Cannabis Voices

Martin A. Lee - the godfather of CBD

March 30, 2021 Martin A. Lee Season 1 Episode 31
Cannabis Voices
Martin A. Lee - the godfather of CBD
Show Notes

Martin A. Lee is an award winning journalist and author who as well as cannabis has written  about fascism, media fairness, drug policy and the social history of LSD.

Most people in the cannabis industry know Martin as the founder of Project CBD, a respected educational cannabis nonprofit that promotes and publicises research into the medical uses of  CBD and other components of the cannabis plant.

In this episode, Martin shares how back in 2008, as one of the few journalists  attending the early International Cannabinoid Research Society symposiums, he was fascinated by the preclinical studies showing the  therapeutic potential of CBD in a host of health conditions.

However, on returning to California, he realised that  only high THC cannabis was available to patients  with no mention made of CBD.

And so began his hunt for CBD-rich cannabis cultivars. His quest was eventually rewarded  with the discovery of about six varietals, which Martin and a small group of other CBD enthusiasts began giving away to patients, dispensaries and growers in California. 

And so in 2009 Project CBD was born, without which the Stanley Brothers probably wouldn't have known to grow a CBD-rich strain of cannabis in Colorado,  the world may not have heard about how CBD reduced the seizures of Charlotte Figi, and the current global CBD phenomenon quite possibly would not have been born.

Resources
Project CBD

Martin's books
The Essential Guide to CBD

Acid Dreams: The Complete Social History of LSD

Smoke Signals: A Social History of Marijuana - Medical, Recreational, and Scientific

The Beast Reawakens 

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