The prohibition of cannabis recently makes people think that the benefits of CBD have been a recent discovery. Far from it, the use of cannabis as a treatment goes back many years, to approximately 2000 B.C. It has been found in documents that its origins can be traced back to China.
Recently, testimonies as well as word-of-mouth have shown the efficacy of CBD. At the same time, legalization has increased its popularity.
Early Beginnings
Cannabis use as a medicinal treatment is said to go back to 2737 B.C. when Chinese Emperor Sheng Nung China used cannabis in tea. He drank the tea to cure a plethora of ailments, including memory, rheumatism, malaria, gout and more.
It is thought that Queen Victoria used it as an aid in overcoming menstrual cramps. During her reign, in 1839, the medical researcher William B. O’Shaughnessy had begun researching the therapeutic effects of the plant, while describing its potential medicinal uses.
Modern History – The 1940s
A chemist named Roger Adams was the first to successfully extract CBD from the plant named Cannabis sativa. This was in 1940, and the Harvard graduate did not quite know what he had done. A few years late, Adams as well as his fellow scientists began the search for the benefits of CBD.
The first lab tests were conducted on animals in 1946 to determine therapeutic use rather than bringing about a possible high. Dr. Raphael Mechoulam discovered the chemical structure of CBD that same year. He is often credited with the discovery of CBD.
The use of CBD oil was approved by British pharmacologists in 1960 after science had proved it was safe for primates. In the 1980s, Dr. Mechoulam did a study that held promise for epilepsy, treated with cannabidiol (CBD).
CBD today
Considered in the same category as other cannabinoids, such as smoked marijuana that offers a high, CBD was considered by most of the population as part of a “gateway drug.” Scientists knew differently, but laws prohibiting its use medicinally were still enacted. During the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s, activists fought hard for its legalization, especially in California, where in the ’70s, it was first voted on.
The year 1996 saw the passage of Proposition 215 in California. It was the first time that a state had made medical marijuana legal. By the year 2000, people began to share their experience with medical marijuana, and its use began to grow as more states enacted legalization of CBD.
CBD has evolved through a history of use, praise, demonization and more recently, praise for its medical effects.
Anastasia Filipenko is a health and wellness psychologist, dermatolist and a freelance writer. She frequently covers beauty and skincare, food trends and nutrition, health and fitness and relationships. When she’s not trying out new skincare products, you’ll find her taking a cycling class, doing yoga, reading in the park, or trying a new recipe.
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