Marijuana has a very long history as a medicinal herb. The official name for marijuana is cannabis sativa. The first person to record the medical use of cannabis sativa was the emperor Shen-nung of China in 2737 B.C. Many other countries have also discovered and benefited from this drug. India, Persia, Assyria, Greece, Africa, South America, Turkey, and Egypt all have a recorded history of using marijuana for medical purposes ("Disease Categories 1").
The Nineteenth Century was a period of the modern discovery of marijuana. Many physicians from this time conducted various experiments to observe the medical effectiveness of cannabis. Between 1840 and 1900, more than 100 articles were published throughout Europe by prominent doctors. Dr. O"Shaughnessy, a British physician from the Medical College of Calcutta, marked the beginning of experiments in the late 1830's. He found that the drug was beneficial in treating rabies, rheumatism, epilepsy, and tetanus. J.R. Reynolds, Queen Victoria's personal physician, also studied marijuana. He declared it "by far the most useful of drugs in treating painful maladies." ("Disease Categories"). Moureau de Tours and Dr. John Bell, M.D., reported that the mentally ill could be calmed down and controlled after smoking marijuana. It also treated manic and depressive disorders ("Cannabis Vault 6"). .
Doctor Roger Adams and Todd Mikuriya were able to rehabilitate numerous alcoholics by substituting smoked marijuana for alcohol in 1942. Out of seventy cases of alcoholics, fifty-nine reported clinical alleviation of their symptoms. Although this study was amazingly successful, using marijuana to help neurotic depressives was not so impressive. Only four cases out of twenty improved and zero out of 6 cases of psychotic depression improved. They also used it to replace other addictions that people have. Six cases of barbiturate addictions, four had amelioration of symptoms and six cases out of eight for morphine withdrawals were fortunate to have the pain diminished (Cannabis Vault 9").
