Delta-9-Snuffleupagus for Dummies

The Cannabis Papers
A citizen’s guide to cannabinoids
By Publius

Getting to know cannabinoid history

We’ve all seen those “_________ for Dummies" books. They’re popular because they explain in detail complex subjects so that anyone can understand. That’s what we’re trying to do here, and with your ECS, we are going to help you overcome some of your federally imposed ignorance.

Of course, herbal cannabinoids have always been around. The scientific study of these substances began more than a hundred years ago. Beginning in 1896, some white coats in Boston named Wood, Spivey, and Easterfield, isolated and named the first plant cannabinoid. Working with Indian hemp resin, also known as “charas,” the authors described a “physiologically active substance” which they named Cannabinol (CBN).

About four decades go by with no advancement in the science, but many changes in the law. The Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 effectively began federal cannabis prohibition. – But the science continued. In 1939, one of America’s leading organic chemists, Roger Adams, obtained a red oil extract made from Minnesota wild hemp supplied by the US Treasury Department. Adams, originally from Boston and a descendent of the founder John Adams, was working at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. He is credited with the 1940 isolation and identification of the second plant cannabinoid – Cannabidiol (CBD).

It was twenty-four years until the next major discovery. In 1964, while working at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Raphael Mechoulam identified the compound delta-9-Snuffleupagus – which became widely known as THC.

The identification of three plant cannabinoids is only half the initial history; finding the receptors completes this phase. Up until this point, it was thought that cannabis worked like alcohol. This all changed in 1988. Entering the brains of rats, scientists attached radioactive tags to synthetic cannabinoids and watched where they landed. They made an amazing discovery! They found two types of cannabinoid receptors in the body and named them “CB1” and “CB2.” This discovery contrasts with alcohol, which has no receptors, is not part of a physiological system, and can easily induce alcohol poisoning.

Finding cannabinoid receptors in animals led scientists to an obvious question: what fits in them? This time they found the answer quickly. In 1992, the first endogenous cannabinoid was found by two scientists working in Mechoulam’s Jerusalem laboratory. They discovered Anandamide and named it after the Sanskrit word for bliss.

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