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2737 B.C. to Present
Over 4,700 years of the History of Cannabis (Marijuana) as Medicine (2737 B.C. - present) is presented below. Each event is classified as Pro, Neutral or Con events for medical marijuana. Neutral items include those events offered as General Reference (not clearly pro or con).
| DATES | EVENTS | POSITION: Pro, Neu or Con |
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| 2737 BC | "Emperor Shen-Nung in China prescribes cannabis for beri-beri, constipation, 'female weakness,' gout, malaria, rheumatism and absentmindedness." |
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| 2737 BC | "Actually, the emperor [Emperor Shen-Nung] turns out to be mythological; Shen is a component of Chinese folk religion, creator of agriculture, and one of the gods most widely worshipped in pre-Revolutionary China. The Treatise on Medicine attributed to Shen was compiled by an early Han dynasty writer, whose sources go back only as far as the fourth century B.C." |
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C |
| 2000 BC |
In Egypt, cannabis is used to treat
sore eyes. |
P | |
|
| 1400 BC |
"A thriving Bronze Age drug trade
supplied hashish (cannabis) and opium to ancient cultures throughout the
eastern Mediterranean as balm for the pain of childbirth and disease,
proving a sophisticated knowledge of medicines dating back thousands of
years." |
P | |
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| Pre 1000 BC |
Cannabis use begins in India to
overcome hunger and thirst by the religious mendicants. |
P | |
|
| 1000 BC |
Bhang, a cannabis preparation (a
drink, generally mixed with milk) is used as an anesthetic and
anti-phlegmatic in India... Cannabis begins to be used in India to treat a wide variety of human maladies. The drug is still highly regarded and used by some medical practitioners in India. 1972 National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse - Appendix, Chapter One, Part I  |
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|
| 500 BC |
Gautama Buddha is said to have
survived by eating only cannabis seeds. |
P | |
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| 200 BC |
In ancient Greece, cannabis is used
as a remedy for earache, edema, and inflammation. |
P | |
|
| 70 BC |
Roman Emperor Nero's surgeon,
Dioscorides, praises cannabis for making the stoutest cords and for its
medicinal properties. |
P | |
|
| 200 AD |
A Chinese physician, Hoa-Tho,
prescribes cannabis as an analgesic in surgical procedures. |
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|
| 1619 |
America's first marijuana law is
enacted at Jamestown Colony, Virginia, "ordering" all farmers to "make
tryal of" (grow) Indian hemp seed. More mandatory (must-grow) hemp
cultivation laws are enacted in Massachusetts in 1631, in Connecticut in
1632 and in the Chesapeake Colonies into the mid-1700s. Cannabis is used
primarily for fibers, and it’s medical use is not widely known by the
population at large. |
|
N | |
| 1621 |
The medical book The Anatomy of Melancholy by English clergyman
Robert Burton claims cannabis is a treatment for depression. |
P | |
|
| pre-1700 |
Cannabis is used in Africa to
restore appetite and to relieve pain of hemorrhoids. Its antiseptic uses
are also known to certain African tribes. Various other uses, in a number
of African countries, include the treatment of tetanus, hydrophobia,
delirium tremens, infantile convulsions, neuralgia, cholera, menorrhagia,
rheumatism, hay fever, asthma, skin diseases, and protracted labor during
childbirth. |
P | |
|
| 1763 |
The 'New
English Dictionary' says cannabis root applied to skin eases
inflammation. |
P | |
|
| 1799 |
Napoleon’s army returns from Egypt
with knowledge (and samples) of cannabis. The scientific members of
Napoleon’s forces are interested in the drug’s pain relieving and sedative
effects. |
P | |
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| DATES | EVENTS | POSITION: Pro, Neu or Con | ||
| 1839 |
William O'Shaughnessy, an Irishman
working in the service of the British in India, writes the first modern
English medical article on cannabis. |
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|
| 1840 |
Work of physicians O’Shaughnessy,
Aubert-Roche, and Moreau de Tours draw wide attention to cannabis. |
P | |
|
| 1842 |
O’Shaughnessy reports that tetanus
could be arrested and cured when treated with extra large doses of
cannabis. Various marijuana and hashish extracts are the first,
second or third most prescribed medicines in the United States from 1842
until the 1890s. |
P | |
|
| 1850 |
U.S census of 1850 records 8,327
cannabis plantations of over 2,000 acres each. |
|
N | |
| 1850 |
"Medical use of cannabis declines
and cannabis begins to lose support of the medical profession as other
medications, considered superior to cannabis in their effects and more
easily controlled as to dose, come into wide use." |
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|
C |
| 1854 |
"The U.S. Dispensary of 1854 lists
cannabis compounds as suggested remedies for a multitude of medical
problems, including neuralgia, depression, hemorrhage, pain relief and
muscle spasm." |
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|
| 1856- 1937 |
"Cannabis loses its image as a
medicine and is left with a disreputable image as an intoxicant." |
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|
C |
| 1857 |
John Bell, MD, Boston, reports that
the effects of cannabis in control of mental and emotional disorders is
superior to the use of “moral discipline” to restrain the mentally ill. Smith Brothers of
Edinburgh market cannabis indica extracts. |
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|
| 1858 |
