One of the most controversial aspects of society is the consumption of marijuana. It is a plant with stimulant effects when ingested or smoked, from India several centuries ago, but it was not until the last century that its consumption began to be prohibited in the United States and then in other parts of the world. There are many beliefs, concepts and preconceived ideas regarding the use of this plant, today perceived by many as a drug, and by others as a medicine for the body and soul. Let’s see right away: “the true story of marijuana.”
A whole industry behind
The amount of money that marijuana moves annually in North America and the entire world is staggering: billions of dollars, beating all wheat and other crops together. All that amount of cash is distributed among those who plant it, sell it, and everything contained in government programs against consumption and the deployment of authorities in many aspects. Prohibition raises its price and has been found to encourage smoking even more.
It is present in all strata
During almost every recorded era in human history, the cannabis plant has been used and permitted. Anthropologists have found evidence that marijuana has been present in society with different applications for more than 9,000 years. Although it came to be associated as a drug used only by criminals and low-income people, the truth is that people of all levels consume it and there are all kinds of products and plants at all prices.
Enjoy different legal statuses
In no country is it 100% legal, because in Uruguay, the Netherlands, some North American states and where the authorities tend to be more flexible with cannabis, even so there are restrictions and rules to comply with, especially in the distribution of weed that even in Jamaica it is illegal and in Uruguay it must be supplied by the government itself. We can find cases like China and North Korea, where if they find someone carrying the weed, they could even pay the death penalty. However, in several nations there is a trend towards its legalization. The great business of drug trafficking practically depends on the criminal factor, since by turning marijuana into something illegal, the traffic becomes multimillion-dollar.
Spiritual connotations
Currently, different creeds and sects consider that smoking cannabis is a spiritual practice that leads them to great meditations and states of increased mysticism, such as the Rastafarians or some Shivaist currents in India. Hinduism believes that it was the god Indra who first brought the plant to Earth thousands of years ago, to help man connect. On the other hand, in the year 1484, Pope Innocent VIII classified as a great sin the use of cannabis in any way, but the contradictory thing was that the paper used by the medieval copyist monks was made of hemp and the first printed Gutenberg Bible, also. In the same way, some other mystical currents attribute damage to spiritual advancement.
This plant has been used to obtain altered states of consciousness since ancient times. Complex Chinese medical compendia dating back more than 4,700 years describe traditional remedies. After China, it went to India and then to the African continent, where it reached Europe and finally, according to some hypotheses, to America.
His beginnings in America
Its origins have not yet been clearly defined, but everything indicates that it was brought to the American continent by European immigrants. Evidence of shamanic use by various indigenous communities has been found, mainly provided by archaeological work by Hill Fitz Gerald, who along with his team unearthed ancient pipes in Ontario, loaded with cannabis and tobacco.
Medical uses
Various diseases such as epilepsy, among other problems of a neuronal nature, have found a cure and relief in the properties of cannabis. That is where the legalization of medicinal uses in democratic countries has begun. Some indigenous remedies recommend adding marijuana leaves to rum, preserving it for two weeks and then putting cloths moistened with it, in order to cure rheumatism, joint and bone problems. Many testimonials corroborate it.
The main diseases for which the natural doctors of yesteryear required this herb are malaria, rheumatism and the dreaded gout. But recreational uses were also very common in India and the Middle East, since Muslims, being restrained from liquor by the Koran, preferred to smoke cannabis and hashish, a practice that later spread to Persia.
The general conclusions in this regard, lean towards a general and important point: nothing is good or bad, but the use and the intention and each one can take a free perspective, according to the principles and the prevailing laws of it. The truth is that there is a great social stigma that, considering the history described above and the effects studied by scientists, has no real basis. Leave us your comment.
