Herbs Past and Present by Charles Garcia
Marijuana
Recently my wife and I attended a concert at the Concord Pavilion. On the stage were the ever-popular Jimmy Buffet and the Corral Reefer Band. As a long time “Parrot Head,” as his fans are called, I expected to see overweight, grey haired, well-tequila-ed, throwbacks to the early seventies. And I was right! We also saw adults, children and grandkids, all rocking to the tunes of “Maragaritaville” and “Volcano.”
Halfway into the show, Jimmy took a long breath and said, “Ah…the sweet smell of that fine California agricultural product.” Clouds of aromatic ganja were rolling down from the grassy areas onto the main stage. More than one person with grey hair and a Hawaiian shirt remarked, “Mmm! Good stuff!”
Most of my young students find it odd that I’m not a hundred percent pro marijuana. I find it a wonderful medicine when used properly, but I’m opposed to the recreational use of that fine herb. The human animal doesn’t do well with recreational herbs of any type. We have three legal vices in the United States as it is. Alcohol, tobacco, and chocolate. One rots your liver; the other rots your lungs, and the last…well I’ll leave that for you to decide. (One must remember it’s not illegal to drive while slurping on a chocolate shake.)
A little history of marijuana is in order to understand the implications of marijuana in healing.
The earliest known reference to cannabis is in Assyrian tablets of the seventh century BC. It has thus been in use for at least 2,600 years. In Western medicine, it appeared in the Herbal (i.e. pharmacopoeia) of Dioscorides of about 60 AD, and in all subsequent herbals.
The 16th century saw a detailed interest in cannabis, with reports of it and its usages being sent back by many travelers to the East, and the number of possible uses given in the herbals doubled. In England, the Herbal of John Gerard (1597) recommended it as it “consumeth wind and drieth up seed (i.e. semen)”, and quoted Dioscorides as recommending it for easing the pain of earache and for the treatment of jaundice. Nicholas Culpeper, in his Herbal (1653), gave the same indications for the use of cannabis seeds, and also recommended the decoction of the roots, as this “allayeth inflammations, easeth the pain of gout, tumours or knots of joints, pain of hips.”
During the early days of the American colonies, industrial hemp products became indispensable to world trade. George Washington was a big hemp grower on his farms. Hemp was a government-mandated crop (along with apples), yet the many medical uses of the marijuana plant remained largely unknown in both the Old and the New World. However, once Westerners discovered the range of cannabis therapies found in traditional Indian medicine, the effects of Cannabis indica on European and American medical practices were swift and strong.
Between 1840 and 1890 at least 100 medical papers were published on the uses of cannabis for the treatment of loss of appetite (now called the muchies!), insomnia, migraine headache, pain, involuntary twitching, excessive coughing, and withdrawal in cases of opiate or alcohol addiction (it’s not that successful). Sir William Osler, known as “the father of modern medicine,” proclaimed cannabis to be the best treatment for a migraine in his authoritative medical textbook written in 1915. At that time, there were at least 30 different cannabis preparations made by leading pharmaceutical companies available in America, even though the hypodermic injection of morphine, along with the use of aspirin and other medicines, had already begun to replace traditional herbal medications.
So we can pretty much assume for most of its history marijuana was a well-used plant.
But as in all medicines there is a dark side. Chronic marijuana use does reduce the production of sperm, damages lung tissues as much as tobacco, can be psychologically addictive (I’ve worked with several individuals who could not face a single day without a toke of pot.), and there is some evidence to suggest it may have a physically addictive component. The term pothead is not a political slap by the right wing at the left. A pothead is someone who truly has an addictive need for pot…all the time. I’ve met them in college (while they were still enrolled), at work (while they were still employed) and on the street (while they were still responsive). Are they inherently dangerous? No. They are inherently useless until they get off marijuana. Is that a hard statement for a healer? Yes it is…and I offer no apologies.
In Hispanic herbal healing, a marijuana liniment was/is often used for topical pain. Marijuana is mixed with spearmint and allowed to set in a large bottle of rubbing alcohol. After two or three weeks it can be used on strained muscles, torn ligaments, or muscle spasms.
A tincture of the plant is used for pain, often mixed with the tincture of California poppy. From tooth abscess pain to post-cancer therapy pain, there’s not much better on the herbal highway.
Marijuana-comfrey based salves are good for sunburn, though personally I find aloe vera gel faster.
And yet, despite the good and proper uses of this much maligned plant, it only takes one person, perhaps a well meaning middle-aged woman driving home from a baby shower, having had one toke too many, to misjudge the distance when braking too rapidly. She’s not inherently bad, just in a hurry to cook dinner.
The child in the other car snaps her head backwards even though she is strapped into a car seat.
In the end, a marriage is destroyed, a woman is left haunted to her dying day, and a father takes a yearly walk in the Sierra, wondering about a child he would never know.
As in all things, moderation and knowledge is suggested in the use of herbal remedies. Please contact an herbalist or knowledgeable physician concerning herbal treatments.
