Before I wander into a conversation about medical marijuana I want to acknowledge that Earth based and natural healing was not entirely lost during the burning times. By nineteen hundred it was thriving once again. Chiropractic, herbalists, and homeopathy were the therapies of choice in the United States. But all that was about to change.

Carnegie and Rockefeller saw tremendous potential for the production of synthetic drugs and took the opportunity to partner with a then struggling American Medical Association to provide a market for these medicines. At the time the AMA was working to shut down the homeopathic colleges and replace them with colleges and universities focused on training doctors with manufactured chemical drugs. Carnegie and Rockefeller showered hundreds of millions of dollars on these medical schools that were teaching drug intensive medicine. And it worked. By nineteen twenty-five over ten thousand herbalists were out of business. By nineteen forty over fifteen hundred chiropractors would be prosecuted for practicing quackery. By nineteen fifty the twenty-two homeopathic medical schools that had flourished in the early nineteen hundreds were closed.

The quest for power and profit would once again marginalize Earth and plant based healing traditions. Fortunately there are those who tenaciously keep this ancient wisdom alive, vital, and accessible.