The bizarre story of how cannabis became an illegal drug
By Rhoda Wilson on February 13, 2025
The illogicality of our present laws is, perhaps, best illustrated by the fact that cannabis (marijuana) is classified as a dangerous, illegal drug. The bizarre story of the way that cannabis acquired its false reputation is worth telling.
In the 19th century cannabis was being used in Britain to help opium eaters kick their habit and the chances are that cannabis would have remained a fairly obscure drug had not a Dr. Warnock, then Superintendent of the Cairo Asylum in Egypt, written a report suggesting that it might be the cause of insanity.
Dr. Warnock wrote his report in 1895 and it seems likely that he came to his conclusion because many of the inmates in his asylum were enthusiastic cannabis users. What Dr. Warnock seems to have overlooked is that cannabis was extremely popular outside the asylum too.
Dr. Warnock was very much out on his own when he wrote his report. Other experts who had studied cannabis had all come to a different conclusion. The Indian Help Drugs Commission of 1893-4 was set up to examine the trade in hemp drugs (cannabis) and their effect on the social and moral condition of the people in India. The Commission had been given the job of deciding whether or not cannabis should be made illegal. Its conclusion was that the physical, mental and moral effects of cannabis were not adverse and that there was no evidence of cannabis leading to addiction. All the available evidence suggested that cannabis was no more damaging a drug than tea or coffee.
But Dr. Warnock’s isolated and eccentric view became important when, in 1925, Britain, together with a number of other countries signed the International Opium Convention.
The Convention was designed to introduce binding international controls on the sale of opium and cannabis was included along with the far more dangerous opiates as a result of pressure from Egypt where it was still believed that the regular use of cannabis could lead to mental illness.
Britain and the other signatories accepted Egypt’s request to include cannabis on the list of controlled drugs since it seemed, at the time, to be a fairly modest and almost irrelevant concession. The outlawing of cannabis, as a harmless drug, was regarded as a small price to pay for persuading Egypt to sign the opium ban.
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