Cannabis and Synthetics

Abstract

Cannabis (or hashish) is a plant used to make hemp fibre. Its use as a herbal remedy was recorded in 2700 BC and it has long been prescribed as a sedative and analgesic, though it has now been superseded for medical purposes. It was also used as a stimulant or euphoriant in Syria and Iraq in the eleventh to thirteenth centuries to motivate the first Islamic fundamentalists, the Shia hashishi (Arabic for hashish takers); the word corrupted to ‘The Assassins’.