"Moreau de Tours reports several
case histories of manic and depressive disorders treated with hashish
[cannabis]." |
P | |
|
| 1860 |
The Committee on Cannabis Indica of the Ohio State
Medical Society is convened. The Committee reports that their respondents
claimed cannabis successfully treated neuralgic pain, dysmenorrhea,
uterine hemorrhage, hysteria, delirium tremens, mania, palsy, whooping
cough, infantile convulsions, asthma, gonorrhea, nervous rheumatism,
chronic bronchitis, muscular spasms, tetanus, epilepsy and appetite
stimulation. |
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|
| 1870 |
U.S. Pharmacopoeia lists cannabis as
a medicine. |
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|
| 1893-94 |
India establishes the India Hemp
Commission to examine the question of cannabis use in India. The
Commission reports the use of cannabis as an analgesic, a restorer of
energy, a hemostat, an ecbolic, and an anti-diarrhetic. Cannabis is also
mentioned in the report as an aid in treating hay fever, cholera,
dysentery, gonorrhea, diabetes, impotence, urinary incontinence,
testicular swelling, granulation of open sores, and chronic ulcers. Other
beneficial effects attributed to cannabis are prevention of insomnia,
relief of anxiety, protection against cholera, alleviation of hunger and
as an aid to concentration of attention. |
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|
| 1895 |
First known use of the name "marijuana" for cannabis, by Pancho Villa's supporters in Sonora, Mexico. |
|
N | |
| 1898 |
Sir William Osler, professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins and later Regius Professor of Medicine at the University of Oxford, stated in his 1898 discussion of migraine headaches that marijuana "is probably the most satisfactory remedy" for that condition. |
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|
| 1906 |
The Pure Food and Drug
Act is passed, forming the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and
giving it the power to regulate foods and drugs, and requiring labeling of
contents on foods and drugs. The patent medicine industry was demised by
this act. |
|
N | |
| 1915 |
Utah passes the first U.S. state anti-marijuana law.
Mormons who had gone to Mexico in 1910 returned smoking marijuana. The
Utah legislature enacted laws outlawing all Mormon religion prohibitions
as criminal laws. The
States of Utah, California and Texas outlaw cannabis. |
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C |
| 1922 |
The Narcotic Drug Import and
Export Act is passed by U.S. Congress. It is intended to eliminate use
of narcotics except for legitimate medical use. |
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N | |
| 1923 |
Canada adds Cannabis to the Schedule of prohibited
drugs of the Opium and Narcotic Drug Act. The States of Louisiana, Nevada, Oregon and
Washington outlaw cannabis. |
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C |
| 1924 |
At the Second International Opiates conference,
"cannabis is declared a narcotic." |
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|
C |
| 1927 |
The Bureau of Chemistry is reorganized into two
separate entities. Regulatory functions are located in the Food, Drug, and
Insecticide Administration, and nonregulatory research is located in the
Bureau of Chemistry and soils. |
|
N | |
| 1927 |
The State of New York outlaws
cannabis. |
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C |
| 1928 |
The U.K.'s Dangerous Drugs Act become law, making cannabis
illegal in the United Kingdom. |
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|
C |
| 1929 |
Southwest states in the U.S. make cannabis illegal
"as part of a move to oust Mexican immigrants." |
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C |
| 1930 |
The U.S. government sponsors the Siler Commission to
study the effects of off-duty smoking of marijuana by American servicemen
in Panama. The report concludes that marijuana is not a problem and
recommends that no criminal penalties apply to its use. |
|
N | |
| 1930 |
The Food, Drug, and Insecticide Administration is
shortened to the Food and Drug Administration. |
|
N | |
| 1931 |
Mellon, in his role as President Hoover's Secretary
of the Treasury, appoints his future nephew-in-law, Harry J. Anslinger, to
be head of the newly reorganized Federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous
Drugs (FBNDD). |
|
N | |
| 1933 |
The Military Surgeon
writes: “Practically all the seed for the present day American hemp
culture is grown in the Kentucky River valley. Hemp is found growing wild
in the 'slough' district of the Illinois River valley, especially in
Tazewell County, where the gathering of the flowering tops is a local
industry. The harvest is sold to the pharmaceutical trade. There is no
evidence that the smoking of hemp or other abuse respecting this plant is
practiced or known to those engaged in this occupation.” |
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|
| 1933 |
The FDA recommends a complete revision of the
obsolete 1906 Food and Drugs Act. A five-year
legal battle is launched in the U.S. Senate. |
|
N | |
| 1933 |
Marijuana (Cannabis indica or C. sativa) is described in the Epitome of U. S. Pharmacopoeia, and National Formulary as a "narcotic poison, producing a mild delirium. Used in sedative mixtures, but of doubtful value. Also employed to color corn remedies. Cannabis is used in medicine to relieve pain, to encourage sleep, and to soothe restlessness. The drug is used very little in the
practice of medicine. It is considered unstable and unreliable and as
there are other drugs which can be used to relieve pain and produce sleep
the prescribing of this drug for these purposes is falling into disuse.
