The cannabis plant is a complex and intriguing plant that has been used by humans for thousands of years. It was used by the Chinese over 5,000 years ago and was once considered a primary medicine used extensively to treat numerous ailments. However, over the last eighty years, it utterly disappeared from the medical arena due to a series of enacted laws and regulations.

In the U.S., throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, physicians employed medicinal cannabis routinely when treating their patients; and was even in the ‘top-three’ most commonly prescribed medicines due to its therapeutic properties. Cannabis appeared in the United States Pharmacopoeia for the first time in 1850 and remained there until the passage of the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, which placed federal restrictions on cannabis use and sale, causing it to dwindle out of use and subsequently being written out of the American pharmacopeia in 1942. Several other prohibitions were enacted and enforced between 1951-1970, criminalizing all use of cannabis, thereby hampering future cannabis research (due to heavy restrictions on the procurement of cannabis, even for research purposes).

The question begs to be asked, how did this drastic change come about so quickly in America, and why? In the early 1900s, natural remedies and herbal medicines were prevalent. Roughly fifty percent of physicians and medical schools in the U.S. were practicing holistic medicine at the time.

While there are many factors, one significant impetus lies within the annals of American medical history, starting with the Flexner Report of 1910, written by Abraham Flexner. He was chosen to evaluate the Canadian and American Medical School systems to offer recommendations for improvement.

The Flexner report resulted in the consolidation and standardization of American medical training in accordance with pharmaceutical drug science to the exclusion of natural holistic care practices, naturopathic remedies, and cures. This created a system that made patentable pharmaceutical drugs easy to sell while marginalizing natural holistic care and practices, including naturopathic and homeopathic doctors. You can’t patent a plant or natural remedy, but you can patent lab-created synthetic medicines.

In more recent times, 33 states and the District of Columbia have legalized the medical use of marijuana, with an increasing amount of states the following suit. Today, many people, including doctors and researchers, advocate for a re-evaluation of medical principles that have become standardized in our society. They rightfully point out that medical marijuana is a safe and effective treatment for many symptoms and conditions, including cancer, Alzheimer’s, chronic pain, Crohn’s, AIDS, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, autism, insomnia, PTSD, anxiety, arthritis, and many other conditions.

A growing interest in homeopathic remedies and medicines have begun to shift public opinion regarding medical cannabis. At Heeyl, we look forward to guiding medical cannabis patients and wellness users while cannabis legalization continues to sweep the nation and the world.