Sir William Mackworth Young, president of the Commission, seen here exploring India in his younger years In the early 1890s, the British government grew concerned over the use of “hemp drugs” in India after hearing reports its users were filling asylums. Before long, the Government of India appointed a seven-member royal commission, the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission,Read more
“Hasheesh Candy” was promoted as a cure-all in the 1860s. Suppliers could hardly contain their enthusiasm when composing their ads, as can be seen in the one below from the Philadelphia Inquirer (December 23, 1865). READ! READ! READ! HASHEESH CANDY. HASHEESH CANDY. HASHEESH CANDY. HASHEESH CANDY. HASHEESH CANDY. HASHEESH CANDY. HASHEESH CANDY. HASHEESH CANDY. HASHEESH CANDY. HASHEESH CANDY. HASHEESHRead more
Just over 100 years ago, a “hashish fad” swept through New York’s literary community. Authors hoped to find “an accelerator to literary thought and inspiration”… However, they soon discovered that when one ingests extreme doses of cannabis, the effects can be “startling” and things can spiral into ridiculousness. Votaries Tell of the Hashish Fad Indian HempRead more
Famous Preparations for Man and Beast The W. T. Rawleigh Company was founded in 1889, when young Will Rawleigh disobeyed his father and “set out to make his fortune selling medicines door to door with a mortgaged buggy, an old blind horse named Bill and a rig on time payment.” In the decades to come, thousands of “RawleighRead more
On New Year’s Day in 1920, Philadelphia police were happy to report that the previous week’s rash of sudden deaths from wood alcohol-tainted whisky had been checked. Only six men (“five in states of stupor, and one apparently mad”) were taken to hospital and all recovered. However, the owner of a feed shop found himselfRead more
The Chemist and Druggist, October 4, 1890 DR. GERMAN SEE has been employing extract of Indian hemp with very good results in two kinds of dyspepsia, the first comprising alterations in the chemical composition of the gastric juice, attended with heartburn and intolerable acidity. The second group related exclusively to the gastrointestinal neuroses which occurredRead more
In the middle of the 19th century, American author Bayard Taylor was exploring Egypt. After hearing frequent mentions of the “curious effects produced by hasheesh”, he grew curious and took what his guide, Achmet, considered to be a “large dose… a preparation made from the cannabis indica.” Waiting only half an hour, Taylor grew impatient and made theRead more
In July 1938, influential medical journalist and JAMA editor Dr. Morris Fishbein devoted two issues of his syndicated column, The Family Doctor, to cannabis. The articles contain a fascinating mix of insights (“no two human beings are affected in exactly the same way”; “not believed to be habit forming in the same manner that opium andRead more
Over four decades ago, and after several years of exhaustive, Canada-wide research and consultations, the Le Dain Commission of Inquiry into the Non-Medical Use of Drugs recommended cannabis legalization. Unfortunately, the Trudeau government ignored the Commission’s findings – leading to permanent criminal records for hundreds of thousands of Canadians. Canadian panel urges legalized marijuana The Courier-Journal (LouisvilleRead more
The Therapeutic Value of Cannabis Indica highlights cannabis as a treatment for dementia, migraines, ulcers, depression, dementia and more. It also highlights the stumbling block physicians experienced with potencies varying wildly from one supplier to the next. The article first appeared in the New York Medical Journal and was reproduced in The Canada Medical Record in its November 1891 issue. Read more