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C |
| mid-1930's |
"The abolition of slavery following the Civil War put
hemp at a competitive disadvantage because its harvest and processing
required intensive labor. The industry slowly declined to the brink of
extinction as cotton captured the fiber market, but by the mid-1930s new
machinery could efficiently extract hemp's fibers from its stalk, and the
plant was poised for economic recovery. The February 1938 issue of Popular
Mechanics hailed it as the 'New Billion-Dollar Crop,' while a concurrent
issue of Mechanical Engineering deemed hemp 'The Most Profitable and
Desirable Crop That Can Be Grown.'" |
|
N | |
| DATES | EVENTS | POSITION: Pro, Neu or Con | ||
| 1935-7 |
"In secret U.S. Treasury Department meetings,
prohibitive tax laws are drafted and strategies plotted. Marijuana is not
banned outright; the law calls for an occupational excise tax upon
dealers, and a transfer tax upon dealings in marijuana." |
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C |
| 1937 |
Assistant U.S. Surgeon General Walter Treadway told
the Cannabis Advisory Subcommittee of the
League of Nations that, "It [cannabis] may be taken for a relatively long
time without social or emotional breakdown. Marihuana is habit-forming. .
. in the same sense as. . . sugar or coffee." |
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|
| 1937 |
"The Hearst newspapers had acquired a taste for
sensationalistic headlines and lurid stories about Mexicans and
'marijuana-crazed Negroes' assaulting, raping and murdering whites. It was
all nonsense, but Anslinger shamelessly parroted these myths and concocted
his own in congressional testimony and in speeches and articles, branding
marijuana the 'worst evil of all.' In a 1937 magazine piece titled
"Marijuana, the Assassin of Youth," he blamed suicides and "degenerate sex
attacks" on the drug.
'Marijuana is the unknown quantity
among narcotics,' he wrote. 'No one knows, when he smokes it, whether he
will become a philosopher, a joyous reveler, a mad insensate, or a
murderer.' Prior to such calculated misstatements, few Americans had
smoked marijuana. Most had never even heard of it." |
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C |
| 1937 March 29 |
"After the Supreme Court decision of March 29, 1937,
upholding the prohibition of machine guns through taxation, Herman
Oliphant made his move. On April 14, 1937 he introduced the bill directly
to the House Ways and Means Committee instead of to other appropriate
committees such as food and drug, agriculture, textiles, commerce, etc.
His reason may have been that "Ways
and Means" is the only committee that can send its bills directly to the
House floor without being subject to debate by other committees. Ways and
Means Chairman Robert L. Doughton, a key DuPont ally, quickly
rubber-stamped the secret Treasury bill and sent it sailing through
Congress to the President." |
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|
C |
| 1937 Spring |
"William G. Woodward, M.D., who was both a physician
and an attorney for the American Medical Association, testified on behalf
of the AMA.
He said, in effect, the entire
fabric of federal testimony was tabloid sensationalism! No real testimony
had been heard! This law, passed in ignorance, could possibly deny the
world a potential medicine, especially now that the medical world was just
beginning to find which ingredients in cannabis were active.
Woodward told the committee that the
only reason the AMA hadn't come out against the marijuana tax law sooner
was that marijuana had been described in the press for 20 years as 'killer
weed from Mexico.'
The AMA doctors had just realized
'two days before' these spring 1937 hearings, that the plant Congress
intended to outlaw was known medically as cannabis, the benign substance
used in America with perfect safety in scores of illnesses for over one
hundred years.
