Is Medical Marijuana Real Medicine?

What is marijuana? Marijuana comes from a Mexican Spanish translation marihuana. The true term to describe it is cannabis although both words can be used interchangeably. Medical cannabis or marijuana is parts of the plant that is used to help treat a number of ills from a prescribing physician. Now marijuana has been around for thousands of years with the first historical evidence linking it to be used as early as 4000 BC, and the first medical use of it around 3000 BC. The first people to be associated with using cannabis are the Chinese, and were located in Central Asia. There are 2 common species which are used for medical purposes which are cannabis sativa, and cannabis indica. The effects vary from the different strands with the indica strain being more known for night time use due to its sedative effects, while the sativa strain is used during the daytime due to the cerebral high it produces. There are two forms of medical cannabis which can be used by a patient and they are called hashish and marijuana. Marijuana is the most common form of cannabis consumption which is the unprocessed dried leaves and buds of the female plant. One can smoke, or vaporize the dried leaves and buds to achieve the desired effect. Hashish on the other hand is a concentrated resin that comes from the female plant. It is often more potent than marijuana and can be smoked, vaporized, or chewed. The Chinese emperor, Shen Nung is the first person to describe the medical uses and properties of cannabis in a book he wrote in 2737 BC. After its widespread use in China it spread to India where a British physician by the name of William O’Shaughnessy discovered the therapeutic uses for cannabis and wrote a report on it which was then sent back to Eng...

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