CANNAHealthcare Magazine Volume 5, 2nd Quarter, 2018 | Page 56

From Phantoms to Pharmaceuticals: Cannabis and Epilepsy

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Adam D. Richardson, Chief Scientific Officer

Aegis Biotech | [email protected]

Dr. Adam is an analytical chemist with over 20 years of experience

in the natural products and biomedical research fields. He brings

his passion for natural product therapeutics and expertise in

biomedical research to AEGIS to help develop cannabis-based

products for cancer, epilepsy, and other diseases.

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Epilepsy may have been the disease for which humans used medicinal cannabis. Cannabis sativa has been cultivated by humans in various parts of the world for at least 5000 years. Evidence of its medicinal and ritual use have been found in multiple cultures and locations. However, determining specific disease applications during this period is difficult. In Dr. Ethan Russo’s publication “Cannabis and epilepsy: An ancient treatment returns to the fore” he summarizes diverse evidence that cannabis was used to treat seizure disorders over 2600 years ago in Mesopotamia. Studies of Assyrian medical

on broken stone tablets make many references to cannabis

curing “the hand of the ghost” as the disorder was

attributed to being “seized” by a ghost, particularly

during nocturnal or early morning episodes. [1]

By Dr. Adam D. Richardson