Nowadays, there aren’t many heads of state which have a documented record of cannabis use. Things used to be different in the past though! Queen Victoria of England (1819-1901) as well as “Sissi”, Empress Elisabeth (1837-1898) of Austria are both known to have been prescribed and regularly use cannabis. They consumed it by preparing alcoholic extracts of the plant, though during Victoria’s reign another popular consumption method was to make tea¹. The Queen’s physician had read O’Shaughnessy’s works (mentioned in the previous newsletter) and identified cannabis as a suitable medicine to treat Victoria’s painful illnesses. Sissy, on the other hand, was an advocate of natural medicines and treated a persistent cough with it².

Despite this initial acceptance of cannabis in modern times, things started to change quickly. With the prohibition of cannabis in the 19th to 20th century, ironically started by the country whose declaration of independence was signed on hemp paper, scientific research on the plant was made practically impossible². The 1937 Marihuana Tax Act gave sole authority over drug related studies in the USA to the Federal Bureau of Narcotics¹. Moreover, private production or consumption of cannabis was made illegal. Following the example of the USA, many countries in Europe and Asia started to enforce prohibition laws. The Netherlands prohibited its trade in 1928 and finally criminalized the plant in 19533. Cannabis was quickly replaced in the medical sector by other substances with sedative or analgesic (pain relieving) effects such as aspirin.

The criminalization of the plant didn’t last long in the Netherlands. In 1972, the Dutch government divided drugs into more- and less-dangerous categories, with cannabis being in the safer category (soft-drugs)⁴. Since 1976, cannabis has been openly sold for recreational use in “coffeeshops” with maximum possession of five grams, which is the same way as we know today. However, an important note is that cannabis for personal use had not been legalized, just decriminalized, meaning the police was and still is allowed to confiscate it⁵.

The legal situation of cannabis worldwide did not change much since the Dutch initiative in the 1970s, until Uruguay took a historical decision in 2013, effectively making cannabis completely legal in the country. Although sales towards tourists are still forbidden to avoid drug tourism, Uruguay is the first country in modern time to fully legalize cannabis⁶.

Very recently, the situation in North America changed as well. In fact, as of 17 October 2018, recreational use of cannabis was legalized in Canada. Also dietary supplements of Cannabis for human use and veterinary health products (with restrictions on THC content) were approved for marketing⁷. Today, almost half the states (19) in the U.S. have legalized recreational cannabis and most (37) have legalized medical cannabis. But that is not all! Besides the 19 legalized states, there are 12 that have also decriminalized the use of recreational cannabis, indicating a clear tendency towards acceptance of this plant in one of the most influential countries in the world⁸.

Cannabis is making a comeback in both recreational and medical use since its prohibition in the early 1900s. Considering the trend towards legalization observed in the past decade, it is a fair assumption that it is just a matter of time before cannabis will be legalized in most of the world. Importantly, this will spur scientific research and will drastically increase the knowledge available on this plant, shedding light on the many unknowns that still surround cannabis.