You are watching the Shannabis blog I’m Shanna Perry. I figured this morning we would talk about some of the fundamentals of exactly what cannabis marijuana cannabis hemp and then go down a little brief history of what happened and where we are today. First off they’re three different types of cannabis there is cannabis hemp, cannabis marijuana and then there’s cannabis ruderalis, which we’ll discuss later. The most popular what you might know today is cannabis hemp. Hemp which is the male seed of cannabis Sativa, it grows very high, long, tall stocks and is very good for things like textiles and biofuels. Hemp can basically save our planet. Cannabis marijuana is the female seed that grows what we call flowers or buds. It is the most popular smoked or consumed part of the plant for the past millennia. Thousands of years ago the Chinese Emperors, back in 2900 BC/ 2700 BC used cannabis as medicine. Cannabis was used throughout their Empires as medically beneficial plants. I’m going to go ahead and fast-forward thousands and thousands of years to our first president George Washington.
Most of you know that he was a farmer and had a plantation but what you might not know is that he was a hemp farmer. He kept diaries about his passion for the medicine in his plants. Additionally, our Declaration of Independence written on hemp paper. In 1850 is when marijuana was put on US pharmacopeia and it listed numerous afflictions it was beneficial in treating.1964 was when THC was first discovered by a doctor in Isreal. THC is the psychoactive cannabinoid compound found in the cannabis plant . Potentially, there is over 1000 cannabinoids found within the cannabis plant. Currently, we’ve been able to identify somewhere around 250 and we only test for about 15 of them. With much of that science still out I look forward to watching it unfold.
In 1971 president Richard Nixon declared his War on Drugs. Marijuana was listed in schedule 1 substances along with LSD and heroin, showing no medical value. There’s many stories out there that say, doors were kicked into people’s houses like John Lennon and they were all arrested for drugs. You can’t arrest them for speaking out against the war, now can you? In 1986, Ronald Reagan signed the anti-Drug Act. It created mandatory minimum sentences for simple possession charges and also the 3 strike rule was born. If you get 3 recurring charges you’re gone for life. In 1990 cannabinoid receptors were discovered and then 1992 the discovery of the Endocannabinoid System followed.
The Endocannabinoid System is a system that resides in every living thing it is sitting there waiting to receive cannabinoids. We have something called CB1 and CB2 receptors, they work like a traffic light. Making sure that our brain synapses fire properly. We’re seeing all these benefits with utilizing cannabis because we have an endocannabinoid system. This is also why cannabis can not kill us. It physiologically impossible to die from marijuana. The poisonings that you hear about are basically getting high and you losing your mind a little bit or have a panic attack but you comeback. In 2000 is when Colorado and Nevada became the 7th and 8th state to legalize medical marijuana. 2003 was when the US received the patent for cannabinoids.
I remember when the vote was happening for legalization in Colorado in 2012, I was there. There was this energy in the air. People had lived next to medical marijuana dispensaries since 2008. The communities lived amongst the unregulated patient industry with the pot shops on the corner. The people witness how it made a positive impact on the community with jobs, medicine, economy and crime went down. Fast forward to where we are now Nevada, back in 2013 was when licensing happened in order to have a medical marijuana regulated state licensed businesses or Medical Marijuana Establishments. The MME’s have a license for cultivation (grow facility), production (processing facility), dispensaries (retail) or a testing laboratory.
Prior to allowing medical marijuana establishments in 2013 patients were allowed to grow there own medicine since medical marijuana legalization in 2000. Unlike California and Colorado, Nevada did not allow for the “patient donation” or a “commercial trade” marijuana collective style industry. Nevada is the very first completely regulated marketplace positioned for astonishing immediate growth. Currently, where we are is about 30 days from November 8th. Nevadans can vote to legalize recreational cannabis in our state. A portion of the tax money goes to schools. Because this is such a new market we don’t know everything. Everybody in the other states that have been conducting marijuana business was never regulated like a properly. Now those states have to go back words causing a very volatile situation like not getting the newly created mandated licenses. Also, our natural environment is full of pollutants that means outdoor grows will never pass the new laboratory testing restrictions that are getting mandated for all sales.