushy annual member of the Cannabaceae family with a hairy stem and palmately-divided, long-stalked leaves with serrate edges. It grows to about 4m in wasteland and is native to the Caucasus, China, Iran and northern India, but is now cultivated worldwide. Only the female plant produces seed. All parts of it are narcotic and it is outlawed in all developed countries.
What does it do: Apart from its recreational use, the plant has a remarkable history, it was once acclaimed as the universal panacea and was a permanent feature of every physic garden from Peking to Edinburgh. Crusader Knights, who had experienced its pain-killing properties, carried the seeds from the Levant to Scotland and planted them in the herb gardens of monastic hospitals, which probably accounts for its popularity in Scotland’s major cities.
In ancient Egypt it was used to treat conjunctivitis and uterine problems. It appears in the early Chinese medical literature as a treatment for gout, malaria, beri-beri, rheumatism, constipation, absent mindedness and ‘women’s weakness’, whatever that might be. Galen, the father of surgery and physician to Marcus Aurelius, used it to relieve post-operative pain. In India it is taken for insomnia, nervous exhaustion and is thought to promote longevity; in other Asian countries it is used to relieve asthma, menstrual pain and migraine. J Russell-Reynolds, president of the Royal College of Physicians and Physician in Ordinary to Queen Victoria, administered it to her as an analgesic during child-birth. He was quoted in the Lancet’ following this incident as stating “Indian hemp (cannabis syn.), when pure and administered carefully, is one of the most valuable medicines we possess”.
It is perhaps not too surprising that such an esteemed plant should be outlawed.
Cannabis contains over 60 different types of cannabinoids and is the only plant to contain THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), one of the main psycho-active constituents: it is the THC content that has given rise to current research.
Medical practitioners discovered that patients consuming cannabis while undergoing chemotherapy were not subject to the
distressing nausea, vomiting and loss of appetite experienced by their other patients. Research led them to discover that not only could THC suppress the side-effects of chemotherapy but benefit those suffering from multiple sclerosis, cerebal palsy, Parkinson’s disease and other neuro-muscular illnesses. Parkinson’s sufferers claim that cannabis helps to overcome speech impediments and reduces muscular tremors. In 2004 a medical research team at a Canadian university produced a paper claiming that THC would overcome certain viral conditions such as Kaposi’s sarcoma, a terminal condition of many AIDS victims, and herpes; but other research groups have linked long term use of cannabis with serious mental and physical illness.
The stems of the plant have been used for millennia to produce fibres for rope, sails and paper, while denim was originally made from cannabis.
At one time cannabis was an important cash crop in Cyprus, and although it was proscribed in the western world as early as 1923, Cypriots continued growing it until the early 60s. It is still possible to discover excellent examples of this plant growing ‘wild’ in the western Troodos.
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