Name: How Marijuana Was Used In Victorian England
Uploaded: 2024-03-02T23:14:11.000Z
Duration: 6 min 3 s
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For centuries, marijuana has been  used in a whole host of different  

cultures. But what you may not know is  that its modern scientific foundations  

began in the 19th Century, just before its  worldwide demonization started taking root.

Marijuana seemed to be the pop  culture drug of the 20th century.  

From the cannabis hysteria during the  Jazz Age and the Great Depression,  

to the rock 'n' roll of the 1960s and 70s, it's  not a drug we expect to see in earlier eras.

But humanity's use of marijuana — according to  the University of Sydney — dates back to at least  

2800 B.C. It was introduced into ancient  Greece, and Roman society as medicine from  

Asia. The Roman author and naturalist, Pliny the  Elder, described its use in treating joint pain,  

gout, upset stomach in animals, and ear  infections. However — according to New  

Scientist — marijuana use in the West was curbed  after Pope Innocent VIII condemned it in 1484.

But — according to a 1998 report by the Select  Committee on Science and Technology in the  

United Kingdom's House of Lords — renewed  interest in marijuana grew in the Western  

world during the 16th century. And by the start  of the Victorian era in the early 1800s, the  

efforts of an Irish doctor were poised to inject  marijuana into British medicine in a big way.

The Irish physician William Brooke  O'Shaughnessy was born in 1808 — most  

likely in Limerick — and studied medicine  at Trinity College and the University of  

Edinburgh. He was unable to get a license to  practice medicine in London after graduating,  

but after setting up his own  laboratory, he became noted  

for his work analyzing the blood and feces of  cholera victims. According to New Scientist,  

his work helped end bloodletting as a treatment  for cholera patients suffering from dehydration.

By 1838, O'Shaughnessy was an assistant surgeon  in the Bengal Medical Service of the East India  

Company. While based in Kolkata, he learned of  the recreational and medicinal uses of marijuana,  

which the native Indians called ganja. And when  O'Shaughnessy was introduced to churrus — the  

resin produced from the plant — he thought he  had found a viable medicine to experiment with.

According to New Scientist, after experimenting  on a variety of animals — none of which suffered  

any harm, regardless of the size of the dose  — O'Shaughnessy used churrus to treat three  

male patients suffering from rheumatism. At  first, the drug only seemed to affect one man,  

who became excessively chatty and hungry  before falling asleep. That same patient  

later became cataleptic, while another broke into  hysterical laughter. But when all three patients  

claimed to be relieved of pain the following  day, O'Shaughnessy discharged them as cured.

When he expanded his trials  to include other diseases,  

O'Shaughnessy discovered that marijuana aided in  cholera patients' natural recovery and relieved  

their diarrhea. It also appeared to arrest spasms  in tetanus patients. Though, for rabies patients,  

it couldn't do much more than ease their passing.  O'Shaughnessy was now sufficiently convinced of  

marijuana's value, and published his findings  in the Provincial Medical Journal in 1843.

"Cannabis opened a window into  the functioning of our body."

When O'Shaughnessy's paper electrified Victorian  

medical society, he was frequently  contacted by his peers in London,  

eager to learn more. O'Shaughnessy went on  to work with the telegraph in India — for  

which he was knighted in 1856 — and laid the  foundations for intravenous therapy. Meanwhile,  

his work with marijuana placed the drug in  pharmacology books throughout Britain and Europe.

Per the 1998 UK House of Lords report, after  marijuana was accepted as a viable medicine  

by Victorian Britain, it was primarily  administered via oral tinctures — an  

extract dissolved in alcohol. According to  Professor James Mills of Gresham College,  

marijuana was used as a general  sedative, an aid in childbirth,  

a treatment for insanity, and even a  treatment for painful menstrual periods.

Among those who promoted marijuana's use for  menstrual pain was the British physician,  

John Russell Reynolds. According to the  journal, Advances in Clinical Neuroscience  

and Rehabilitation, he became a physician to the  royal household in 1879. But this appointment has  

sometimes been misunderstood as Reynolds being  Queen Victoria's personal physician. As a result,  

the book Women and Cannabis: Medicine,  Science, and Sociology claimed that during  

Reynolds' tenure, the queen routinely took  indica to deal with menstrual pain. But,  

as the House of Lords report noted, there's  no proof that Victoria used any marijuana,  

especially since Victoria was 60-years-old by the  time Reynolds began working for the royal family.

While Victorian society found marijuana a useful  treatment for everything from migraines to  

epilepsy, it wasn't always a reliable medicine.  Synthetic pharmacology began to take off in the  

late 19th century, but the active ingredient  in marijuana wasn't discovered until 1964.

"Raphael Mechoulam isolated THC, the psychoactive  cannabinoid that make users feel high."

James Mills claims that all medical preparations  of marijuana in the Victorian era were entirely  

organic, so the amount of THC in any  given batch varied widely. As a result,  

the drug's effectiveness and side  effects couldn't be reliably predicted.

But — according to the National  Museums Scotland — when Alexander  

Wood developed the modern hypodermic  needle in 1853, it offered improved  

ways of administering treatments. And  since marijuana isn't water-soluble,  

it was ill-suited for injection. Between such  technological innovations and the development  

of synthetic drugs, marijuana and other  herbal remedies gradually fell out of favor.

Practical considerations and the drug's own  limits drove marijuana's decline towards the  

end of the Victorian era. It simultaneously  gained a sinister reputation in Britain and  

America. According to James Mills, the Allahabad  newspaper The Pioneer reported on the growth and  

sale of marijuana and its effects on mentally  ill patients in British-controlled India in  

1891. The paper argued that "ganja"  had more harmful effects than opium,  

pointing to the alleged widespread use  of marijuana among asylum patients.

The Pioneer's claims soon attracted  attention in the British House of Commons,  

especially among anti-opium politicians.  And while the government's initial policy on  

marijuana was taxation over prohibition, as more  anecdotal reports became widespread in the 1890s,  

marijuana became a symbol of the evils of British  imperialism in the minds of liberal politicians.

A commission did carry out a study on  marijuana's effects between 1893 and 1894,  

and found little to no evidence it was linked  to insanity. But the commission did caution  

that excessive use could damage mental health —  without actually defining the word "excessive."