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Depiction of Cannabis use in Japan Photo: www.japanhemp.org/en/canjpn.htm

As early as 5,000 years ago Cannabis was noted for its effects on the central nervous system[1]. This often manifested in the form of pain relief, appetite stimulation, and sedation (Iverson 2000). Medicinal Cannabis preparations were widely used in western medicine during the 19th century. At the time it was no secret that pharmaceutical preparations of Cannabis were variable. As the active ingredient was not known, quality control was virtually impossible, and this is in part why the plant fell out of use.

During the Victorian era, many plants were extracted for their unique properties, namely alkaloids. These plant chemists were successful because the alkaloids they were targeting are water soluble organic bases that form crystalline solids when combined with acids. Among the medicinal compounds isolated in the 19th century were quinine, morphine, and cocaine. These were major advances in plant chemistry. The molecules on the cannabis plant, however, are almost completely insoluble in water. The chemical nature of cannabinoids prevented early Victorian scientists from making efficient extracts of these non-polar compounds. The active ingredient, THC, wasn’t isolated and identified until 1964.

Read more at the Philadelphia Medical Marijuana Examiner

[1] Evidence for the medicinal use of Cannabis goes back to the emperor Chen Nung (the father of Chinese agriculture), a discoverer of medicinal plants, and also taught his people how to cultivate grains. Chen Nung is believed to be the author of the oldest known Chinese pharmacopoeia, in which, he writes about the medical use of Cannabis for rheumatism, menstrual fatigue, malaria, constipation, and absentmindedness.

More articles here at freedomisgreen.com in Sensible Science Category.

Image from PhillyNORML

6/10/2011 – Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. will deliver a keynote speech at a gathering of prominent black leaders who are calling for an end to criminal drug prohibition. The Institute of the Black World 21^st Century (IBW) will meet at the National Press Club in Washington DC on June 17, 2011. The date marks 40 years since President Nixon signed an executive order starting the “War on Drugs.”

Top-level policy makers will be presenting at the event such as Congressman John Conyers Jr. (D-MI), Congressman Robert “Bobby” Scott (D-VA) and Dr. Elise Scott, the President of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. Some of the lecturers in the afternoon program are:  Deborah Small at Break the Chains, Neill Franklin at Law Enforcement Against Prohibition and Jasmine Tyler, the Deputy Director of National Affairs at the Drug Policy Alliance.

IBW President Dr. Ron Daniels,  spoke with Freedomigreen via telephone about why he is leading this effort to shift drug policy.

“We want to expand the conversation about the devastating effects of the war on drugs in general,” said Dr. Daniels. “We are acutely concerned on its impact in black communities across the country. Having this national forum and being involved with other groups is really trying to push for alternatives.”

How about legalizing marijuana?

“I think we need to put everything on the table. In New York City there have been over 50, 000 arrests for marijuana just in the last year. Once you are in the system there are records that can affect you. When you look at the damage that is done to people – they are not addicts – but they end up in jail with a mark they can’t erase from the record. It is really harming our people in an amazing way.”

Daniels added, “If there is a drug that could be legalized… marijuana is the least dangerous to people. I’m not advocating that people use drugs at all, even alcohol. But we need to take out the criminal aspect.”

There were 858,408 Americans are arrested for marijuana violations in 2009; more than for all other illegal drugs combined. There is a striking racial disparity to pot arrests in New York, Philadelphia and other cities. Well over 80% of the marijuana arrests in these urban settings are young black men.

More from the interview with Dr. Daniels will be posted next week.

Link: Institute of the Black World 21^st Century (IBW) – Declaring War on the “War on Drugs:” Creating Just and Humane Alternatives to a Failed Strategy

Chris Goldstein is a respected marijuana reform advocate. As a writer and radio broadcaster he has been covering cannabis news for over a decade. Questions?  [email protected]

Quotes are kinda like quick and easy snack food for the brain. Here’s some mental potato chips for your mind munching, thanks to the good folks at Baked Life.

1. “Even if one takes every reefer madness allegation of the prohibitionists at face value, marijuana prohibition has done far more harm to far more people than marijuana ever could.”- William F. Buckley Jr.

2. “Forty million Americans smoked marijuana; the only ones who didn’t like it were Judge Ginsberg, Clarence Thomas and Bill Clinton.” – Jay Leno

3. “I now have absolute proof that smoking even one marijuana cigarette is equal in brain damage to being on Bikini Island during an H-bomb blast” – Ronald Reagan

4. “The drug is really quite a remarkably safe one for humans, although it is really quite a dangerous one for mice and they should not use it.” – J.W.D Henderson Director of the Bureau of Human Drugs, Health and Welfare, Canada

5. “Casual drug users should be taken out and shot.” – Darryl Gates Head of Los Angeles Police Department, United States Senate Judiciary Committee

6. “When I was in England, I experimented with marijuana a time or two, and I didn’t like it. I didn’t inhale and never tried it again.” –Bill Clinton

7. “When I was a kid I inhaled frequently. That was the point.” – Barack Obama

8. “Now, like, I’m President. It would be pretty hard for some drug guy to come into the White House and start offering it up, you know? I bet if they did, I hope I would say, ‘Hey, get lost. We don’t want any of that.” – George W. Bush

9. “I think pot should be legal. I don’t smoke it, but I like the smell of it.” – Andy Warhol

10. “I used to smoke marijuana. But I’ll tell you something: I would only smoke it in the late evening. Oh, occasionally the early evening, but usually the late evening – or the mid-evening. Just the early evening, midevening and late evening. Occasionally, early afternoon, early midafternoon, or perhaps the late-midafternoon. Oh, sometimes the early-mid-late-early morning. . . . But never at dusk.” – Steve Martin

BONUS QUOTES!!!  BONUS QUOTES!!! BONUS QUOTES!!!  BONUS QUOTES!!!

“I used to do drugs. I still do, but I use to, too.” -Mitch Hedberg

“Some of my finest hours have been spent on my back veranda, smoking hemp and observing as far as my eye can see.” – Thomas Jefferson

Editor’s Note – The TJ quote was unattributed – LINK. The following however is fully attributed.

“Make the most of the Indian hemp seed, and sow it everywhere!”
George Washington in a note to his gardener at Mount Vernon (1794), The Writings of George Washington, Volume 33, page 270 (Library of Congress)