Marijuana - the Healing of the Nations
Most Commonly Found: Marijuana and hashish are grown and trafficked all over the world, while cannabis seized in the United States is either grown domestically or smuggled from Mexico or Canada. Other countries known for producing and distributing marijuana to the United States are Colombia, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Thailand, South Africa, and Nigeria.
In the United States,
marijuana is legal for recreational use in Colorado, Washington, Alaska, and Oregon. Medical marijuana is legal in California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Hawaii, Montana, Minnesota, Michigan, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. Specifics on these medical and recreational laws vary tremendously.
Learn specifics.
Top marijuana producing countries include Mexico, Jamaica, South Africa, India, Paraguay, and Afghanistan. Marijuana is also fully legal in Uruguay.
Stone Cold Facts: Prior to the 20th century, "marijuana" was almost always referred to as "cannabis" in the United States. The term "marijuana" originated in Mexican Spanish while the ultimate derivation is unknown. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, it may come from the Nahuatl mallihuan, meaning "prisoner." Author Martin Booth notes that this etymology was popularized by Harry J. Anslinger in the 1930s, during his campaigns against the drug, meant to stir up anti-Mexican sentiment.
Marijuana is the term for the cannabis plant and the drug preparation made from it.
Hemp is a commonly used term for high-growing varieties of the Cannabis plant and its products, which include fiber, oil, and seed. Hemp is refined into products such as hemp seed foods, hemp oil, wax, resin, rope, cloth, pulp, paper, and fuel.
What to Heal: Marijuana's healing benefits are currently being explored and largely accepted in the United States. In fact, many people are moving to Colorado and other states that have legalized the drug to legally experience the plant and its medicinal benefits themselves. Marijuana helps heal ailments for the young and old.
For many children, marijuana has been proven to be a savior for catastrophic
seizure disorders and other life-threatening conditions. Parents are reporting a dramatic reduction in seizures
– often 50 to 90 percent – when their children are given oral extracts rich in cannabidiol (CBD), a nonpsychoactive cannabis component (low in THC).
Marijuana has been used to help treat nausea and vomiting from chemotherapy and with people suffering from HIV/AIDS. It's used to treat pain and muscle spasticity.
Cannabinoids can serve as appetite stimulants, antiemetics, antispasmodics and have some other analgesic effects. It can be helpful in treating chronic non-cancerous pain.
In addition, it may also be useful in treating
Alzheimer's Disease,
Arthritis,
Asthma (by opening the airways),
Crohn's Disease, Ulcerative Colitis and other Inflammatory Bowel Diseases;
Glaucoma,
Hepatitis C,
migraines, Insomnia, and
Tourette Syndrome. It may lessen
depression, anxiety andbipolar disorder symptoms.
It has been used in Ayurvedic and Indian medicine for at least three thousand years to treat a variety of health conditions, including nausea and wasting syndromes. It is also prescribed for general health and longevity. Interestingly, body builders in India use it as a part of their training regiment to gain muscle mass, promote digestion, and build strength.
How to Heal: Marijuana can be smoked, dabbed,
eaten, drank, vaporized, or worn
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as cream. There are countless ways to consume the substance with many more being discovered regularly.
Related Chakras: Marijuana is said to open the
chakras wider, because of the high vibrations of the herb.
Psychic + Spiritual Properties: Members of the
Rastafarimovement use cannabis as a part of their worship of God and for Bible study and meditation; they see cannabis as a sacramental and deeply beneficial plant and consider it to be the Tree of Life mentioned in the Bible.
Bob Marley, amongst many others, said: "The herb ganja is the healing of the nations."
According to Rastafari philosophy, "the herb is the key to new understanding of the self, the universe, and God. It is the vehicle to cosmic consciousness" and is believed to burn the corruption out of the human heart.
Marijuana began as a spiritual drug around 3,000 to 2,000 BC in indigenous to ancient Central and South Asian cultures. The reason being was for its psychoactive properties and its ability to alter one’s state of consciousness. For thousands of years, Shamans held the knowledge that each plant contains a unique set of frequencies that could ultimately teach us a new way of thinking and being. It can teach us a number of things including the path of least resistance, oneness, surrender, release, letting go, inhibition, the present moment, communion, allowing, the fear behind the insistent
ego, and the effortlessness of being.
