Medical Cannabis in Scotland | Cannabis Culture

Scotland is making a return to growing cannabis, with medical production starting at Hilltop Leaf Ltd in Dumfries and Galloway, and the developments of farmers in Angus and Aberdeenshire working alongside the Scottish Hemp Association , Rowett Institute , SAOS and Rural Innovation Support Services to start growing hemp in 2021, this article takes a look back to the early days of cannabis being used as a medicine in Scotland. While evidence exists of cannabis being grown for industrial purposes in Scotland from around the 11th Century, the records of medicinal use start in the mid 19th Century, with the West being introduced to cannabis extract by Dr. O’Shaughnessys 1839 publication ‘On the preparations of the Indian Hemp, or ‘Gunjah’ (Cannabis indica), their effects on the animal system in health, and their utility in the treatment of tetanus and other convulsive diseases’. At the time Doctors had no idea what the active constituents of cannabis were, but that didn’t prevent cannabis being used successfully as a therapeutic. Knowledge was built up through case reports, collated user experience and self-experimentation. It is striking how many things were ‘known’ about cannabis a century and a half ago but which have only been ‘proven’ in recent years.

To understand how cannabis was being dosed, we will look at all the relevant data, put observations in context, and try to get an idea of just how much cannabinoids were being administered to patients in Scotland in the mid 19th Century. We’ll take a look at documents from Dr. Christison, M.D, President of the Royal College of physicians, and Professor of Materia Medica in the University of Edinburgh, his 1850 Inaugural Dissertation, ‘On the Natural History, Action and Uses of Indian Hemp’, which was awarded a prize by the Medical Facility of the University of Edinburgh, and case reports.  

For reader context, ‘Indian Hemp’ was the description for all cannabis coming from India, its not referring to hemp plants such as less than 0.2% THC ‘European hemp’ varieties, for example.

What quantity of cannabinoids were being administered to patients?

Here, we need to pull together a wide range of data points to make a reasonable assessment of the likely composition of these extracts. Dr. O Shaughnessy describes the process of making the preparations in 1839, of the same type that were used in Scottish hospitals.

“The resinous extract is prepared by boiling the rich adhesive tops of the dried gunjah in spirit, until all the reason is dissolved. The tincture thus obtained is evaporated to dryness in a vessel placed over a pot of boiling water. The tincture is prepared by dissolving three grains of the extract in one drachm of proof spirit.”

1 grains = 64.79mg (3 grains = 194.39mg)

1 drachm = 3.69ml

= 52.68mg of extract per 1ml of spirit

= 526.80mg of extract per 10ml (to use 10ml as a point of reference for a tincture. ‘Just over half a gram of extract per 10ml’) 

Starting with 2 personal accounts of Dr. Christisons own self-experiments, the 1st of which he consumed ‘4 grains of Dr. Robertsons extract’ (just over a 1/4 gram of extract) around 3am which produced ‘cessation of pain, a pleasant numbness in the limbs, giddiness, a rapid succession of unassociated ideas, and impossibility to follow a train of thought, frequent intervals of sleep, and slight increase in the force of the pulse; at the same time felt no pain.’ He went on to describe feeling a bit lethargic until around 2pm the next day and that the symptoms ‘ceased entirely in a few minutes after drinking lemonade.’

In the second case report of self-experimentation from Dr. Christison, he consumed only 1/4 of his original dose, ‘1 grain of the same extract, dissolved in spirit’ a short time later, “I laughed heartily several times, answered questions incoherently, and immediately forgot what they were about, and what I had answered. Delightful reveries came over me, and whatever I look at became lost, as it were, in a maze: the lamp appear to be slowly turning around: and when I lost sight of this, the red lines on the paper of the room appeared to intertwine in a most beautiful manner. The most remarkable effect was the constant succession of new ideas, each of which was almost instantly forgotten. When roused to tea, I ate ravenously, without feeling satisfied. I slept soundly at night afterwards; and next day was stupid and forgetful, but was much improved by drinking lemon juice.” 

It was noted amongst doctors at the time that there were a wide range of effects and therapeutic outcomes in patients. While some didn’t suffer any side-effects even at high doses, other case reports described profound effects produced by only a single grain of extract. In December 1845 in the Edinburgh Royal infirmary, a Highland Porter suffering from chronic asthma and bronchitis was give a single grain of extract under the care of Dr. Robertson. Around one hour later the patient called the nurse, as was noted, ‘he seemed to have awaked suddenly, and stared wildly about him… He informed them “that he had been transported to heaven”, and his language, usually commonplace, was quite enthusiastic.’

So, we can safely assume there was THC present in these extracts. With case reports using doses of 65mg of extract producing such results, there were clearly decent ratios of THC present. These effects do not match with case reports of using CBD dominant extracts in such doses.  

In a letter dated 17th August 1849 sent to Dr. Christison, Mr Jameson, Director of the Botanic Gardens at Saharunpore gave an account of hemp growing in India, “In Kimaon and Gurwhal cannabis is grown in large quantities, partly in order to obtain its resinoid secretion, and partly for its bark, from which a strong coarse cloth, called ‘bungila’, is manufactured, for the dress of the poorer inhabitants, particularly through Gurwhal.” Also that “In October, in crossing the Himalayas from Almora to Mussuri, I have passed through dozens of villages 6000 to 8000 feet above the level of the sea, and seen hundreds of men, women, and children, all employed in making churrus. The plant grows to a height of from 10 to 14 feet.” 

The Gurwhal region in North India has a long history of using cannabis as a multi-use crop for food, clothing and medicine, while the varieties in the South of India were primarily evolved for medicinal/drug use with consistently higher cannabinoid content and consistently higher THC:CBD ratios.  

Mr Jameson is known to have sent various batches of ‘churrus’ to Dr. Christison in Edinburgh for experimentation, including a block from Yarkand, Thibet, ‘as big as two fists’.  

By the geographical and morphological descriptions, we can rule out these plants being of the short Indica ‘Afghanica’ variety, typical of Afghanistan and Pakistan. We also know that European hemp varieties are not found growing wild in that region, and if the plant was grown for multi-purpose use including food and clothing then its metabolic potential wouldn’t solely be focused on cannabinoid production. We can therefore narrow the likely variety of cannabis being extracted down to the recently classified Cannabis sativa ssp. Indica var. Himalayensis. Formerly known as Cannabis sativa ssp. indica var. Kafiristanica, or Cannabis ssp. indica feral biotype. The new classification likely doesn’t go far enough to differentiate between ‘wild type mountain cannabis’ var. Himalayensis which was harvested for textiles, ‘bhang’, and ‘jungli’, a lower grade of charas, and the domesticated cultivars which are known to be higher yielding, can be even taller, and produce a superior grade of charas than their wild relatives. These varieties likely represent the ancestral source of what became cultivated Cannabis sativa ssp. indica var. indica, Southern Indian high THC/low CBD ‘drug varieties’, commonly referred to as ‘sativas’.