CBD and cannabis in America: a history

A story and why CBD and cannabis and cannabinoids work for your patients

Few topics gather so much interest from groups as diverse as CBD and cannabis in America. There is a lot of confusion and misuse of terms. Cannabis, (genus Cannabis), includes medicinal, recreational and fiber plants of the Cannabaceae family.

Humans, being incredibly skilled, have used selective breeding to maximize the cannabis plant for two distinct purposes:

hemp has been bred to maximize fiber for clothing, rope, animal feed, shelter;marijuana it has been created to maximize the psychedelic THC content and get high for relaxation and religious uses.

Hemp and marijuana are simply two breeds of cannabis, just as Labradors and German shepherds are breeds of dogs, while broccoli and cauliflower are breeds of the plant species Brassica oleracea.

The industrial hemp plant was legalized for production with the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill.

Hemp in early America

Views of the hemp plant are changing rapidly in America. In reality, opinions are returning to how our founding fathers thought about cannabis. “Wait a minute, that’s sacrilegious,” some may say. “What did our founding fathers have to do with cannabis?” The short answer is: our founding fathers loved hemp.
How do we know this?

“Make the most of Indian hemp and sow it everywhere,” said George Washington.[1]“The cultivation of hemp is of the greatest importance to the nation,” said Thomas Jefferson.[2]“Little by little, we want a world of hemp more for our own consumption,” said John Adams.[3]

The Founding Fathers knew that the production of hemp and its many uses, such as cloth for sails, rope for ships, and fiber for shoes, would strengthen America through its use in peace and war. So what happened to Americans’ perception of hemp and cannabis between the founding of our nation and now?

Prohibition

After the Mexican Revolution of 1910, Mexican immigrants moved to the US, introducing the recreational use of marijuana into American culture. The drug became associated with immigrants, and fear and prejudice about Spanish-speaking newcomers became associated with marijuana. Anti-drug activists warned against the invasive “marijuana menace” and attributed crimes to marijuana and Mexicans who used it.[4]

The panic over cannabis use was nationwide, and as a result, the United States Congress passed the Marihuana (sic) Tax Act of 1937, which effectively made the possession or transfer of all cannabis ( marijuana and hemp) was illegal in the United States under federal law, excluding medical and industrial uses, by imposing a special tax on all sales of hemp. This is a case where the legislatures did not consider the differences between hemp and marijuana.

But after the Philippines fell to Japanese forces in 1942, the US Department of Agriculture and the US Army urged farmers to grow hemp fiber. The US government issued crop tax stamps to farmers, and without any changes to the Marijuana Tax Act, more than 400,000 acres of hemp were grown between 1942 and 1945. The last commercial hemp fields were planted in Wisconsin in 1957.[5]

After 50 years of state and federal criminalization, in 1996 California became the first state to allow legal access and use of botanical cannabis for medicinal purposes under the supervision of a physician with the enactment of the Act of compassionate use.

Early Legalization and the Endocannabinoid System (ECS)

What does all this history mean for your practice? Let me explain the endocannabinoid system.

Discovered in 1992 at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Professor Lumir Hanus, PhD, along with American researcher William Devane, PhD, discovered the endocannabinoid anandamide. The discovery of these receptors led to the discovery of natural neurotransmitters called endocannabinoids.

Your body has cannabinoid receptors and a complete functional system that has cannabinoids as its main component, just as blood is the main component of your circulatory system. Endocannabinoids (eCBs) and their receptors are found throughout the human body: nervous system, internal organs, connective tissues, glands and immune cells. The ECS system plays a homeostatic role, characterized by “eat, sleep, relax, forget, and protect.”

There have been university studies quantifying the effects of cannabinoids on pain conditions including neuropathic pain, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, and mixed chronic pain. Fifteen of the 18 included trials demonstrated a significant analgesic effect of cannabinoids compared to placebo. The use of cannabinoids was generally well tolerated; the most commonly reported adverse effects were mild to moderate in severity. Overall, the evidence suggests that cannabinoids are safe and moderately effective for neuropathic pain with preliminary evidence of efficacy in fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis.[6]

The US government patent on CBD

A few years after the discovery of the endocannabinoid system, the US government invested millions of dollars in research into CBD and cannabis and cannabinoids, resulting in a US patent. Yes… the US government has a patent on cannabinoids. Patent #6630507[7] was issued in the United States of America in 2003, represented by the US Department of Health and Human Services.

What does this patent say? Quoting directly from the US Patent Office, “Cannabinoids have been found to have particular application as neuroprotectants, for example in limiting neurological damage after ischemic insults, such as stroke and trauma, or in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and HIV dementia. Non-psychoactive cannabinoids, such as cannabidiol, are particularly advantageous to use because they avoid the toxicity found with psychoactive cannabinoids at high doses useful in the method of the present invention.[8]

Also note that the patent was issued in 2003, when the entire cannabis family was still considered a Schedule 1 drug, meaning it has a high potential for abuse, no accepted medical use in treatment in the United States and an accepted lack of safety. for use under medical supervision.[9]

The future of CBD and cannabis

The history of cannabis in the United States is fascinating and far from over. Hemp-derived CBD/cannabinoids are currently federally legal in all states as long as they contain less than 0.3% THC (Delta 9) by weight. In addition, many states have approved medical or recreational marijuana (see below).[10]

It will be interesting to see how the US government reacts in the near future; but we know one thing about CBD and cannabis: it will be fun to see how patients continue to claim these natural healing substances.

JOE KRYSZAK, MBA, is president of Stirling Professional CBD, the brand created by and for chiropractors and professional offices, giving back to the chiropractic industry. Since 2014, Stirling has grown, extracted and produced the purest CBD available. Stirling Professional offers your patients amazing CBD+ products with the industry-leading line of 2,500 mg CBD lotions, THC-free and THC-free capsules and gels, and four fantastic solutions for better sleep. We offer affordable solutions to your patients. For more information, go to stirlingprofessional.com.