by Chris Conrad
CANNABIS IN HOMEOPATHY
A classical homeopath would not simultaneously prescribe to the same patient one medicine for a headache, a separate one for nausea, a third to help induce sleep, a fourth for depression, and so on. Instead, they identify a single medicine that covers as many symptoms as possible. Cannabis is an excellent source of homeopathic remedies, and it came into play as such early on. The following 1842 discussion on plant selection for preparing homeopathic tinctures of hemp drugs was based on an earlier German work. “We take the flowering tops of male and female plants and express the juice, and make the tincture with equal parts of alcohol; others advise only to use the flowering tops of the female plants, because these best exhale, during their flowering, a strong and intoxicating odor.”7 In light of modern research, we can see the importance of factors like the ratio of CBD-bearing male flowers to THC-bearing female flowers in predicting different effects and adjusting extracts to suit the situation. There are further significant differences in the acute effects of the two major cannabis types, which are reflected homeopathically. Variations in the cultivar’s organic chemistry may explain the past difficulty of getting consistent reactions to cannabis extracts.
To determine which symptoms are likely to be affected positively by cannabis homeopathy, we need to know its chronic effects at massive doses. One of the most consistent and marked symptoms of cannabis use is the sensation of prolonged time. In addition, a peculiar separation of the mental faculties occurs, during which one functions as both a participant and an observer. Massive doses of resin can stimulate creative vision, so a homeopathic dose might be used to treat a patient with delusions or hallucinations, or to comfort someone having a difficult experience on LSD. Other problems which benefit from cannabis homeopathy are urinary infections, muscle cramps, backache, dry mouth, dry vagina, tremors, pneumonia, palpitations of the heart, and tinnitus, a pathological ringing in the ears. In general, extract of sativa is better for treating milder physical or mental problems. Indica is more effective for serious physical maladies. However, some mixing of benefits has been noted. Sativa is indicated for swelling of the nose or prostate, while indica is recommended for problems like sudden memory loss and ravenous overeating.
A prominent homeopath who died in 1929, William Boericke, M.D., wrote extensively about the use of cannabis in his work, Homeopathic Materia Medica. He divided his discussion between the properties of the tropical Cannabis indica and its resin and those of Cannabis sativa, or European hemp, and based his report on the experiments and observations of Dr. Albert Schneider. The result was one of the most comprehensive listings of subjective symptoms for which cannabis was considered helpful. What makes his research particularly valuable is the fact that it was undertaken in an era when cannabis was legal and research was not subject to political bias or legal penalties. Boericke made his general observations of the differences between Cannabis indica and Cannabis sativa. He collected subjective observations made after people ingested extremely heavy one-dram (1/8-oz.) doses of mother tincture.8 Their reactions to massive doses were considered likely indications for the therapeutic use of extremely dilute doses of cannabis tinctures. Boericke recorded that patient responses to high doses of resin featured remarkable hallucinations and imaginations, exaggerated notions of time and space, and feelings of extreme happiness and contentment. The patient enters a dual state, acting simultaneously as observer and participant. Boericke noted that the tincture made with the resin was soothing for many nervous disorders like epilepsy, dementia, delirium tremens, mania, tinnitus, and irritable reflexes, as well as for exophthalmic goiter and catalepsy. His observations of European hemp were that it helped with conditions of the urinary, sexual, and respiratory organs, stuttering, and eye pain caused by pressure behind the eyes, but no mental effects were observed.
GANJA: AN AYURVEDIC MEDICINE
Almost every culture throughout history has utilized entheogens, psychoactive plants that have religious significance. The resinous cannabis flower is among the best known of those plants. The heavily populated, tropical land of India is so heavily steeped in the cultural and spiritual use of resinous cannabis that its people won a cultural exception to the UN Single Convention Treaty on Narcotic Drugs. It allows them to continue to consume the plant known as ganja. It is no surprise, then, that cannabis has a prominent role in the region’s medical practices as well.
