MEDICAL MARIJUANA: A HISTORY

Inhaling To Cure Ailments Is A Lot Older Than You Might Believe

Should Profs. Cheech and Chong ever receive university tenure teaching the
medical history of their favorite subject, the course pack would be
surprisingly thick. As early as 2737 B.C., the mystical emperor Shen Neng
of China was prescribing marijuana tea for the treatment of gout,
rheumatism, malaria and, oddly enough, poor memory. The drug's popularity
as a medicine spread throughout Asia, the Middle East and down the eastern
coast of Africa, and certain Hindu sects in India used marijuana for
religious purposes and stress relief. Ancient physicians prescribed
marijuana for everything from pain relief to earaches to childbirth.
Doctors also warned against overuse of marijuana, believing that too much
consumption caused impotence, blindness and "seeing devils."

By the late 18th century, early editions of American medical journals
recommend hemp seeds and roots for the treatment of inflamed skin,
incontinence and venereal disease. Irish doctor William O'Shaughnessy first
popularized marijuana's medical use in England and America. As a physician
with the British East India Company, he found marijuana eased the pain of
rheumatism and was helpful against discomfort and nausea in cases of
rabies, cholera and tetanus.

The sea change in American attitudes toward pot came at the end of the 19th
century, when between two and five percent of the U.S. population was
unknowingly addicted to morphine, a popular secret ingredient in patent
medicines with colorful names like "The People's Healing Liniment for Man
or Beast" and "Dr. Fenner's Golden Relief". To prevent more of the country
from being washed over with a morphine-induced Golden Relief, the
government introduced the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906, creating the Food
and Drug Administration. While it didn't apply to marijuana and merely
brought the distribution of opium and morphine under doctors' control, the
regulation of chemical substances was a major shift in American drug policy.

It wasn't until 1914 that drug use was defined as a crime, under the
Harrison Act. To get around states' rights issues, the act used a tax to
regulate opium- and coca-derived drugs: it levied a tax on non-medical uses
of the drugs that was much higher than the cost of the drugs themselves,
and punished anyone using the drugs without paying the tax. By 1937,
twenty-three states had outlawed marijuana: some to stop former morphine
addicts from taking up a new drug, and some as a backlash against newly
arrived Mexican immigrants, some of whom brought the drug with them. Also
in 1937, the federal government passed the Marihuana Tax Act, which made
nonmedical use of marijuana illegal. Only the birdseed industry, which
argued that hemp seeds gave birds' feathers a particularly shiny gloss, was
exempted from the act, and to this day birdseed producers are allowed to
use imported hemp seeds treated so they don't sprout.

With an exception during World War II, when the government planted huge
hemp crops to supply naval rope needs and make up for Asian hemp supplies
controlled by the Japanese, marijuana was criminalized and harsher
penalties were applied. In the 1950s Congress passed the Boggs Act and the
Narcotics Control Act, which laid down mandatory sentences for drug
offenders, including marijuana possessors and distributors.

Despite an easing of marijuana laws in the 1970s, the Reagan
Administration's get-tough drug policies applied to marijuana as well.
Still, the long-term trend has been toward relaxation: Today, twelve states
have enacted some form of marijuana decriminalization.