Science Cannabis

4 THE SCIENCE OF MARIJUANAin a London pub by two attractive women who plied him with beer andcompliments. At the end of the evening he was only too happy to acquiesceto their request by purchasing a small quantity of marijuana forthem from the local dealer. The women, however, turned out to be journalistsfrom the tabloid newspaper the Daily Mirror and William hadbeen set up. After the journalists told their story he was arrested for possibledrug dealing and for a week after this the British newspapers had afield day in their subtle and not so subtle attempts to reveal which cabinetminister's son had been arrested (his name could not legally be disclosedas William was under age). In the event William suffered nothingmore severe than a police warning, and his embarrassed father felt obligedto explain to the British public that cannabis was a dangerous narcoticdrug, adding for good measure that it had no proven medical utility. Otheryoung people caught in possession or selling small quantities of cannabisto their friends are often not so lucky, losing their place at school oruniversity and not infrequently ending up with a prison sentence.Who is right? Is cannabis a relatively harmless "soft drug?" Does ithave genuine medical uses that cannot be fulfilled by other medicines?Or, is the campaign to legalize the medical use of cannabis merely asmokescreen used by those seeking the wider acceptance of the drug? Iscannabis in fact an addictive narcotic drug that governments are right toprotect the public from? This book reviews the scientific and medicalevidence on cannabis, and tries to answer some of these questions. Oftenin analyzing the mass of scientific data it is difficult to come to clear-cutconclusions. To make matters worse in this particular case, the opposingfactions in the cannabis debate often interpret the same scientific evidencedifferently to suit their own purposes.This introductory chapter introduces the hemp plant from whichthe various cannabis products derive and gives a brief history of the drugThe PlantThe hemp plant (Cannabis sativa) probably originated in Central Asiabut through man's activities, has been distributed widely around the