To understand the therapeutic use of ganja in India, one must understand the socio-spiritual framework in which it is practiced. Ganja was always integrated into and accepted by the culture of India. The Vedas are ancient writings that serve as the foundation of Hindu civilization. The classical authors deliberately kept their works brief and cryptic. Ayurveda is a traditional system of health care that regards each person as a unique combination of mind, intellect, ego, and soul, as well as an organism of skin, flesh, blood, and bone. Many drugs, including cannabis, are prescribed to maintain positive health, and to prevent or cure psychic, somatic, and psychosomatic diseases. The fundamental principles of Ayurvedic systems often combine applied treatments with philosophy and religion. Before cannabis is consumed, for example, the traditional blessing “bom shankar” is spoken.
While it is not scientific to accept traditions as true without proper verification, it is equally unscientific to reject them simply because they are traditional or old. Many things which were once treated as myth are now recognized as scientific facts.9 The circulation of blood described before 700 B.C. in Susruta samhita was considered a myth until Leonardo da Vinci mapped the circulatory system, and later William Harvey traced the actual flow of blood. The secretion and role of gastric juices in the digestive process was described in Vedic times by Caraka samhita, but was thought to be a myth until Pavlov’s dog experiments. The use of inoculation against smallpox was just another myth until it was demonstrated by Edward Jenner. Skeptics still refuse to believe that this procedure was undertaken in classical India to prevent an epidemic. The description of plastic surgery in Susruta samhita would still be considered a myth, were it not for recent advances made by plastic surgeons of the West. The head transplantation in the Vedas will continue to be treated as myth, and rightly so, until it is adequately demonstrated in accordance with modern standards.
Like any traditional system of medicine, ayurveda has distinctive features. It emphasizes the promotion of positive health and the prevention of disease. Health is the basis by which we achieve the inner goals of the self. The prevention and treatment of diseases includes the drugs and therapies prescribed in the classics and administered by Ayurvedic physicians. Some of these medicines have bacteriostatic or bactericidal effects, but most of them do not aim to kill these disease-bearing organisms. After all, drugs that kill harmful organisms quite often have a similar effect on the patient’s own body tissues. When given in a dose sufficient to kill an invading organism, pharmaceutical drugs can also harm or kill friendly organisms in the body, weaken healthy organs, and impair vital tissues in their normal functions. The end result is that allopathic medicines often produce toxic side effects, even while curing the disease.
According to Ayurveda, health is an affirmative concept that implies an excellence of the soul, the senses, and the mind. Although we try to minimize our exposure to them, we will never live in an absolutely germ-free environment. The alternative, then, is to develop the body’s inner resistance to these outside organisms. No germs or bacteria can produce a disease in the human body unless the body’s tissues are vulnerable enough to accept and support the growth and multiplication of disease. The tissues of a body that has been afflicted should be conditioned by drugs, diet, and other therapies to foster a healthy environment that is hostile toward these invaders. Therefore, the measures prescribed in these traditional systems aim to condition the body rather than simply destroy germs. They must improve the whole self.
Ayurvedic medicines are therefore developed as tonics that nourish and rejuvenate body tissues while they con
dition it to resist disease. As a result, in addition to being cured of the disease, the patient often receives beneficial side effects. With few exceptions, such as minerals and vitamins, modern drugs are meant for use exclusively by patients. Ayurvedic drugs, on the other hand, can safely be administered both to patients and to healthy individuals. They cure disease in patients, and simultaneously prevent disease and promote positive well-being in healthy people—without fear of negative effects.
Cannabis in Ancient Hindu Medical Texts
With this general basis for understanding Ayurveda, we return our attention to the topic of cannabis drugs, including bhanga, ganja, and charas.