'We cannot understand yet, Mr.
Chairman,' Woodward protested, 'why this bill should have been prepared in
secret for two years without any intimation, even to the profession, that
it was being prepared.' He and the AMA were quickly denounced by Anslinger
and the entire congressional committee, and curtly excused." |
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|
| 1937 Spring |
"When the Marijuana Tax Act bill came up for oral
report, discussion, and vote on the floor of Congress, only one pertinent
question was asked from the floor: "Did anyone consult with the AMA and
get their opinion?"
Representative Vinson, answering for
the Ways and Means Committee replied, "Yes, we have. A Dr. Wharton
[mistaken pronunciation of Woodward?] and the AMA are in complete
agreement!"
With this memorable lie, the bill
passed, and became law in December 1937." |
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|
C |
| 1937 Aug 2 |
The Marijuana Tax Act
passes and becomes law. |
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|
C |
| 1938 |
"The Food,
Drug and Cosmetic Act is passed. The FDA is given control over drug
safety, and the Act establishes a class of drugs available by
Prescription." |
|
N | |
| 1940 |
Dr. R.N. Chopra reports that, in
India, “hemp drugs are popularly used as household remedies in the
amelioration of many minor ailments.” |
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|
| 1941 |
"Marijuana is officially removed
from the U.S. Pharmacopoeia." |
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C |
| 1942 |
Drs. Allentuck and Bowman, in a
study of the use of marihuana in the morphine abstinence syndrome, state
“The results in general, although still inconclusive, suggest that the
marijuana substitution method ameliorated or eliminated (the symptoms)
sooner, the patient was in a better frame of mind, his spirits elevated,
his physical condition was more rapidly rehabilitated, and he expressed a
wish to resume his occupation sooner.” |
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|
| 1943 |
U.S. Military Surgeon magazine
declares that "smoking cannabis is no more harmful than smoking tobacco."
|
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|
| 1944 |
New York City Mayor LaGuardia’s Committee on Marihuana notes two possible therapeutic applications of marijuana: “The first is the typical euphoria-producing action which might be applicable in the treatment of various types of mental depression; the second is the rather unique property which results in the stimulation of appetite.” New York City Mayor LaGuardia’s
Committee on Marihuana studied 56 morphine and heroin addicts at Riker’s
Island Penitentiary, N.Y., find-ing “those who received
tetrahydrocannabinols had less severe withdrawal symptoms than those who
received no treatment or who were treated with Magendie’s solution.” |
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|
| 1945 |
Newsweek Magazine reports "over
100,000 Americans use cannabis." |
|
N | |
| 1945 |
Harry J. Anslinger, head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (FBNDD), "in public tirade after tirade, denounces Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, the New York Academy of Medicine and the doctors who researched the report. Anslinger proclaims that these doctors would never again do marijuana experiments or research without his personal permission, or be sent to jail. He then uses the full power of the United States government illegally to halt virtually all research into marijuana while he blackmails the American Medical Association (AMA) into denouncing the New York Academy of Medicine and its doctors for the research they had done." To refute the LaGuardia report, the
AMA, "at Anslinger's personal request, conducts a 1944-45 study, which
reports; 'of the experimental group 34 were negroes and one was white'
(for statistical control) who smoked marijuana, became disrespectful of
white soldiers and officers in the segregated military." |
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|
C |
| 1947 |
Dr. Douthwaite reports using
cannabis hashish “for reducing of anxiety and tension in patients with
duodenal ulcer.” |
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|
| 1948 |
"Testifying before a strongly
anti-Communist Congress in 1948 - and thereafter continually to the press
- Anslinger proclaims that marijuana renders its users not violent at all,
but so peaceful - and pacifistic - that the Communists 'could and would
use marijuana to weaken our American fighting men's will to fight.'" |
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|
C |
| 1949 |
Researchers JP Davis and HH Ramsey
report (Fed. Proc. Am. Soc. Exp. Biol. 8: 284) that a clinical trial of
five institutionalized epileptic children found that: “Three children -
responded at least as well as to previous therapy. Fourth child – almost
completely seizure free. Fifth child – entirely seizure free.” Their
conclusion was that “the cannabinols herein reported deserve further trial
in non-institutionalized epileptics.” |
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|
| 1952 |
Dr. J. Kapelikovi, in his report
"Antibacterial Action of Cannabis Indica," concludes that "alcohol extract
of cannabis is bacterially effective against many gram-positive and one
gram-negative micro-organisms." He also found a paste form of external
application successful. According to the report; “from a study of 2,000
