The Leaf THE LEAF July - August 2018 | Page 14

Berger describes the scene: “four rooms with nine couches set against the cracked, cream- colored walls, with a few limp easy chairs to handle the overflow.” At the time, though, these cigarettes were a completely legal medicinal treatment. Music was often an important part of Tea Pad culture. Berger adds that the host was playing “weird ritualistic themes.” Additionally, many Tea Pads sprung out of Jazz culture, though they attracted a wide array of customers. To Treat Gonorrhoea Wm. S. Merrell, an Ohio-based chemical company, manufactured Indian Cannabis. They said that this tincture is both an anaesthetic and a treatment for Gonorrhoea. As far as we know, this is not true. Wm. S. Merrell manufactured a whole line of what you could call medical marijuana products. One of them, Bromo-Chloral, mixed Indica with liquorice, orange peel, and chloral hydrate, a strong sedative and hypnotic drug that’s very difficult to get today. As a Tool for Relaxation Having a smoke sesh is by no means a modern innovation. Since the 19th century, urban creatives have taken part in these gatherings and received a lot of attention for it. Back in the 1840s, Balzac, Baudelaire, Dumas and other French intellectuals formed Le Club des Hashishins. During the 1920s and 30s, people called them “Tea Pads.” In 1938, Meyer Berger, a New Yorker reporter, visited a Harlem tea pad. Marijuana’s connection with Jazz culture, and through African American communities, is one of the reasons why authorities outlawed it in the first place. To Treat Bunions and Corns Not only was marijuana a typical treatment for bunions and corns, but at one point it was the most common. Antique Cannabis Book lists over 40 different corn removal brands that list cannabis as an ingredient. Though there isn’t much research on cannabis for corns, we do know that marijuana is a potent anti-bacterial.