From China to Rome: The History of Medicinal Marijuana Use

Marijuana’s 12,000-Year Journey: Earliest Uses and Medical Remedies. Also known as ‘The Magic plant’. It’s the world most popular and sought after plant.

Marijuana, derived from the Cannabis sativa plant, has a rich history spanning millennia, with its origins traced back to Central Asia and ancient China around 5000 BCE, where archaeological evidence from sites like the Yanghai Tombs in Xinjiang reveals cannabis residues in burial artifacts, suggesting early use for ritualistic and medicinal purposes.

The Ancient Origins of Marijuana: From Central Asia to Sacred Use

The plant was first documented in Chinese pharmacopeia by Emperor Shen Nung in 2737 BCE, who prescribed it for ailments like rheumatism, gout, and malaria, valuing its psychoactive and therapeutic properties; from there, it spread via trade routes to India by 2000 BCE, where it was embraced by ancient Hindus in Vedic texts as a sacred herb called “ganja” for spiritual enlightenment, pain relief, and aphrodisiac effects during religious ceremonies.

Over centuries, various cultures including Scythians in Siberia used it in steam baths for relaxation and euphoria, while in the Middle East and Africa by the 12th century, it was employed by Sufi mystics and healers for meditation and treating epilepsy, eventually reaching the Americas through European colonization in the 16th century, where it transitioned from hemp fiber production to recreational and medical use amid evolving societal attitudes.

The Founding Fathers and Hemp: America’s Forgotten Cannabis Legacy

George Washington Grew Hemp: The Founders’ Colonial Crop.

In the context of American history, cannabis played a pivotal role during the colonial era, particularly with the founding fathers who promoted its cultivation for economic independence from Britain. George Washington grew hemp at Mount Vernon starting in the 1760s, primarily for fiber to produce ropes and fabric, as noted in his farm diaries where he experimented with separating male and female plants to improve quality. Thomas Jefferson, another hemp advocate, cultivated it at Monticello and even smuggled seeds from China to enhance American strains, viewing it as a superior crop to tobacco for sustainability. Hemp was so essential that in 1619, the Virginia Assembly mandated farmers to grow it, and it was used as legal tender in some colonies. While the founding fathers focused on industrial hemp rather than psychoactive marijuana, their efforts laid the groundwork for cannabis’s integration into early American agriculture, driven by needs for shipbuilding materials, textiles, and self-sufficiency, before 20th-century prohibitions shifted perceptions toward its medicinal and recreational uses.

Alcoholics and Drunks causes about 178,000 deaths yearly in the US.

Drunk driving killed 12,429 people in alcohol-impaired crashes in 2023.

In the United States, excessive alcohol use remains one of the leading preventable causes of death, with recent data from the CDC estimating about 178,000 deaths annually from excessive drinking (based on 2020–2021 averages), including roughly two-thirds from chronic conditions like liver disease, cancers, and heart issues, and the rest from acute causes such as injuries and poisonings—this equates to nearly 500 alcohol-related deaths per day. A smaller but significant portion stems from drunk driving: according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), in 2023 there were 12,429 fatalities in alcohol-impaired driving crashes (where at least one driver had a blood alcohol concentration of .08 g/dL or higher), accounting for about 30% of all traffic fatalities and resulting in one death roughly every 42 minutes. These drunk-driving deaths represent only a fraction of total alcohol-related mortality, as most alcohol-attributable deaths arise from long-term health effects rather than immediate accidents involving impaired drivers or other alcohol-influenced incidents like falls or violence.

Zero Marijuana Overdose Deaths: The Truth About Marijuana in America

Has Anyone Ever Died from Marijuana Overdose in the US? There are No Confirmed Marijuana Fatalities, here is what Official Data Shows:

