Cannabis as Medicine Through History

The medical use of cannabis is not an invention of modern alternative medicine – it is as old as the documented history of healing. Cultures on all continents have used cannabis in their medicine, often with remarkably precise observations about its effects.

## Ancient China: First Written Evidence

The earliest written documented medical use of cannabis comes from ancient China. The Shennong Bencao Jing (Shennong's Classic of Materia Medica), one of the oldest pharmaceutical writings, dated to approximately 2,700 BCE, describes cannabis (Má or Dàmá) extensively.

Cannabis was used in ancient China against a variety of complaints: rheumatism, malaria, forgetfulness, female complaints and beriberi (vitamin B1 deficiency). Particularly significant is that Chinese physicians knew both the female (THC-rich) and male plants and described their different properties.

In the 2nd century CE, the Chinese physician Hua Tuo describes using a cannabis-wine mixture as an anaesthetic during surgical procedures – the first known description of cannabis-based general anaesthesia.

## India and Ayurveda: Bhang, Charas, Ganja

In the Indian medical tradition (Ayurveda), cannabis plays a central role. The Atharvaveda (c. 1,500–1,000 BCE), one of the four sacred Vedic texts, mentions cannabis (Bhanga) as one of the five sacred plants.

Indian physicians used cannabis in three main forms: Bhang (a paste of leaves and flowers), Charas (pure resin) and Ganja (dried flowers of the female plant).

## The Islamic Golden Age: Ibn Sina and Pharmacology

During the Islamic Golden Age (8th–13th centuries), Arab and Persian scholars systematised and considerably expanded medical knowledge from antiquity. Ibn Sina (Avicenna, 980–1037) describes cannabis in detail in his masterwork The Canon of Medicine, observing its diuretic, anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties.

## Europe and the Colonial Era

William Brooke O'Shaughnessy, a British colonial physician in India, introduced cannabis to Western medicine through a groundbreaking 1843 publication on cannabis as an analgesic and antiepileptic. In the second half of the 19th century, cannabis extract was listed in almost every Western pharmacopoeia.

## The 20th Century: Criminalisation Interrupts Research

Criminalisation in the early 20th century interrupted medical research for decades. In 1964, Raphael Mechoulam and Yechiel Gaoni first isolated pure THC. The 1992 discovery of anandamide led to the discovery of the endocannabinoid system.

## Today: Renaissance of Medical Research

Since the discovery of the endocannabinoid system, medical cannabis research has experienced a renaissance. The drug Epidiolex (pure CBD) received FDA approval in 2018 for severe epilepsy – the first plant-based cannabinoid medication with FDA approval. In Germany, medical cannabis has been prescribable since 2017.