When I met Carl Sagan I was convinced that cannabis was a very harmful
drug. Going to his house one day I discovered that he smoked cannabis
and so did many of his friends. Now these were not unsophisticated
people and I tried to tell Carl how harmful cannabis was but he responded
in a joyful manner that it wasn't harmful at all.
would make you more sympathetic to my answer or less'.
book at that time, what where the reactions of
He starred at me saying, 'You sir, are being impertinent'
your peers and other scholars?
and he walked out the backdoor. Later that day, when I
Well yes there was a lot of reaction. I remember the most
drove home, I said to my wife Betsy, 'The time has come'
significant of all. I was put up for early professorship by
and sometime that week I would experience cannabis for
my chief at Harvard Medical School. At that time I had
the first time.
already published about 70 papers about schizophrenia
and I had some expertise in this domain. So when my
You said earlier that through the research for your
chief came back from the promotions committee he
first book you came to understand why people
told me that the committee members loved my work on
would use cannabis. What are the reasons people
schizophrenia but they hated Mar ihuana Reconsidered
use it?
because it was much too controversial.
Most people are familiar with the recreational use. But
along with this use cannabis has an ancient history as a
Even with all the data that you used to support
medicine as well. We know that Shen Nung, a Chinese
your work?
emperor, who lived about 5 000 years ago used cannabis
Oh yes, I just couldn't believe it. I said to him,
as a medicine. In modern Western medicine we had
'Controversial, what do they think of scholarship'. When
to wait until the mid 19th century for the introduction
I was leaving his office my chief said to me, 'They asked
of cannabis through an Englishman named William
me to ask you a question, what are you planning to do
O'Shaughnessy. At that time he worked in Calcutta and
next.' I said that I was an intellectual and that I did not
observed the indigenous people using cannabis as a
know yet, which was a kind of lie, but that I wanted to
medicine. He started studies on animals to be sure it
have the freedom to go my way.
was safe and published his studies when he came back
The affair resulted in the turndown of my candidacy
to England. Between 1849, the year O'Shaughnessy
for professorship at that moment and I had to wait till
published his first paper, and 1900 I came across about
1995 to become professor at Harvard, 20 years after my
100 papers about cannabis as a medicine in my review
first candidature. In the beginning I was heartbroken but
of the literature. The third use is the enhancement of a
because I did not become a professor I could skip a lot
broad range of human activities.
of department meetings and other things, so I had a lot
Everybody that has used cannabis knows that an
of time for my own research. Because of the free time I
ordinary meal can taste like a culinary treat and that it can
started to become active against the cannabis prohibition
enhance sexual experiences. But these are enhancements
that was and still is very destructive in American society.
that are right there on the surface. Once one becomes
more experienced with cannabis he or she can experience
What can you tell me about cannabis as an
or appreciated phenomena in another way, for example
addictive substance and not holding any medicinal
understand art in a better way, use it for creative
benefits?
purposes or spirituality.
Those are the myths about it. There are still people that
think that it is addictive. They say that about 10% of
ODYSSEY 52
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DIGIMAG
When you published your first book Marihuana
the users become addicted. I don't see it as an addictive
Reconsidered in 1971, which was a controversial
substance. Sure, you see some people using it all the