
“Theire Soe Admirable Herbe”: How the English Found Cannabis - benbreen
https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/how-the-english-found-cannabis/
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porker
And despite this history, cannabis extracts like CBD are classed as "novel
foods" in the UK.

'A Novel Food is defined as food that had not been consumed to a significant
degree by humans in the EU before 15 May 1997, when the regulations were
introduced.'

Sources:

[https://www.healtheuropa.eu/recognition-of-cbd-as-novel-
food...](https://www.healtheuropa.eu/recognition-of-cbd-as-novel-food-could-
have-industry-ramifications/95264/)

[https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/eu-novel-food-
regulatio...](https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/eu-novel-food-regulation-
cbd/74422/)

~~~
akiselev
The Englishmen in this article found _cannabis_ not industrially produced CBD
concentrates/extracts. Just because we discovered that apple seeds contain
arsenic a few centuries ago doesn't mean that selling 10mg pills of arsenic is
safe by default.

~~~
jfengel
Cyanide, rather than arsenic. (Strictly, amygdalin, which turns into cyanide.)

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empath75
Also amusing, the first trip reports for nitrous oxide, from 1799:

[https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-nitrous-
oxide-...](https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-nitrous-oxide-
experiments-of-humphry-davy)

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JKCalhoun
"Medieval Christian and Muslim travelers such as Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta
expected to find marvels along the edges of their mental maps, spinning tales
of roc’s eggs, “mellified man", or elixirs of life."

And down the rabbit hole I merrily go:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mellified_man](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mellified_man)

~~~
ComputerGuru
It’s funny because the Chinese apparently thought it was the Arabs that had
elderly willing to submit themselves to mellificetion, so it would seem Ibn
Battuta discovered that what he was looking for had been back home the whole
time.

