Use of Cannabis fibers to make hemp has been documented as early as 4000 BC by Carbon-14 dating (Li, 1974), and that use has been maintained continuously up to the present day. Its seed grain was an ancient human foodstuff, which may have lead to an early recognition of its medicinal use. The first records of the latter seem to be in the Pên-tsao Ching, a traditional herbal written down in the first two centuries AD, but said to be based on the oral traditions passed down from the Emperor Shên-nung in the third millennium BC. The text noted that the plant fruits "if taken in excess will produce hallucinations (literally "seeing devils") (Li, 1974).
The Zend-Avesta, the holy book of Zoroastrianism, which survives only in fragments, dating from around 600 BC in Persia, alludes to the use of Banga in a medical context, and it is identified as hemp by the translator (Darmesteter, 1895).
The classical Greek literature also documents knowledge of the inebriating actions of Cannabis. Herodotus, circa 450 BC, described how the Scythians set up tents, heated stones and threw Cannabis seeds or flowering tops upon them to create a vapor, and "the Scythians, delighted, shout for joy." The Greek physicians Dioscorides and Galen expounded on medical indications, mainly gastrointestinal (Brunner, 1977).
The Atharva Veda of India, dated to between 1400 and 2000 BC referred to a sacred grass, bhang, and medicinal references to Cannabis were cited by Susrata in the sixth to seventh centuries AD (Chopra and Chopra, 1957) and included indication for its use for headache (Dwarakanath, 1965). O'Shaughnessy introduced the medical use of Cannabis indica, or "Indian hemp," to the West in 1839 (Walton, 1938; Mikuriya, 1969). His treatise on the subject supported the utility of an extract in patients suffering from rabies, cholera, tetanus, and infantile convulsions.
Throughout the latter half of the nineteenth century, many prominent physicians in Europe and North America advocated the use of extracts of Cannabis indica for the symptomatic and preventive treatment of headache.
Proponents included Weir Mitchell in 1874, E.J. Waring in 1874, Hobart Hare in 1887, Sir William Gowers in 1888, J.R. Reynolds in 1890, J.B. Mattison in 1891, et al., (Walton, 1938; Mikuriya, 1969). Cannabis was included in the mainstream pharmacopeias in Britain and America for this indication. As late as 1915, Sir William Osler, the acknowledged father of modern medicine, stated of migraine treatment (Osler, 1915), "Cannabis indica is probably the most satisfactory remedy. Seguin recommends a prolonged course." This statement supports its use for both acute and prophylactic treatment of migraine.
In 1916, in a quotation attributed to Dr. Dixon, Professor of Pharmacology, Kings' College, and the University of Cambridge (Ratnam, 1916), reference is specifically made to the therapeutic effects of smoked Cannabis for headache treatment. He stated, "In cases where immediate effect is desired, the drug should be smoked, the fumes being drawn through water. In fits of depression, mental fatigue, nervous headache, feelings of fatigue disappear and the subject is able to continue his work refreshed and soothed."
In the years that followed, Cannabis came to be perceived as a drug of abuse, smoked by certain classes of people as "marijuana" or "marihuana." Nevertheless, it retained adherents for a variety of medical indications, throughout the early decades of the twentieth century. In 1938 Robert Walton published a comprehensive review of Cannabis, with botanical, historical, chemical and political discussions (Walton, 1938). After discussing the abuse issue, he stated his belief that the political action that had rendered marijuana illegal in the U.S.A. in 1937 (and which the American Medical Association vigorously opposed), should not serve to prohibit further medical use and scientific investigation of Cannabis' possible applications. Walton referred to twelve major authorities on its efficacy for migraine, and only one detractor.
In 1941, Cannabis preparations were dropped from the United States Pharmacopoeia (U.S.P.), but the following year, the editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association still advocated oral preparations of Cannabis in treatment of menstrual (catamenial) migraine (Fishbein, 1942). This practitioner seemed to prefer Cannabis to ergotamine tartrate, which remains in the migraine armamentarium, some fifty-five years later. Thus, Cannabis was touted in eight consecutive decades in the mainstream Western medical literature as a, or the, primary treatment for migraine. As late as 1957, despite governmental controls in that country, Cannabis drugs retained a role in the indigenous medicine of India (Chopra and Chopra, 1957), and other countries.
In the 1960's marijuana moved to center stage of Western consciousness, and attained a degree of notoriety sufficient to render medical usage inconceivable to most. Medical research has resumed only recently, spurred on by anecdotal reports of patients who serendipitously discovered its benefits on their maladies.
In closing, a quotation seems pertinent (Schultes, 1973):
"There can be no doubt that a plant that has been in partnership with man since the beginnings of agricultural efforts, that has served man in so many ways, and that, under the searchlight of modern chemical study, has yielded many new and interesting compounds will continue to be a part of man's economy. It would be a luxury that we could ill afford if we allowed prejudices, resulting from the abuse of Cannabis, to deter scientists from learning as much as possible about this ancient and mysterious plant. "
