Virtual: Kremers Seminar — Taming Cannabis: Drugs and Empire in 19th Century France

Dr. Guba charts the rise and fall of cannabis as medicine in France across the 19th century and argues that, with greater engagement with their colonial history, the French might again play a major role in the medical marijuana movement. French pharmacists and physicians developed and prescribed cannabis-based medicines to treat maladies like plague, insanity, asthma, and migraines. After cannabis tinctures proved ineffective against cholera, many French medical practitioners condemned the drug.