How Did Weed Shape Modern Medicine?
What If I Told You…Prescriptions for Mental Health Started with Hash Experiments in the 1830s
We live in a world where if you are dealing with any kind of mental disorder or issue, you can go to a psychiatrist and get a prescription to help you deal with it.
But what if I told you that the reason why this is the case is because of hash?
It’s all in thanks to a French psychiatrist, Jacques-Joseph Moreau, who was traveling to Egypt in the mid 1830s. He noticed that there weren’t many people drinking alcohol.
In fact, he noticed that they were doing hashish instead.
And not only were they smoking hashish, but he noticed that they weren’t having the adverse side effects Europeons had when they were drinking wine & liquor.
He even went so far as to think that hashish might be beneficial to people’s health. So, he took some back to Paris and did a little research.
He decided that he was going to test this hash out on mental health patients.
And after administering it, he noticed that people seemed to feel better & sleep better! Even the most depressed patients seemed to improve.
But one of the issues that he ran into—which is a big issue even today—was that the results were inconsistent.
In the same way that you and I can both consume the same hash, but have different experiences, the results just differed among the patients.
Still, these hash experiments helped catalyze and start psychopharmacology as we know it today.
And it also led to the advent of the Hashish Eater’s Club….
Not only was he giving it to his patients, but he was handing it out to his friends and other creatives, like artists, writers, poets & sculptors.
Artists like Charles Baudelaire and more still have works that exist thanks to their time consuming cannabis in the Hashish Eater’s Club.
So, there you have it. No matter how much the government & big pharma want to demonize cannabis, it’s historically a big part of how we developed the modern practice of prescriptions for mental health.
If you want to learn more about the history of hash & healing, check out my new ebook on cannabis & spirituality, Bless The Blunt.
Bless the blunt
New Ebook on Cannabis & Spirituality
*The information we provide is not intended to be a substitute for medical treatment. Please consult your medical care provider. Read our full Health Disclaimer.
