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はじめに
Cannabis is the oldest recognised medicinal plant known to mankind. Cannabis
Sativa, its official Latin title, was first mentioned in the Chinese dynasty
in the year 6500 BC. In Europe, Dioscorides, Emperor Nero's military
doctor, was the first to mention it in the 1st century AD in his work Materia
medica. Pliny, his contemporary, mentioned it in his thirty-seven-volume
encyclopaedia, Naturalis Historia. Solinus referred to it in his work Medicina
Plinii in the 4'h century AD. Nearly all medieval academic studies make frequent
reference to the works of Pliny. In every herb book published before
1930, you can find recipes for tinctures, compresses, teas, ointments etc. After
that time, cannabis came under the Opium Act and knowledge of this herb
evaporated.
In the sixties, the hippies rediscovered it as a mind-expanding drug. People
who smoked it used it to get high. Among the latter were also persons who
were suffering from a chronic or terminal disease and, to their surprise, the
symptoms of their illness were alleviated! MS patients had fewer problems
with spasms, people undergoing chemotherapy and radiation felt less sick
and rheumatic patients could cope with the pain better. In the course of
time, it became clear that cannabis could provide relief in many illnesses, as
is demonstrated in this book.
Cannabis is a relatively cheap and effective herb that should really be classified
as natural medicine. It is a safe, therapeutic herb and, although its effects
are powerful, there has never been any record in history of people dying
of an overdose, which cannot be said of the many mainstream opiates, such
as morphine. Furthermore, in comparison with regular medicines, cannabis
does not produce any physical dependence. In all honesty, we must add that
with intensive and long-lasting use a mental dependence can develop. Then
the question arises: what criterion should one adopt? If a person is chronically
or terminally if l and using medicines that are scarcely effective, but have
many side effects, and they have to choose between that and cannabis, the
choice doesn't appear difficult to me. Cannabis can improve the quality of
their life considerably-
What is regrettable is the fact that marihuana has had such a bad press in past
decades due to misuse by young people, ignorance and prejudice and it was
closely connected with the criminal milieu. Does that mean that this plant
should be forbidden and banned? Don't they realise that this same plant can
bring comfort to chronically and terminally ill people? It's the reason for
using it that counts! If nothing is helping any more and people are suffering
unnecessarily, and with them all those around them who love them, then the
justification for using this plant as a medicine is as clear as daylight.
It is distressing to see how divergent political policy can be in the various
countries of the world. In one country you can buy it openly, provided that
it is not more than 5 grams per day, in another country you can only buy it
on doctor's prescription and yet again in other countries you can end up in
jail for the possession of just a few grams. You are persecuted like a criminal
although you have done nothing to harm society. All you want is to feel
better when troubled by an illness that you haven't asked for.
The plant
Cannabis is an annual plant that, when grown outside, can reach two meters
in height. The part of the plant that we find most interesting is the Rower
of the female plant. In the cannabis world, the female plants are deliberately
kept apart om the male plants. Through dispersion, the female plant produces
seeds that are not very interesting for medicinal use. That does not alter
the fact that cannabis seeds are very healthy and good things can be made
from them, such as hemp milk, as described in the chapter 'Recipes'.
hat is unique about the cannabis plant is that it is the only plant that is
built up of what are known as cannabinoids. These are the building materials
of the female plant. There are about sixty cannabinoids in this plant, plus
about 400 chemical connections. What the cannabinoids do is to alter pereption.
Colours, smells, taste, music, in fact everything we observe becomes
more intense. This is how it operates in recreational use. Imagine that there
are two people sitting together, one is healthy and the other has MS. Ifthey
both took the same amount of cannabis the healthy person would become
high and the person with MS would not be troubled by spasms any more
and would not become high.
The most effective component of the Rower is THC, in full:
delta9TetraHydroCannabinol and is primarily responsible for the psychoactive
reaction. The THC is a fatty, hairy substance located on the leaf, the
bearer. This is the part that is important for us as a medicine. What we are
talking about is cannabis, also called marihuana. 'Marihuana' is originally
a South American word that is a combination of Maria and John (juan),
who were the only witnesses of the death of Jesus. 'Marijuana' was the herb
smoked by the poor in South America.
Let's go back to the THC. If the flowers of the plant are put in a freezer
for some time then the THC freezes. Subsequently, if the frozen Rowers are
put in a pollinator, a sort of extractor with a fine-meshed gauze, the rotation
causes the THC crystals to break om the bearer and fall below in the form
of a fine green powder. If you compress this powder under high pressure you
then have hash.
And God said, Behold, I have given you very plant bearing seed, which is upon the face of all
the earth, and every tree in its fruit; and you shall have them for food.
Genesis 1:29
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