A Very Brief History of Cannabis Medicine

For thousands of years, cannabis (a.k.a., marijuana) has been a principal ingredient in medicines used in South Asia’s Ayurvedic Medicine, in Traditional Chinese Medicine, and in allopathy (Western medicine). 

Since 1964, with the discovery of THC – the most common psychoactive ingredient in cannabis – science has begun to guide the use of cannabis-based medicines.  However, in 1961, the United Nations banned cannabis as a medicine across the world.  This prohibition effectively stopped medical research involving cannabis. 

Times are changing.  Since the 1990s, more than 50 nations across the globe have lifted the prohibition on medical cannabis.  In 2020, the UN voted to lift its own 60-year-old ban.  Once the UN guidelines for legal medical cannabis are published (due in 2023), progress in cannabis research is expected to be exponential.

Today, in most of the USA, raw cannabis and cannabis-based products are legally available in licensed dispensaries.  All products must be tested in the laboratory to identify and measure the good (major active ingredients) and the bad (pesticides, fertilizers, heavy metals, micro-organisms).  This testing helps ensure safety and also tells us about the active pharmaceutical ingredients (API), which determine the effects we should expect.