herbs by Czechoslovakian scientists it was found that cannabis indica was
the most promising in the realm of antibiotics.” |
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|
| 1953 |
Drs. Thompson and Proctor report;
“Pyrahexyl (a synthetic cannabis-like drug) and related compounds are
beneficial in the treatment of withdrawal symptoms from the use of alcohol
to a marked degree, and in the treatment of withdrawal symptoms from the
use of opiates to a less marked, but still significant degree.” |
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|
| 1954 |
Pharmacopoeias of India contains
descriptions of liquid cannabis extract and tincture, and describes how it
is made. |
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|
| 1957 |
"In 1957, a Wisconsin farmer
harvested the last legal commercial hemp crop in America." |
|
N | |
| 1957 |
Drs. Chopra and Chopra, in their
article “The Use of the Cannabis Drugs in
India”, state; “with regard to the use of cannabis in Indian
indigenous medicine at the present time, it may be said that it was and
still is fairly extensively used in both the Ayurvedle (Hindu) and Tibbi
(Mohammedan) systems of medicine as an anodyne, hypnotic, analgesic and
antispasmodic, and as a remedy for external application to piles. It is
also used in the treatment of dysmennorhoea, rheumatism, chronic diarrhea
of the sprue type, gonorrhea, malaria and mental diseases on the advice of
itinerant practitioners of indigenous medicine as well as quacks who roam
about the country. For medicinal purposes the drug is administered by
mouth and hardly ever by smoking.” |
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|
| 1959 |
In the Czech publication of Pharmacie, Dr. Krejci reports that he extracted a
chemical from the cannabis plant that had “antibiotic properties.” |
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|
| 1960 |
Krejci, Kabelik and Santavy include in “Cannabis as a Medicant” the various microorganisms against which cannabis is effective; “Proof could be furnished that the cannabis extracts produce a very satisfactory antibacterial effect upon the following microbes: staphylococcus pyogenes aureus, streptococcus alpha haemolyticus, streptococcus beta haemolyticus, enterococcus, diplococcus pneumonia, B. antracis, and corynebacterium diptheriae i.e., all of them gram-positive microorganisms. Noteworthy is the effect upon staphyloccus aureaus strains, which are resistant to penicillin and to other antibiotics." Kabelik reports that in Argentina “cannabis is considered a real panacea for tetanus, colic, gastralgia, swelling of the liver, gonorrhea, sterility, impotency, abortion, tuberculosis of the lungs and asthma…even the root-bark has been collected in spring, and employed as a fibrifuge, tonic, for treatment of dysentery and gastralgia, either pulverized or in form of decoctions. The root when ground and applied to burns is said to relieve pain. Oil from seeds has been frequently used even in treatment of cancer.” Kabelik also notes; “In human
therapy the best results have been obtained with the following medicaments
combined with substances derived from cannabis: dusting powder together
with boric acid, ointment, ear drops, alcohol solutions with glycerine,
aqueous emulsions, dentin powder. The preparations mentioned above have
been already tested clinically, and will eventually be made available for
production.” |
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|
| 1961 |
Dr. Krejci reports in another Czech
publication that he had obtained “two additional samples [from cannabis]
with antibiotic activity.” |
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|
| 1961 |
The U.N. Treaty 406 Single
Convention on Narcotic Drugs is signed, which seeks to outlaw cannabis use
and cannabis cultivation worldwide, and "eradicate cannabis smoking within
30 years." The U.S. representative is Anslinger. |
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|
C |
| 1962 |
President John F. Kennedy, who uses
cannabis as a pain relief, fires Anslinger. |
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|
| 1963 |
H.B.M Murphy, M.D. PhD, Associate
Professor, Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, reports
on cannabis investigations in Eastern Europe, stating “it is alleged to be
active against gram positive organisms at 1/100,000 dilution, but to be
largely inactivated by plasma, so that prospects for its use appear to be
confined to E.N.T. (ear, nose and throat) and skin infections.” |
P | |
|
| 1964 |
Dr. Raphael Mechoulam, Lionel
Jacobson Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem, is the first to identify delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) as
the most active compound in cannabis. |
|
N | |
| 1965 |
An article of Medical News, “Cardiac Glycocides” suggests
cannabis as treatment for a specific form of malignancy. |
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|
| 1966 |
Pharmacopoeias of India contain
descriptions of liquid cannabis extract and tincture, and describes how it
is made. |
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|
| 1968 |
The U.K.'s Wooton Report states "Having reviewed all the material available to us we find ourselves in agreement with the conclusion reached by the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission and the New York Mayor's Committee that the long-term consumption of cannabis in moderate doses has no | |||