Cannabis hemp was used in India from the very beginning for both its fiber and entheogenic effects. Ganja, like many other important medicinal plants, is said to have originated from the primordial nectar which arose during the churning of oceans. In the Atharva Veda a plant called bhanga is mentioned as one of the five sacred plants headed by soma.10 Although Sayana interpreted it as sana, a type of wild grass, the philologist W. W. D. Whitney accepted bhanga to mean resinous cannabis. Most scholars agree with Whitney, because bhanga is classified with soma, which later is known for its rejuvenating properties. According to mythology, cannabis drugs had different colors in different ages.11 Tantrika texts have divided this plant into four types, corresponding to the Hindu caste system.12 Different mantras—brief, spiritual chants or hymns—have been developed for use with the different types of cannabis.13
Most of the systems advocated in ancient Indian scriptures are spiritual in nature. However, the Yoga Sutra mentions that certain medicines may help to overcome worldly miseries while attaining spiritual perfection.14 Cannabis is not mentioned by name in the oldest scriptures, but subsequent followers have described the resinous cannabis plant as being one such medicine which maintains the mental process, and thereby relieves suffering.15 The Tantra Sastra prescribes that certain drugs be consumed to regulate mental functions, cannabis among them.16
Bhanga was known as a substance to be consumed in powder form according to Katyayana, the fourth-century B.C. author of a codex of supplementary rules.17 An in-depth description of this plant and its medicinal properties was presented in the tenth-century text, Anandakanda. After this, its medicinal properties are described in numerous works on Ayurveda, although a certain amount of scholarly interpretation is required to properly identify the various, often poetic references. For example, cannabis is commonly referred to as bhanga and vijaya (victory) in Ayurvedic texts, whereas its most common name is samvid in tantric texts. Some of the plant’s Sanskrit synonyms indicate its physical form and structure. In mythology, the cannabis leaf is compared to a trisula of Shiva, which indicates that each leaf is composed of leaflets which are pointed at the end, and sharp and serrated along the edge. About forty-three synonyms have been attributed to the cannabis plant, and the etymology behind many of them was traced and explained by Bhagwan Dash.
According to an important text, cannabis drugs are beneficial for a great variety of people.18 Its consumers have been divided into four broad categories:
Priests, ascetics, fakirs, yogis, and sanyasis (to stimulate meditation and a spiritual mindset).
Devotees of Shiva, Kali, Durga, Hanuman, and other gods (for ceremonies).
People who perform hard physical labor, to relieve their pain and fatigue.
Patients, to relieve their psychic, somatic, and psycho-somatic ailments.
In tantric texts, cannabis is divided into eight varieties based on the number of leaflets per leaf.19 Physicians and scholars of ancient India were well aware of the plant’s sexuality. It is specifically noted that it is the female plant that produces potent medicinal effects, gives pleasure to the mind, and causes “fainting” if consumed in excess.20 The female plant is described as pungent in taste and smell. Adding female ganja to any other medicine is said to cause a synergistic action that enhances the effect of the other medication.
Ganja is consumed as an ingredient in various foods, such as barfee, laddoo, sarabat (sweet drink), and a chewy green honey candy called ma’joun. Raw cannabis is chewed, sometimes along with the stimulant betel leaf. And, finally, people smoke it through a chillum—a chimney-style pipe used by Sadhu monks. Cannabis is also prescribed and consumed in the following Ayurvedic forms: powdered (curna), lumped into a bolus (modaka), pressed into a tablet (vatika), used as a tincture (leha and paka), boiled with milk (dugdhapaka), and boiled in water to produce a decoction (kvatha).
Cannabis is seldom used alone for specific medical preparations. It is usually combined with a variety of other medicines to reduce its natural psychotropic effects or broaden its therapeutic applications. Bhagwan Dash lists fifty-one important formulations for cannabis drugs. Some of these recipes clearly designate which parts of the cannabis plant to use and how to prepare the drug with due respect, in addition to the general rules for such purposes.21 For example, some formulas specify that the seed be used in combination with vegetable drugs, drugs of metallic and mineral origin, or animal products. Other formulas call for processing the raw plant matter (boiling with milk, water, etc.) before using it, or specify which type of container to use to store it, or at what intervals the patients should take it. Physicians keep track of the age of the material and how long their medicine should be used.
