The Medicinal Power of Cannabis: Using a Natural Herb to Heal Arthritis, Nausea, Pain, and Other Ailments

176 Pages·2015·1.24 MB·English

by  Hicks

Copyright © 2015 by John Hicks All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.
Cover design by Rain Saukas Cover art credit i-Stock
Print ISBN: 978-1-63450-583-3
Ebook ISBN: 978-1-63450873-5
Printed in the United States of America
Contents
Acknowledgements
I History of Hemp
II Inflammation
III Endocannabinoid System
IV Anxiety
V Immune System
VI Seizures
VII Neuroprotection
VIII Alzheimer’s Disease
IX Parkinson’s Disease
X Huntington’s Disease
XI Multiple Sclerosis
XII Pain
XIII Nausea and Vomiting
XIV Arthritis
XV Cancer
Summary
References
Glossary
About the Author
Acknowledgements
A heartfelt thank you to my beautiful wife Betsy. Your support and
understanding were beyond expectation. I appreciate your willingness to be
without a kitchen table for 18 months, as it was covered in papers, journals, and
books while I researched and wrote.
I also wish to thank Elizabeth Aquino for her hard work and dedication to
helping me to express myself.
A special thank you to Dr. Marcey Shapiro, who gave me insight into the use
of medicinal herbs, including cannabis, and to Teri Arranga for her
encouragement and support to write this book.
Thank you, and love to you all!
John
I
History of Hemp
Hemp, from the plant cannabis sativa, and its sister plants, cannabis indica
and cannabis ruderalis, has a rich and varied history of use, including hemp
fibers for textiles, the oil, the seeds for medicine and, of course, the plant itself for
psychotropic activity. Although the exact date of its first use is unknown, records
and artifacts indicate that hemp has been cultivated for more than 10,000 years.
We know that hemp has been cultivated in China since 4000 BCE. The first
identified paper, in China around 1000 BCE, was made from hemp. It was very
white and extremely durable, lasting for long periods of time without
1
decomposing. Hemp cords in pottery from Mesopotamia date back over 10,000
years, and fabrics made with hemp have been dated to 8000 BCE in what is now
modern Taiwan, as well as textiles found in China and Turkestan dated around
4000 BCE. In the book The Natural History, Pliny the Elder describes the use of
hemp rope, and of marijuana providing analgesic effects. In the years between
2000 and 800 BCE, the plant was recorded in the Hindu sacred text Athuruveda
as sacred grass; it was considered one of the five sacred plants in India, used both
medicinally and for rituals and ceremonies. Psychotropic properties were first
described between 100 BCE and 1 CE, reported by Chinese herbalist Pen Tsao
Ching. In 600 BCE, the Zend-Avesta, the sacred book of Zoroastrianism, spoke
of hemp’s intoxicating resin being used by the people of India.
Thousands of years later, between 1606 and 1632 AD, the French and British
cultivated cannabis for hemp in their colonies at Port Royal, Acadia (present-day
Nova Scotia). In 1611, the British began growing it in Virginia, and by 1632 it
4
was also grown in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Hemp was used to make rope and
sails for shipping and navy fleets. The colonies passed laws to encourage the
production of hemp, as it was also needed for cordage and cloth. In the 1630s in
Hartford, Connecticut, the colonists passed a resolution requiring every family to
plant hemp.
During the 1700s, the American colonists were forbidden to weave with hemp,
which kept them tied to England to purchase woven products. New England,
Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and North and South Carolina
were paid subsidies to grow hemp, or they were given tax credits to do so. Hemp
2,4
was also used as money. The weaving restrictions ended when Irish weavers
settled in the colonies and taught the colonists their trade, beginning the
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production of hemp fabrics there. Decades later, during World War II, hemp
was grown to provide needed rope for the United States Navy. The loss of the
Philippines and their Manila hemp was met by renewed US efforts to produce
hemp, and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) produced films to
stimulate its production for war use. Farmers and their sons who grew hemp
3
from 1942–1945 were waived from serving in the military. Hemp was used for
clothing, military uniforms, ships’ rigging, shoes, parachute webbing, baggage
3
