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  To the patients, practitioners, and nonviolent medical marijuana prisoners of the Drug War; to those who worked on or voted for Proposition 215; to the cannabis buyers clubs; to my wonderful wife, Mikki Norris; to my friends and family, and all who provided me with information and support to do this work; to my fellow researchers; to my mother, Betty Conrad; and to my father, Robert Conrad, who on his deathbed with cancer asked me to help others learn about and have access to medical marijuana when they need it.

  Acknowledgments

  Special thanks to Michael and Michelle Aldrich, Americans for Medical Rights, Maria Bruce, Business Alliance for Commerce in Hemp, Californians for Medical Rights, Cannabis Action Network, Bhagwan Dash, Rick Doblin, Drug Policy Foundation, Don and Jennifer Duncan, Family Council on Drug Awareness, Tom Flowers, Lester Grinspoon, Hash-Marijuana-Hemp Museum, Hemp Flax, Hemp Industries Association, Human Rights 95, Rowan Jacobsen, Keith, Ellen Komp, Steve Kubby, Ed Kunkel, Richard Lee, Marianne, Marijuana Policy Project, Raphael Mechoulam, Tod Mikuriya, Carol Miller, MontyPat, Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, Elvy Musikka, Ethan Nadelmann, Mikki Norris, Lynn and Judy Osburn, Candi Penn, Dennis Peron, Robert Randall, Brownie Mary Rathbun, Virginia Resner, Richard Rose, Eric Skidmore, Eric Sterling, Jeffrey Stonehill, Pet Sutton, Kirk Warren, Don Wirtshafter, Caroljo Woodnymph, Kevin Zeese, and George Zimmer.

  Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Acknowledgments

  A Note to the Reader

  Introduction

  THE ART AND SCIENCE OF RESINATION

  Chapter 1: Hemp: A Plant for All Seasons

  INDUSTRIAL HEMP IS NOT MEDICAL MARIJUANA

  CANNABIS FLOWERS

  Chapter 2: Cannabis Through the Millennia

  A GLOBAL MEDICINE

  THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENED CANNABIS USE

  THE MARIHUANA TAX ACT OF 1937

  CONTINUING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENTS

  Chapter 3: Sympathetic Health-Care Systems

  HERBAL MEDICINE

  HOMEOPATHIC REMEDIES

  CANNABIS IN HOMEOPATHY

  GANJA: AN AYURVEDIC MEDICINE

  INTEGRATING CANNABIS INTO TOTAL HEALTH CARE

  Chapter 4: The Cannabinoids

  Chapter 5: Marijuana Classification

  CANNABIS COMPARED TO ALCOHOL

  SEDATIVE EFFECTS OF CANNABIS

  OVERALL COMPARISON

  Chapter 6: The Resinant Brain

  ANANDAMIDE

  IMPROVING NEUROLOGICAL RESPONSIVENESS

  PAIN CONTROL AND MIGRAINE HEADACHE

  MODERATING PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS

  Chapter 7: Sight for Sore Eyes

  VIEWING THE WORLD THROUGH ROSE-COLORED EYES

  OTHER EFFECTS OF CANNABIS ON THE EYES

  Chapter 8: Eating and Digestion

  COPING WITH LIFE DURING CANCER

  AIDS AND HIV DISORDERS

  Chapter 9: Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Systems

  STRESS REDUCTION

  AIR PASSAGES AND ASTHMA

  LUNG IRRITATION AND BRONCHITIS

  OTHER CHARACTERISTICS OF CANNABIS SMOKE

  Chapter 10: Reproduction, Metabolism, and Topical Applications

  REPRODUCTION AND CHILDBIRTH

  METABOLISM, ELIMINATION, AND DISPOSAL

  DEHYDRATION AND DIURETIC EFFECTS

  TOPICAL APPLICATIONS

  Chapter 11: Nutritious, Healthy Hempseed

  EATING HEMPSEED

  IN PURSUIT OF GOOD DIETARY FATS

  CARING FOR YOUR HEMPSEED OIL

  GOOD FOR CHILDREN AND OTHER LIVING THINGS

  Chapter 12: Holistic Health and Hemp

  ENVIRONMENT AFFECTS HEALTH

  SUSTAINABLE INDUSTRY

  RESTORATIVE AGRICULTURE

  HEALING THE EARTH

  SAVING THE TREES

  WATER, AIR, AND ENERGY

  OTHER ECO-CONSIDERATIONS

  Chapter 13: The Age of Deceit

  PROTECTING THE PUBLIC FROM THE TRUTH

  YOUR BRAIN ON EGGS

  SMOKING MEDICINE

  THE LUNG’S FAIR SHARE

  STRONGER MARIJUANA

  ACCIDENT RATES OVERRATED

  HORMONES AND SPERM COUNTS

  MAKING IT UP AS THEY GO ALONG

  THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON CHOCOLATE

  Chapter 14: The Legal Prognosis

  A BRIEF HISTORY OF DRUG POLICY

  PEREMPTORY LAW

  INDUSTRIAL HEMP BILLS

  FEDERAL CANNABIS REGULATION

  FIGHTING IN THE COURTS

  PATIENT BUYERS CLUBS

  CALIFORNIA FRONT LINES

  RESEARCH OPTIONS

  LEGISLATIVE OPTIONS

  THE FINANCIAL FACTOR

  THE NEXT PHASE

  CONCLUSION

  Overall Effects of Resinous Cannabis

  Appendix A: Getting Started with Cannabis Therapy

  HEALTH AND SAFETY TIPS FOR CANNABIS CONSUMERS

  Appendix B: Cannabis Therapy Reference Table

  Appendix C: Recipes for Hempier Health

  HEMPSEED RECIPES

  RESINOUS CANNABIS CONCOCTIONS

  Appendix D: CPR Questionnaire

  CANNABIS PATIENT REGISTRY PATIENT QUESTIONNAIRE

  Appendix E: Resources

  RESINOUS CANNABIS

  INDUSTRIAL HEMP PRODUCTS, HEMPSEED

  Endnotes

  Bibliography

  About the Author

  About Inner Traditions • Bear & Company

  Copyright & Permissions

  A Note to the Reader

  This book contains information concerning the healing properties of the plant Cannabis sativa L., also known as true hemp or marijuana. It is not a substitute for medical advice or treatment, and is only meant to inform the reader of available research regarding the many applications of this fascinating plant. Cannabis is used to treat symptoms, but is not a direct cure for most of the serious maladies described herein. It is a valuable adjunct for treatment and as part of a long-term health maintenance program.

  No medicine is perfectly safe for every person in every situation. No medicine works equally well every time. Dosages and potential side effects vary according to body weight, metabolism, and a wide variety of other circumstances. Healing Arts Press urges extreme caution and careful monitoring of your reactions to any medicine you ingest. While self-medication with resinous cannabis is unlikely to have any serious negative consequences, always consult with a qualified health-care professional before using this or any other treatment for symptoms that may require full diagnosis and medical attention.

  Although readily available, cannabis is illegal in most places throughout the world. The worst dangers of medical marijuana come from this illegal standing. Patients risk arrest, imprisonment, and loss of home, family, and dignity at the hands of law enforcement.

  Introduction

  What plant has been more studied, yet remains more mysterious, than the useful herb Cannabis sativa? There is a vast wealth of research, information, and conjecture available, along with a few overblown claims and outright falsehoods. An objective evaluation of cannabis was recently stated by the prestigious scientific journal, the Lancet: “The smoking of cannabis, even long term, is not harmful to health. . . . Sooner or later politicians will have to stop running scared and address the evidence: cannabis per se is not a hazard to society, but driving it further underground may well be.”1

  Large pharmaceutical companies have developed medicines with cannabis extracts, and even today some will admit that its use as medicine would doubtless be common if not for legal barriers. Eli Lilly makes a synthetic copy of a major active compound produced by cannabis, and even the Merck pharmaceutical company has recognized that “The chief oppositio
n to the drug rests on a moral and political, and not a toxicological foundation.”2

  The Journal of the American Medical Association recently ran a commentary stating, “We are not asking readers for immediate agreement with our affirmation that marihuana is medically useful, but we hope they will do more to encourage open and legal exploration of its potential. The ostensible indifference of physicians should no longer be used as a justification for keeping this medicine in the shadows.”3 This book hopes to shine some light into some of those shadows by discussing the medical merit and therapeutic applications of cannabis hemp. This herb works as a natural medicine in a variety of ways that are all supported by both personal case histories and clinical scientific data.

