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Ireland: Medical marijuana to make comeback after 177 years

The use of cannabis for medicinal purposes in Ireland is edging closer to reality, completing a 177-year 360-degree pivot that, thanks to one man, changed western medicine.

In 1839, Irish physician William Brooke O’Shaughnessy brought cannabis into Europe from India. Seeing beneficial effects the drug seemed to have on relieving pain while in the subcontinent, O’Shaughnessy, having written numerous papers on the drug, thought it well suited for western medicine.

The drug took off and, for around 100 years, its widespread use (crossing the Atlantic, too) was notable throughout the streets of major cities, largely thanks to its pungent smell.

However in the 1930s, US lawmakers decided against it, instigating a ban that spread throughout much of the western world up until recent years.

Pioneered by certain US states voting the drug back into medical practice, it now looks like Ireland will follow suit, returning O’Shaughnessy’s find into the general public.

Read more at Silicon Republic
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