In the United States, no confirmed deaths have occurred from a direct marijuana (cannabis) overdose, according to official sources like the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which states that “no deaths from overdose of marijuana have been reported,” and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, which found insufficient evidence to support or refute a statistical association between cannabis use and death due to overdose. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) does not list cannabis as a direct cause of fatal overdoses in its drug overdose statistics, unlike opioids, alcohol, or stimulants that contribute to tens of thousands of deaths annually. While some death certificates or databases (such as CDC WONDER) have recorded rare instances where cannabis or its derivatives were mentioned in poisoning-related deaths—often in the range of a few dozen per year in older data—these typically involve polysubstance use (e.g., combined with opioids, alcohol, or other drugs), trauma from impaired driving, accidents, or other factors, not acute toxicity from marijuana alone. Synthetic cannabinoids (unrelated to natural cannabis) have been linked to fatalities in some cases, but pure THC or plant-based marijuana has an extremely high lethal dose threshold that is practically unattainable through normal consumption, making fatal overdose from marijuana itself effectively zero in documented U.S. history.

NASEM Report: Strongest Proof for Medical Marijuana Uses

The Magic Weed: The plant of many uses. Here are the Best Studies that Show Cannabis Helps Chronic Pain, Seizures, Multiple sclerosis (MS)

The most reputable and comprehensive PubMed-indexed studies on the medical benefits of marijuana (cannabis and its cannabinoids) stem from high-quality systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and landmark reports, with the 2017 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) report standing out as one of the most authoritative, concluding substantial evidence for cannabinoids’ effectiveness in treating chronic pain (including neuropathic pain), chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, and patient-reported spasticity in multiple sclerosis, based on rigorous evaluation of randomized controlled trials (RCTs).

Subsequent high-impact reviews and meta-analyses, such as those published in JAMA and other journals (e.g., 2015-2025 updates on chronic pain showing modest reductions like 30% pain relief with cannabis-based medicines, primarily nabiximols or oral cannabinoids), reinforce these findings, with strong evidence for CBD (e.g., Epidiolex) in reducing seizures in refractory epilepsy like Dravet and Lennox-Gastaut syndromes. Additional supportive evidence from PubMed sources includes benefits for appetite stimulation in HIV/AIDS-related wasting, short-term sleep improvements in conditions like chronic pain or MS, and potential anti-inflammatory effects, though many reviews note modest effect sizes, increased adverse events (e.g., dizziness, somnolence, psychiatric effects with high-THC products), and insufficient or mixed evidence for broader claims like anxiety, depression, insomnia, or most psychiatric disorders, emphasizing the need for more long-term, high-quality RCTs while highlighting that FDA-approved cannabinoid products (dronabinol, nabilone, Epidiolex) offer the strongest clinical backing for specific indications.

Marijuana Health benefit Sources;

Here are the top 10 most reputable, highly cited, and influential PubMed-indexed reports/systematic reviews/meta-analyses (primarily from key sources like the NASEM report and major JAMA/BMJ publications) on the medical benefits of marijuana/cannabis/cannabinoids.

1. Substantial Evidence for Pain, Nausea, and MS Spasticity Relief
   https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK425767/ (or full NASEM report: https://www.nationalacademies.org/publications/24625)
   
2. Cannabinoids Effective for Chronic Pain and Chemotherapy Nausea
   https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26103030/ (JAMA 2015 systematic review and meta-analysis)
   
3. Balanced Risks and Benefits: High-Certainty Evidence for Key Uses
   https://www.bmj.com/content/382/bmj-2022-072348 (BMJ umbrella review of meta-analyses)
   
4. Pharmacology-Based Meta-Analysis: Benefits in Pain, Epilepsy, Spasticity
   https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35982439/ (BMC Medicine 2022 review)
   
5. Systematic Review of Reviews: Pain, Nausea, Spasticity Benefits
   https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5964405/ (Canadian Family Physician overview)
   
6. NASEM Update: Conclusive Evidence for Therapeutic Effects
   https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29325791/ (European Journal summary of 2017 report)
   
7. Cannabinoids for Medical Use: Moderate-Quality Pain Evidence
   https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2338251 (JAMA full article link)
   
8. Therapeutic Effects Chapter: Chronic Pain Reduction Supported
   https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK425767/ (NASEM therapeutics section)
   
9. High-Potency Cannabis and Health: Mixed Therapeutic Outcomes
   https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12549548/ (systematic review focus on potency)
   
10. Evidence Mapping: Benefits in Pain and Select Conditions
    https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7076827/ (BMC Complementary Medicine appraisal)