It is considered appropriate in Ayurveda for both healthy individuals and patients with acute conditions to consume cannabis. Healthy people consume it as an aphrodisiac and a rejuvenating agent. Patients use it to treat these major ailments: Sprue syndrome,22 male and female sterility, impotence, diarrhea, indigestion, epilepsy, insanity, and colic pain. In addition, this medicine in combination with others is indicated in the treatment of at least thirty-two other ailments, many of which have a familiar ring to them: rheumatism, gastritis, anorexia, fistula, throat obstruction, nausea, fever, jaundice, bronchitis, consumption, obstinate skin diseases (including leprosy), torticolis, spleen disorder, delirium, obstinate urinary disorders (including diabetes), the common cold, sinus congestion, anemia, chronic rhinitis (runny nose), painful menstruation, tuberculosis, elephantitis, edema (dropsy), puerperal sepsis, asthma, morbid thirst, vomiting, gout, diseases of the nervous system, constipation, malaria fever, and liver disease.23
It must be noted that Ayurvedic scholars of India have also attributed certain injurious effects to excess use of cannabis drugs, and recommend taking precautions. Its root is described as poisonous in Susruta samhita.24 Numerous medieval works also describe decoction of hemp root as a minor poison.
While the cannabis flower is not toxic in the sense of having a lethal dosage, it does sometimes have undesirable side effects if consumed to excess. To reduce this form of “toxicity” and to increase its therapeutic efficacy, the herb can be boiled or fried in cow’s milk before it is consumed. Anandakanda gives a detailed description of the resin’s effects that occur in human beings in nine successive stages, and of the characteristic features of body and mind of the individual during each of these stages. Various methods have been suggested to counteract the acute effects, including purgation, head bath with cold water, use of fragrant and cooling flowers and ornaments, intake of betel leaves with spices, intake of drinks prepared with sugar, milk, and ghee (clarified butter), and complete bed rest.
A simple recommendation is to take a pinch of powdered calamus root with one-fourth to one-half teaspoon of honey in the morning and evening. According to tradition, calamus aids the liver, works on the higher cerebral functions and brain tissue to help expand and bring clarity to the consciousness, and helps improve the memory. Adding a pinch of this powder to the smoking mix is said to neutralize many of the undesirable side effects of smoking cannabis, as well as other psychedelics. Unfortunately, calamus is currently under FDA restrictions: the agency has not recommended it for internal usage and actually considers it toxic. Nonetheless, calamus is one of the most renowned traditional herbs of Ayurveda and has been consumed for thousan
ds of years.
Cannabis for Ayurvedic Rejuvenation
Special ritualized methods are prescribed in Ayurveda for cultivating, collecting, processing, and preserving cannabis for personal rejuvenation.25 Once the female colas are mature, harvest the cannabis plant. Dry it in a clean place in mild sunlight and place it on a large sterile vessel. Crush the herb into a fine powder and keep it between two hot plates for seven successive days to fully dry and complete the curing process. Mix a liter of milk with a kilogram of sugar and boil to make a syrup. Add 400 g of cannabis powder and 50 g each of eight other medicinal plants, and mix thoroughly. After the mixture cools, add a half liter each of honey and ghee and mix well. Keep the preparation inside a heap of grain for one month, and every day recite the appropriate mantras. Next, remove the medicine from the grain and consume in five-gram doses. While doing so, reside in a closed-up house for three years, observing celibacy and eating only milk and rice. By doing this periodically, it is claimed that a person can live free of any disease or signs of old age for three hundred years, which is a lot of milk, rice, and celibacy. The text that offers this regimen also describes at least fifty other different cannabis drug preparations for the purposes of rejuvenation, aphrodisiac effect, and cure of several diseases. Luckily, not all of them are this restrictive.
In the Indian philosophy of Samkhya, human miseries are separated into three categories: those of internal origin, which include psycho-somatic ailments; those of external origin; and those of divine origin. Similarly, the mind has three aspects: tranquility, momentum, and inertia, and physical disorders are represented in one or the other of these latter three aspects. Everything that is available in the individual is also present throughout the universe. In order to overcome his own attributes, the patient must offer prayer to deities that have similar attributes, such as Shiva and Kali. Cannabis is one of many items which are offered in different forms to both Shiva and Kali, and their priests and devotees partake of it after the ceremony. Until the time of the Mahabharata, the social custom of taking mind-altering substances was not the least bit stigmatized. But in the epic story of Kaca and Devayani, Sukracarya made a serious blunder due to his alcoholic intoxication, so he prohibited the use of alcohol for himself and all Brahmins.26 Cannabis, on the other hand, was never banned, and has found a safe shelter among the tantrikas of the left wing, as well as the devotees of Shiva and Kali. During medieval times, its rediscovery as a medicine swept across India.