Nearly 40 years after cannabis was banned, a proposed cahnge in the law looks set to clear it for medicinal use. Sir John Russell Reynolds, for many years her personal physician, wrote extensively on the benefits of taking cannabis, and in Victorian times the herb was widely used to treat a variety of ailments and conditions, including muscle spasms, menstrual cramps and rheumatism.
Cannabis is illegal.
But the phoenix is rising from the ashes. Should the Bill go through, cannabis may become immediately available as a treatment for illnesses such as multiple sclerosis. Research in the UK is abuzz with testing for its therapeutic gains. For conditions from asthma to migraines, cannabis could be the treatment of tomorrow. Lester Grinspoon is associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, in the United States.