The energies of the plant must be used in a way that harnesses its basic properties to promote health and healing. When used correctly it can have a profound, enlightening effect.
Sects within Tibetan Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Sufism and a variety of other religious groups have used cannabis for spiritual practices.
The spiritual aspects of marijuana are so profound that in South East Asia that many religious groups including Buddhists, Naths, Shaivites and Goddess Worshipper have incorporated it into meditation practices, as a means to stop the mind and enter into Samadhi.
It also holds an important place among Tantrics in India, Nepal, Sikkim, and Tibet. In the Mahayana tradition of Buddhism, it is said that Buddha subsisted for six years on nothing but hemp seeds. In the Tantric Buddhism of the Himalayas and Northern India, it also still is an important part of meditation and spiritual practice.
"...It is inevitable that temperaments would be found to whom the quickening spirit of bhang is the spirit of freedom and knowledge. In the ecstasy of bhang the spark of the Eternal in man turns into the light the murkiness of matter.
"...Bhang is the Joy-giver, the Sky-filler, the Heavenly-Guide, the Poor Man's Heaven, the Soother of Grief...No god or man is as good as the religious drinker of bhang...The supporting power of bhang has brought many a Hindu family safe through the miseries of famine. To forbid or even seriously restrict the use of so gracious an herb as the hemp would cause widespread suffering and annoyance and to large bands of worshipped ascetics, deep-seated anger. It would rob the people of a solace on discomfort, of a cure in sickness, of a guardian whose gracious protection saves them from the attacks of evil influences..."
History + Lore: Marijuana is mentioned in the Indian creation myth, where it is named as one of the five nectars of the gods and designated a “Reliever of Suffering.” In the myth, the gods churn the Ocean of Milk in search of Amrita, the elixir of eternal life. One of the resulting nectars was cannabis. In the Vedas, cannabis is referred to as a “source of happiness.”
It is most closely associated with the worship of
Shiva, one of the three principal deities of India. It is also is considered Shiva’s favorite herb due to its spiritual properties. It is commonly consumed by Shaivite yogis, ascetics, and worshippers of Shiva, as an aid to their
Sadhana (spiritual practice). Wandering ascetics or Sadhus are often seen smoking cannabis out of a clay chillum as a part of their spiritual practice.
A Chinese Taoist priest wrote in the fifth century B.C. that cannabis was used in combination with Ginseng to set forward time in order to reveal future events. The Taoists recommended the addition of cannabis to their incense burners in the first century A.D. and that the effects thus produced were considered a means of achieving immortality.
Marijuana was so prized that the Chinese called their country "the land of mulberry and hemp.” It was a symbol of power over evil and in emperor Shen Nung’s, the Father of Chinese Medicine, pharmacopoeia and was called the "liberator of sin.” The Chinese believed he taught the cultivation of the plant in 28th century B.C.
It was used in ancient Japan in ceremonial rights and for purification with and emphasis on driving away evil spirits.
In the great Persian empire, Mircea Eliade said, "Shamanistic ecstasy induced by hemp smoke was known in ancient Iran."
Greek philosopher Herodotus wrote about the use of cannabis by the Scythians, saying that it was an integral part of the Scythian cult of the dead wherein homage was paid to the memory of their departed leaders.
In south central Africa, cannabis it is sacred as a magical plant possessing universal protection against all injury to life, and is symbolic of peace and friendship.
Several historical groups of Muslims considered hemp as a "Holy Plant.” Medieval Arab doctors used hemp as a sacred medicine which they called among other names kannab. The Sufis originating in 8th century Persia used hashish as a means of stimulating mystical consciousness and appreciation of the nature of Allah. They said that hashish gave them otherwise tremendous interiority and basic insight into themselves. They also claimed that it gave happiness, reduced anxiety, and increased music appreciation.
Every major pharmacy in America offered cannabis tinctures as medicine until the 1930s when marijuana prohibition began.
by
k.jagadeesh