Cannabis Thesis

Emmett, David and Graeme Nice, the authors of What You Need to Know about Cannabis: Understanding the Facts, explain that it is likely that far back as 4000 BCE, the Chinese were the earliest to practice cannabis for medicinal purposes (28). Illustrates that an additional written justification of its medical use by the Chinese shows that it was used to treat various medical conditions such as rheumatism, tension in the muscle, swelling, tenderness, and amnesia. Explains that the lack of memory was to have been caused due to a deficiency of “Yin” in the body. ‘Yin’ is thought to be responsible for feminine, negative and passive qualities, whereas its opposite, ‘Yang’, is responsible for masculine, positive and active qualities. The use of cannabis

He notes that it was part of ancient civilization medicine and was even commonly prescribed in the US in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Graves claims that the government began regulating cannabis in the 1930s; when the Federal Bureau of Narcotics convinced states to approve the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 to control the sale and use of marijuana. Graves notes that when Congress passed the Controlled Substance Act in 1970, marijuana was classified as Schedule I. A classification kept for unsafe, addictive drugs that have no established medicinal use; mainly because there was limited research on its effects (Graves 63). (Emmet et al.) Nonetheless, the use of cannabis for therapeutic purposes has continued until the present time; and worldwide, many promote its use, and believe in its properties for the benefits of health, mainly for the relief of unpleasant indicators and side effects of certain sicknesses or their treatments. Much of this is based on subjective evidence of its favorable effects (29). (Graves 63). Although the federal government has classified Cannabis as a controlled substance that is illegal for use, twenty four states and the District of Colombia have passed laws allowing medicinal use of marijuana and fourteen states have decriminalized its

Cannabis production has become a multibillion dollar business in the United States, and legal markets for cannabis are estimated to reach eleven billion dollars by 2019.

Proving the effectiveness of an illicit substance, personal evidence of marijuana’s use for pain is easy to come by. When researchers at the University of California in Santa Cruz reviewed data from a questionnaire given to 1,746 medical marijuana patients, for instance, they found that 83% said it relieved pain and half were using it in place of prescription drugs.

Cannabinoids form a group of substances, some of which are found in the Cannabis sativa plant, including the psychoactive agent known as Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). THC is the ingredient within the plant that has the effective psychoactive qualities desired mostly by recreational users. It acts upon certain receptor cells within the brain, known as CB1 and CB2 receptors which were first discovered in the late 1980s. The mildly euphoric effect is caused when THC binds with the CB1 receptors. Low-threshold pain-relieving qualities also come about as the result of this fusion. Selective breeding and cloning techniques have been introduced over the years to increase the THC content of certain plants, which are ear marked for recreational drug use, producing more potent varieties of street cannabis such as skunk and super-skunk, which