and more. In 1943, during World War II’s Hemp for Victory campaign,
3
production grew from approximately 2,000 acres to about 146,200 acres.
Thousands of years after the Chinese made paper from it, cannabis hemp was
used as legal tender (money) in most of the Americas between 1631 until the
1
early 1800s. Benjamin Franklin started one of America’s first paper mills with
3,4
cannabis, and both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew cannabis
3,4
on their plantations. Jefferson drafted both the Declaration of Independence
3,4
and the Constitution of the United States on hemp paper. In Europe, artists
Rembrandt and Van Gogh painted on canvas made of hemp.
In 1916, the chief scientists of the USDA, Jason L. Merrill and Lester H.
Dewey, created paper from hemp pulp, showing that it was environmentally
better than wood pulp and would reduce the need for deforestation as well as the
toxic chemicals released into the environment. They demonstrated that hemp
pulp uses between one-seventh and one-fourth as much sulfur-based acid
chemicals as wood pulp and would thereby prevent the constant release of
dioxins from the production of paper. By using hemp instead of wood, hydrogen
peroxide was effective as a less toxic substitute for chlorine bleach.
However, history shows us that dollars replaced common sense, and the
powerful industrialists realized that the cultivation of cannabis stymied their
monetary gain as long as it remained in competition with the wood-paper
industry. In 1914, the Harrison Act in the United States defined the use of
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marijuana, among other drugs, as a crime. The historical legacy is that today
hemp is only legal to grow in California and Colorado and is heavily regulated;
restrictions include limiting how it’s grown, how the fields are fenced, lighting
requirements, and the use of guards. If these restrictions were loosened, one
could certainly make the case that hemp could replace wood-pulp paper,
computer printout paper, corrugated boxes, and paperback books with
significantly fewer adverse repercussions to the environment.
The head of the industrialists was William Randolph Hearst, who had large
timber holdings that fed his paper industry and, in turn, his powerful newspaper
industry. William DuPont, another influential industrialist, had a huge
petrochemical industry, creating plastics, paints, and other fossil fuels. Andrew
Mellon, the United States Secretary of the Treasury and owner of Gulf Oil, had a
vested interest in the competitive threat of hemp cultivation and created tax
breaks for the oil companies, such as the oil-depletion allowances that are still in
force today. Mellon also pushed through tax plans that reduced taxes on wealthy
and large corporations to encourage greater investment.
These forces combined to make hemp the object of the first “yellow”
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journalism. To protect their interests and fortunes, these men worked with
elements of government to condone and popularize movies, publications, and
books about the evils of marijuana. Propaganda about marijuana had originated
in Mexico, where it was banned in 1920, and found a home north of the border
when Harry Anslinger, the director of the US Narcotics Bureau, began to push
the theme of “reefer madness.” Ainslinger, with the support of the Hearst and
DuPont empires, easily convinced states to begin outlawing marijuana. He
testified in Congress about the dangers of “this evil weed” in 1937, wrote
editorials and letters in multiple papers, and convinced the Congress to pass the
Anslinger Act. Formally known as the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 (HR 6385),
the law imposed a prohibitive tax on the importation and cultivation of hemp
and hemp products and effectively criminalized marijuana use at not only state
but federal level. In addition, legislation was pushed through Congress that gave
7
tax breaks to the oil companies, to make the industrialists happy.
The medical history of marijuana dates back to Emperor Chen-Nung of
1
China, who recorded the first use of cannabis as medicine in the year 2737 BCE.
Those records indicate that cannabis was used to treat malaria, female disorders,
and many other illnesses for more than 5,000 years. The herbalist emperor
described the fruit Ma-fen and explained that if this fruit were taken in excess, it
1,2
would produce hallucinations. During the years between 2000 and 800 BCE,