Did You Know?

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1. What many people call marijuana is, in fact, cannabis. Marijuana refers to a Mexican strain of tobacco. Seeking to play on anti-Mexican and racist sentiments prevalent in America in the early 1900’s, people in favor of cannabis prohibition used the term marijuana to misrepresent cannabis as a harmful, dangerous, and foreign substance. This was a highly successful branding campaign employed by William Randolph Hearst and many other “yellow journalist” at the time resulting in the term’s prevalent use today.
2. Prior to prohibition, as much as 75% of American medicine was based on cannabis. Most Americans didn’t realize that the “loco weed,” marijuana they were being warned about was the same item in their medicine cabinet, under a different name.
3. Cannabis prohibitionists employed racists messaging, suggesting that marijuana was a dangerous substance introduced by jazz musicians and Mexican immigrants. They claimed marijuana made white women seek sexual relations with black men and gave Mexican workers superhuman powers that the threatened Puritan American work force.
4. The first American law on cannabis was actually a requirement to grow it (Jamestown Colony).
5. Following prohibition, the U.S. Government relaxed laws during WWII to support the production of rope from hemp fibers.
6. Cannabis has been used for thousands of years in Eastern medicine.
7. There has not been one recorded death from overdosing on cannabis.
8. The human body produces the same chemicals, known as cannabinoids, found abundantly in cannabis. These chemicals are absorbed and used by endocannabinoid receptors, of which we have more than any other receptor in our body. The endocannabinoid system plays a vital role in our immune, nervous, and other health systems. Cannabis produces at least one hundred and twelve known cannabinoids that our body can use, only one of which is psychoactive. Much like other chemical compounds used by the body, they can be supplemented by nature when the body gets behind. Cannabinoids are used extensively to fight cancerous cells, for example, and cannabis oil can provide a rich supply of cannabinoids when the body gets behind on its production due to cancer.
9. Cannabis does not destroy brain cells. Recent studies have, in fact, shown that cannabis can help fight some brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
10. Although not the only form of ingestion, smoking cannabis does not carry the same health risks as tobacco. As recent studies suggest, smoking cannabis might actually help reverse the carcinogenic effects of smoking tobacco.
11. There are over 10,000 different strains of cannabis, each with its unique ability to treat different health conditions such as MS, Crohn’s Disease, glaucoma, pain, epilepsy, arthritis, autism, muscular dystrophy, degenerative disc disease, anxiety and depression, ADHD, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, and insomnia, to name a few.
12. Hemp has powerful industrial applications outside of medicine including paper, textiles, plastics, and bio fuel.
13. Cannabis has also been used in religious ceremonies and has had a longstanding tradition in numerous world faiths, including Taoism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Rastafari, etc.
14. Certain cannabinoids produced by the body are critical to fighting cancer. Studies have found supplementing with cannabinoids reduces cancer tumors. Many people claim to have cured their cancer by this method.
15. It is very difficult, nearly impossible, to study the medicinal applications of cannabis in the United States and many other countries due to prohibition. Strict FDA and DEA controls limit formal study. Most of the results have been found through illegal experimentation. One exception is Israel where cannabis research revealed powerful medicinal properties since the 1960s including the identification of the endocannabinoid system.
16. While the DEA lists cannabis as a schedule 1 drug, the U.S. government owns multiple patents on the medical properties of cannabis.
17. More than half of the United States, 29 and counting have currently enacted medical cannabis legislation.
18. Many prohibitionists in the early 1900’s were threatened by the industrial properties of cannabis hemp rather than the alleged psychoactive and therapeutic properties described in their anti-cannabis propaganda.
19. The United States constitution was written on cannabis hemp paper and the first U.S. flag was made from cannabis hemp fabric.

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