  People have used hemp in myriad forms. Its value is renowned. As measured by the amount of paper it has yielded over the millennia of commerce, or by the amount of paper used to tally its great contributions to history, it is hard to surpass the humble hemp plant. Hemp is a farm crop that has played a prominent role in 10,000 years of human industry and enterprise. Hemp has been familiar throughout history for its lush foliage crowded along riverbanks and its enormous production of fiber and oil in the fields of Eurasia, as one great civilization after another rose and fell. Each and every year, farmers and herbalists counted on the pattern of changing seasons to grow enough hemp for them to survive into the next era. Hemp was a part of the natural cycle of renewal and restoration.

  Medical marijuana has demonstrably improved the lives of many people in varied and sometimes unlikely ways. Only for the past sixty years or so has there been a protracted campaign to suppress the facts about cannabis and deprive people of access to the hemp plant. Research has been stymied by government interference. Today, with thousands of new, legal medical users and millions of regular social consumers, people need a general reference manual to consult. Hemp for Health is intended to be such a book.

  In the following pages, I discuss the direct applications of cannabis in the healing arts, as practiced in the allopathic, herbal, homeopathic, and ayurvedic disciplines. When all these applications are taken into account, it becomes abundantly clear that there is a place for hemp drugs in the modern medical formulary. Hemp for Health is intended to be a helpful handbook for patient and health-care provider; a user’s guide, as it were, to safe and effective self-medication using one of our most ancient and respected herbs. I urge caution in the use of cannabis, as with any other medicine. Please remember that any effects produced, positive or negative, will only be temporary. If any significant problems occur, simply discontinue the use of cannabis and seek further medical advice. You and your personal physician are best equipped to determine which therapies work best.

  THE ART AND SCIENCE OF RESINATION

  Millions of Americans now use cannabis regularly. Still, there has never been a truly satisfactory English-language designation for cannabis drugs, which present a distinct class of substance. Nor has there been an adequate term to describe the resin’s acute psychoactive effects. Unfortunately, much of the public discussion skips over this very basic and important concern, and relies on convenient points of reference to discuss cannabis, often with little regard for accuracy. For example, the term intoxicant biases our thoughts, and is otherwise misleading because cannabis is not toxic, having no practical lethal dose.

  In the vacuum of a definitive term, cannabis consumers have coined their own words for its effects. In the vernacular of middle-class America, three words have gained widespread acceptance. Being high refers to a certain plateau of stimulated and pleasant mental awareness. Being stoned is the result of a stronger dosage in which the subject becomes more physically relaxed and mentally confused. Getting wasted means consuming more cannabis than is normally enjoyable or functional, which results in a sense of extreme tiredness and minor impairment. Unless you want to fall asleep, getting wasted is a waste of time.

  A standardized terminology for cannabis drugs that eliminates language bias should be premised on an objective physiological characteristic. One common measure is the quality, quantity, and form of the resin taken from the female cannabis plant. The resin determines the intensity and nature of the psychoactive experience. Hence I use the term resinous effects, with resin as the root from which to grow new terminology.

  The word resinous establishes a standard that describes both the organic substance and its psychoactive effect. The cannabinoids—the medical compounds in cannabis—occupy tiny trichomes on the resin glands that line the calyxes, hairs, and bottoms of the upper leaves and flowers of the female cannabis plant. A fortuitous similarity exists between the new term resinate and an existing English word, resonate. First, clinical research has identified an enhanced sensitivity to vibrations, such as tonal resonance, as being a dependable indicator of the onset of the effects of cannabis. Secondly, in a Hindu vision of the universe, an individual chants the resonant syllable om to attune to the harmonious vibrations of the cosmos. Since cannabis use is ingrained in Indian society, this analogy creates a link to a culture in which the use of cannabis is treated with respect, not fear.

  Bear in mind that, whereas smoking cannabis on an occasional basis makes a person resinant, smoking cannabis on a constant basis to relieve chronic pain or another ongoing condition soon desensitizes the individual to the more pleasurable effects of the herb. Large allopathic doses establish a new base line for the patient, which soon becomes the norm. The federal IND allocation of ten cannabis cigarettes per patient per day is not a prescription for fun, it’s a prescription for relief. Most medical users don’t feel high, they just feel better.

