Marijuana Medicine: A World Tour of the Healing and Visionary Powers of Cannabis

In his initial introduction, Rätsch concisely summates the intentions and contents of his text: “For more than six thousand years, hemp has been used as a medicine where it has found the company of humans… This book is not a political treatise, but a cross-cultural survey. The facts speak for themselves.” A concise and judicious taxonomy of Cannabis, its genera and active constituents follows with an academic heir of accuracy. Rätsch dictates the processes by which and for which the Cannabis plant creates its psychoactive and physiologically healing components, detailing their chemical structure and basic pharmacokinetics. In it, he includes pertinent historical and sociological contextualization, rife with valid references that are to be amply expanded upon. He also makes quite clear that Marijuana Medicine is not an intended account of pharmacological evidence or reference book for the technicalities of Cannabanoid psychoactivity, but rather an amalgamated account of the historical practice and the medicinal implementation of Cannabis ingestion.

The literary journey of Marijuana Medicine begins with an elucidation of Shamanism and the consistency of the altered states experience as a primary factor in its practice. Valid exemplary Shamanic cultures, like that of Siberia, are discussed at some length, while others are saved for the bulk of the book due to their more direct correlation with Cannabis. Rätsch examines Chinese and Japanese herbal technicians and their employment of cannabis as an art of many forms. Indian and Nepalese Bhang consumption in light of meditative and religious practices are detailed to a satisfying but predictable length with casually talkative prose. One of the longer sections of the book, weighing in at about 6 pages, explores hemp in the Rastafarian context, both in Ethiopia and Jamaica. After exploring the Asian, African, and Brazilian disciplines, he addresses European applications in Scythian Russian, and Germanic cultures, leading eventually to the modern employment of Cannabis and Cannabanoid medicine. The section detailing Cannabis and its medical modernity, written in 1998 before much of the state-based American reform, is the only section particularly marked in lacking what seem necessary details and currency for understanding its employment and legal status. Focusing more on illicit self-regulation and ‘feel-good’ remedies, the section acts as a valid precursor to understanding the growth of medicinal marijuana in a modernized setting, though seems less than an ample guide for illuminating anything more than a few valid studies and outdated practices.

Due to the desired accessibility and resulting density (lack thereof), Marijuana Medicine: A World Tour of the Healing and Visionary Powers of Cannabis may be less than enlightening for those versed in Cannabis history and its basic applications, though certainly serves as a scholarly (and colorful) appendix of the essentials of its history. The list of applicable ailments (with references) and lengthy bibliography provide ample grounding for more detailed exploration if so desired. A suitable companion to the casual investigation of Cannabis history, Rätsch’s compilation of 100+ sources, riddled with diagrams (and a glossy middle-section of photographs and drawings) and recipes, holds a bright torch in an impressively monumental cave, faintly illuminating the surface of history with a friendly accessibility.

Reputation Comments on this post:

a good read!