The Hemp & Cannabis Foundation's Medical Cannabis Museum is working to educate the public about the truth concerning hemp and cannabis. We have posted the following selection of photographs and video from the Hemp and Cannabis Foundation's Medical Cannabis Museum to share. Cannabis has been used to treat and cure a number of ailments throughout our history.
Our time is now, and the demand for alternative medicine, alternative fuel, and healthier food is increasing exponentially, we should be embracing the healing powers within the Cannabis plant for the sake of our bodies and our planet.
Cannabis has been used for medicinal purposes for approximately 4,000 years. Surviving texts from ancient India confirm that its psychoactive properties were recognized, and doctors used it for a variety of illnesses and ailments. These included a whole host of gastrointestinal disorders, insomnia, headaches and as a pain reliever, frequently used in childbirth. The ancient Egyptians even used hemp (cannabis) in suppositories for relieving the pain of hemorrhoids.
In the medieval Islamic world, Arabic physicians discovered the diuretic, antiemetic, antiepileptic, anti-inflammatory, pain killing and antipyretic properties of cannabis sativa, and used it extensively as medication from the 8th to 18th centuries.
Cannabis as a medicine became common throughout much of the world by the 19th century. It was used as the primary pain reliever until the invention of aspirin. Modern medical and scientific inquiry began with doctors like O'Shaughnessy and Moreau de Tours, who used it to treat melancholia, migraines, and as a sleeping aid, analgesic and anticonvulsant.
Later in the century, researchers investigating methods of detecting cannabis intoxication discovered that smoking the drug reduced intraocular pressure. High intraocular pressure causes blindness in glaucoma patients, so many believed that using the drug could prevent blindness in patients. Many Vietnam War veterans also believed that the drug prevented muscle spasms caused by battle-induced spinal injuries. Later medical use has focused primarily on its role in preventing the wasting syndromes and chronic loss of appetite associated with chemotherapy and AIDS, along with a variety of rare muscular and skeletal disorders.
In 1972 Tod H. Mikuriya, M.D. reignited the debate concerning marijuana as medicine when he published "Marijuana Medical Papers 1839-1972."
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