  A few people have expressed concern about the title of this book. “Shouldn’t it be Marijuana for Medicine?” they ask. The truth is that Hemp for Health reflects the important bigger picture. Hemp is more than just marijuana, and there’s much more to good health than merely taking medicines. Overall health is a result of many interrelated factors, such as nutrition, hygiene, exercise, environment, lifestyle choices, and necessary health care. The extraordinary hemp plant can contribute to almost all of these areas, in ways that may reduce the prevalence of many of the diseases now treated with marijuana. Hemp, in all its aspects, has been a key pillar of healthy societies for millennia. Thus, although much of this book focuses on the therapeutic benefits of marijuana, I wanted the title to take into account the greater role that Cannabis sativa can play in society.

  I must stress that most types of Cannabis sativa do not have psychoactive properties. In writing this book, I use the term industrial hemp to refer to varieties of cannabis with no psychoactive effect. The terms cannabis and hemp refer to the entire genus, as they have for centuries. Resinous cannabis and marijuana refer to strains that produce a psychoactive effect. I hope that this standard will help the reader keep these distinctions clear.

  Finally, I wish each of my readers a long and healthy life. Where appropriate, may hemp be a part of it.

  Chapter 1

  Hemp: A Plant for All Seasons

  From a seed the size of a small pearl, a tiny shoot sprouts and a ten- to fifteen-foot plant grows in a few short months. Standing verdant green in its full splendor, hemp radiates its heady perfumes into the air. Left alone, the plant sheds its bloom and ripens its seeds, providing nutritious fare for the birds and beasts. Over the course of the winter, the cold, wind, and moisture tear at the outer bark and break free fibrous strands that hang off the inner wood when spring comes back around. At some transformational moment in history a flash of insight came to our human ancestors. Hemp’s bark fiber was carefully gathered and twisted into cordage, combed into threads, and woven and sewn into garments. Hempseeds were gathered for food, then as the seed stock for next year’s bounty. Although the life of a single hemp plant endures only a few months, its lineage has left a mark on human history throughout the ages.

  Until recently, hemp was one of the most popular and highly valued crops in human society. Today it appears to be making a comeback. While its
name has been borrowed by many lesser fiber crops, hemp remains a unique plant. It is a member of the botanical order urticales, which includes the hops plant (Humulus lupulus L.) used to make beer. It is usually placed in a distinct family called cannabaceae, although some prefer to assign it to moraceae, which includes the mulberry.1 Botanists debate whether cannabis has several species or just one; however, since all varieties of cannabis crossbreed to produce fertile, hybrid offspring, they are generally all classified as one species with at least one major subspecies. It has scores of identifiable seed lines, or cultivars, and hundreds of regional names.

  The plant’s official scientific name is Cannabis sativa L., derived from the Greek kannabis and the Latin sativa, meaning “useful.” This double name was first listed in A.D. 60 by Dioscorides and adopted by Carl Linnaeus for his 1753 compendium, Species Plantarum.A 1783 encyclopedia listed Cannabis indica as a separate species, named to honor India, the presumed homeland of this short, stocky, and highly resinous variety.2Cannabis ruderalis is a third variant, extremely hardy but with little commercial value.3

  Hemp is a hardy herb that grows anew from seed each year.4 The annual typically reaches heights of one to five meters (three to sixteen feet) in a season. It has a rigid central stalk that is rounded or slightly squared, more or less fluted lengthwise, with nodes at intervals where the leaves attach.5 Its slender, woody stems range from six to twenty millimeters (¼ to ¾ inch) in diameter, and its bark contains long bast fibers. When hemp grows in tightly crowded circumstances, as when farmed as a fiber crop, by season’s end the mature plants have lost almost all their branches and foliage except near the very top. When given room to stretch its limbs, as when grown for seed or medicine, cannabis produces many strong branches along a central stalk that is three to six centimeters in diameter (one to two inches) with rough bark at the base. Side branches emerge just above the leaf nodes and spread out, giving the mature plant its distinctive, Christmas-tree shape.