Ever since the War on Drugs began, marijuana has been portrayed as an extremely dangerous drug.
Organizations and governments spent millions of dollars on anti-marijuana campaigns, and even enlisted the education system, trying to warn students that smoking weed was a gateway to harmful substances and other drugs. Meanwhile, millions of innocent people were arrested for nothing but owning the plant.
That said, what’s transpired in the last 20 years has been nothing short of remarkable.
Legalization swiftly spread through the United States, allowing more scientists to study cannabis. This produced more evidence that the narratives we’ve been fed for the past few decades were nothing more than scare tactics.
If marijuana were truly as dangerous as they tried to portray, why are there so many scientific studies that continue to uncover the plant’s powerful therapeutic properties?
A Plant That Was Difficult To Study
The law was a major obstacle to studying marijuana.
Since cannabis is federally illegal, not just in the United States but around the world, researchers faced massive legal and regulatory obstacles just to study cannabis. It felt nearly impossible to obtain the approval needed to conduct clinical trials, and for researchers, the process often took several years. In addition, scientists already had limited access to research-grade weed.
What’s ironic is that the very same laws that labeled pot as a plant without any medical benefits were the same laws that also made it difficult to prove otherwise!
Thankfully, regulations eventually loosened, allowing more researchers to explore marijuana with the same rigor that was applied to other medications.
The good news is that the results of their studies were so good, it surprised even the most hardened skeptic!
The Endocannabinoid System
In the 1990s, Raphael Mechoulam’s laboratory reached a major milestone when they discovered the endocannabinoid system; this complex, yet invisible network of receptors was found throughout the immune system, brain, digestive tract, skin, and in almost every major organ.
The discovery of the endocannabinoid system was critical for explaining why cannabis was so effective in regulating inflammation, pain, mood, appetite, sleep, immune function, and many other important processes that keep us alive and healthy.
We now know that marijuana wasn’t acting through unknown, mysterious mechanisms. The finding of the endocannabinoid system helped scientists explain why there were certain compounds in the marijuana plant that affected the human body in so many ways! The findings were so revolutionary that it opened the door to thousands of more studies, investigating whether cannabinoids could be useful in treating a range of medical conditions.
Research Continues To Grow
These days, cannabis has successfully permeated almost every field of medicine. This reflects the scientific interest that the plant has attracted over the past 20 years or so. It’s crazy to think that what was once a strictly prohibited body of research is now one of the quickest-growing fields in science. In fact, major universities, health centers, hospitals, and even governments around the world clamor to study weed’s therapeutic benefits.
Each year, there are a couple of hundred new peer-reviewed scientific studies that are published, helping researchers understand more clearly how cannabis offers real-life benefits for millions of people around the world suffering from a wide range of conditions.
Epilepsy, chronic pain, anxiety, PTSD, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s Disease, and inflammatory bowel disease are just some of the most widely studied conditions that cannabis has been effective in treating. Of course, not every single study out there yields positive results, though the breadth of research available shows how versatile cannabis is and how seriously it’s being taken by mainstream medicine today.
From Anecdotes to Evidence
One of the biggest criticisms of cannabis, for several decades, was that our supporters relied too much on anecdotes instead of scientific evidence. While patient experiences were always valuable, medicine largely depends on careful and rigorous research to determine what works, who the patient profile is, and what the risks are, if any.
Since legal restrictions have eased, researchers were able to test several claims that were dismissed outright in the past. In several cases, the evidence strongly supported the therapeutic benefits of cannabinoids for managing certain conditions. Additionally, scientists have identified situations where cannabis may not be the most effective, and where caution is warranted. We’re not claiming cannabis cures everything, but it certainly has its place in medicine.
Perhaps the most revolutionary shift is that cannabis research is no longer confined to advocacy groups or fringe organizations. The world’s top healthcare institutions, medical schools, and universities, and respected scientific journals, frequently feature new findings.
The growing body of evidence doesn’t say that cannabis is or will be a miracle cure. Nor does it claim that it’s completely free of risks. Like any medicine, cannabis has limitations and there are also appropriate uses. Thanks to more research, we know more than ever about what these appropriate uses and limitations are.
CONCLUSION
For generations, cannabis has been viewed through the lens of fear instead of facts and education. But legal barriers continued to fall, allowing scientists to create a more complex picture of cannabis than the one that had been wrongfully painted due to prohibition.
These days, study after study continues to identify the legitimate therapeutic potential of marijuana and its valuable compounds. After all, that’s how science works: by following the lead of evidence, instead of enabling outdated assumptions to live forever.
With all the available scientific evidence and clinical trials, it’s clear that when someone opposes or supports cannabis, it’s down to a political or personal opinion.
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