Leonard Leinow

About as in depth as you can get without a college course. Broken down in “makes sense” chapters, starting with “How Best To Use This Book” it’s a full course on the history of usage on up to its “Future Frontier” with enough information between to make you the most interesting person at your next night out with the gang.
Giving it’s chemical make-up and how that can vary by strain, along with cases of cures due to such, I’m thinking this should be sent to every legislative Say So in the country. Aside from the THC/CBD properties, there’s the simple fact that its hemp fibers are exemplary! It wasn’t always a taboo plant, in fact both George Washington Ann Thomas Jefferson we’re hemp farmers.
Thanks to Irish doctor, William Brooke O’Shaughnessy, who in 1839 probably conducted the first clinical trials, we have the first documentation of an infant being cured of seizures...within a mere few days!
But then, starting in the 1920’s William Randolph Hearst comes along and links the wonder plant to his prejudice of Mexicans and crusades to abolish its further use. Then Harry Jacob Anslinger (then Director of the FBN) adds African Americans and Chicanos to the bias, claiming smoking it made them “lust after white Women!!” Oh, the horrors! But nothing tops the anti-pot propaganda more hilariously than the now cult 1936 film “Reefer Madness” and its pseudo-psycho hype of effects.
On to “The Biology and Chemistry of Cannabis and CBD” with documentation of its effects on the human body, its organs, muscles, etc. with the active compounds interactions and effects. Fascinating how much good this one plant can do! I think when Jesus said “Heal yourself” he may have been pointing to a marijuana plant. Just saying...
Everything is broken down to easy reference chapters you can just flip to for answers to any question you may have. What’s the “Pharmacology of Phytocannabinoids”?? It’s in there! How does CBD act differently than THC? Terpenes? Indeed, with a list of a couple other plants that also carry some of the same terpenoids as cannabis and how they work/interact with you or other properties.
A chapter on how to partake includes the onset of effects, the duration and its bioavailability (smoking gives the most, unless you do, umm, rectal.) Then it goes into the various forms of such: tinctures, edibles, oils, juices, inhaling, and so on. Even a bit on synthetics. (As if!) Dosage guidelines are quite helpful with a nicely done chart to refer to. Of course the “Side Effects and Drug Interactions” is an important section, as well as very interesting, especially the “Bidirectional Effect.” The list of possible interactive drugs surprised me... antibiotics?
Part II is “CBD for Health Concerns” and extols the many benefits in an “alphabetized list” for easy look up. Each ailment has a “Dosage and Delivery” section followed by an “Effectiveness: Current Science” noting the studies.
A chapter on “Women’s Health Issues” gives more centered information as above, as does the following chapter on “Veterinary CBD” that includes the same sections on delivery methods and dosage.
Then we get into the varieties, including subspecies, and their own benefits and side effects. An “Alphabetized List of High-CBD Strains” gives the potency, makeup breakdown and even its aroma.
Finalizing with futuristic chapters on “Cannabis as a Tool to Fight the Opioid Epidemic” - “Political and Legal Trends” - “What’s Next-The Leading Edge of Cannabis-Based Medical Developments” to the Epilogue. Backed up with about a chapter worth of endnotes, it ends with a glossary of terms and abbreviations and index. Nice bios and contributor notes finish this compendium of everything you need to know about CBD. Well, except the nearest distributor.
Much, much more than a “patient’s guide” ... it’s damn near a course!
And it was printed on recycled paper!

Thank you Goodreads and North Atlantic Books for this fascinating read!… (altro)