ABSTRACT
Herbal preparations of cannabis have been used medically for thousands of years to treat pain. Chinese accounts report its use in painful rheumatic and female disorders. A mixture of hemp resin and wine was used to provide analgesia for surgery before general anesthetics were available.?· I? In India its analgesic and antipyretic properties were recognized as well. Over the years its use has been recommended for a variety of inflammatory disorders, e.g., gout. In the mid-1800s Queen Victoria used it to treat painful menstrual cramps. In the same era it was Her Majesty's physician who wrote of its effectiveness in neuralgia, menstrual pains, migraine, and gout but not in sciatica22 The historical detailed descriptions of cannabis as a therapeutic agent document its use as an analgesic as one of its predominant features.
