While it is difficult to pinpoint exactly who uncovered the Cannabis' Therapeutic Qualities, an Israeli natural products chemist has earned himself the rather cool nickname, The Godfather of THC !
In The Early 1960s, he was surprised to find out that while morphine had been isolated from opium 150 years previously, and cocaine had been isolated 100 years previously, the Chemistry of Cannabis was not well known as some chemists had worked on it, but the compounds had never been isolated in pure form, and the Structures Were Not Known.
He asked a police station if he could use the confiscated #Weed to perform the research and started looking at the Chemistry of Cannabinoids in 1963 and 1964.
His first paper was on the Structure of Cannabidiol, and a bit later he isolated for the first time THC in Pure Form and elucidated its structure, and became known for his work in the isolation, structure elucidation and total synthesis of THC, the main active principle of #Cannabis and for the isolation and the identification of the endogenous cannabinoids #Anandamide from the brain and 2-AG from peripheral organs together with his group.
So, Who is The Pro Pot Professor / The Godfather of THC
He is Raphael Mechoulam, the 89-year-old Israeli organic chemist and professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel, who has been nominated for 25 separate academic awards, one of which was a Nobel Prize!
He was born in Bulgaria on November 5, 1930 to a Sephardic Jewish family (His father was a head of a local hospital). He attended an American Grade School and studied Chemical Engineering. He later studied chemistry in Israel after his family immigration, and focused on the Chemistry of Natural Products, mostly from plants.
He received his M.Sc. in biochemistry from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1952), and his Ph.D. at the Weizmann Institute, Reḥovot (1958), with a thesis on the chemistry of steroids. When he was aged just 34 years, he teamed up with his colleague Prof Yechiel Gaoni to publish a pioneering scientific article that highlighted how they successfully analyzed and synthesized the Cannabis Plant’s Main Psychoactive Ingredient THC.
The Pro-Pot Professor who has been studying THC & CBD since 1963, with a strong influence on the moulding of the Medical Cannabis Industry, does not agree with Cannabis’ Schedule 1 classification. He said:
The problem is that for many years, marijuana was put on the [same] scale as cocaine and morphine. This is not fair.
The Scientist Movie (2015)
Professor Mechoulam was on a bus carrying 5 kilos of cannabis in his bag to his laboratory at the Weitzmann Institute in Rehovot. That bus ride turned out to be a historic one, as he used that cannabis to discover the psychoactive component in #Marijuana, THC.
His research efforts were in the midst of Rise of Cannabis Reform that he even had a 2015 Documentary #Movie called "The Scientist: Are We Missing Something?" produced in his honor.
The Documentary that traces the story of Nobel price nominee Dr Mechoulam from his early days is extraordinary. The credibility of this documentary is what makes this so wonderful.
The Scientist was simply investigating the Medical Benefit of Cannabis with no ulterior motives. The scientist ascertained that THC interacts with the largest receptor system in the human body, the endocannabinoid system (ECS). The scientist testifies that CBD helps decrease and even cure epilepsy.
The Study was published 3 decades ago, this show us how CORRUPT and disengaged the Medical & Pharmaceutical Companies are. They do not want CBD & THC researched or sold, because they will lose BILLIONS of dollars!
References & Photos / Wikipedia / Imdb / Ilae.org / Ganjapreneur /