Date: Tue, 09 Jun 1998 Subject: 1986 Book from Reader's Digest Calls Marijuana Medicine!

The following is an excerpt from the 1986 edition of the Reader's Digest publication called Magic and Medicine of Plants:

Marijuana Cannabis sativa L. Bhang, Ganja, Grass, Hashish, Hemp, Mary Jane, Pot, Reefer Hemp family Cannabacceae

Although often abused, marijuana is one of the world's oldest economic plants. Besides providing the material, hemp, for a lucrative cordage and cloth industry, it has been a valuable medicinal drug. The ancient pharmacopeias of China, going back more than 2,000 years, listed marijuana, and the plant found favor around the world for its ability to ease pain, induce sleep, and soothe a variety of nervous disorders. Usually the leaves or seeds were taken, but in medieval Europe physicians prescribed the root to alleviate the agonies of gout and other painful diseases. Mixed with oil and butter, the root also made a salve for burns caused by that new import from the Orient, gunpowder. Today marijuana is under investigation as a treatment for asthma and certain types of glaucoma, and as a means of controlling epileptic seizures and the nausea caused by radiation therapy and cancer chemotherapy. Although marijuana's use as an intoxicant is not only widespread but socially acceptable in much of Africa and Asia, it has serious drawbacks. The extent to which marijuana can be physically or psychologically damaging remains a subject of discussion, but there is no dispute that it can be harmful, with a real danger of psychological, if not physical, dependence. Possession of the plant is illegal.

[In the box at the bottom of the page]:

X Do not use except under a doctor's supervision. Smoking or eating marijuana may have physically and psychologically injurious effects.

Habitat: Abandoned lands, ditches, streambanks.

Range: Native to the Caucasus, northern India, and Iran, marijuana is now a common weed throughout much of North America, where it has escaped from cultivation for hemp fiber.

Identification: A vigorous annual with an erect stem 3- 10 feet tall. The leaves are hairy and divided, with five to seven long, toothed leaflets. The male and female flowers (June-October) are small and greenish, and borne on separate plants.

Uses: The plant contains tetrahydrocannabinols (THC's), which induce euphoria and exhilaration, dull pain, and act as a sedative and antispasmodic. The fiber is used for rope, twine, and coarse cloth, while the seeds are an ingredient of many commercial birdseeds. Painters use hempseed oil to mix colors and as a varnish.