Cannabis

Cannabis is one of the oldest and most widely cultivated plants in human history, used across cultures for millennia as medicine, food, fibre, and sacrament. Its long, layered history means its use rarely fits neatly into a single category , the same plant (Cannabis Sativa and Cannabis Indica) has been, and continues to be, used recreationally, medicinally, and spiritually, often by the same communities simultaneously, with these categories overlapping rather than sitting cleanly apart.

Pharmacology

Cannabis produces its effects primarily through interaction with the body’s endocannabinoid system (ECS) — a signalling network involving two main receptor types, CB1 and CB2, distributed throughout the central nervous system and immune system respectively. The body naturally produces its own signalling molecules for this system, called endocannabinoids (such as anandamide), and cannabis’s active compounds, called phytocannabinoids, interact with the same receptor network.

The two most studied phytocannabinoids are:

• THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) — the primary psychoactive compound in cannabis, acting as an agonist at CB1 receptors, meaning it directly activates them. This is what produces the characteristic “high,” along with effects including altered perception and, at a clinical level, a well-documented antiemetic (anti-nausea) effect. THC also has a mild effect on dopamine release, contributing to its reinforcing, habit-forming potential, though generally at a lower level than substances like nicotine or amphetamine.
• CBD (cannabidiol) — non-psychoactive, and does not directly bind CB1 or CB2 receptors in the same way THC does. Instead, CBD works through a more indirect and varied set of mechanisms — including boosting the body’s own anandamide levels, and interacting with serotonin, vanilloid, and glycine receptor systems. This more diffuse mechanism is part of why CBD doesn’t produce a “high” despite still having measurable physiological effects, including anti-inflammatory and pain-modulating properties.

Because THC and CBD act through different (and sometimes opposing) mechanisms, the ratio of these two compounds in a given cannabis product significantly shapes its effects — a factor increasingly relevant in medical formulations, where CBD-dominant products are often selected specifically to minimise psychoactive effects while retaining therapeutic benefit.

Recreational use

Cannabis is most commonly associated today with recreational use; consumption for relaxation, altered perception, or social enjoyment rather than a specific medical or spiritual purpose. It is reported to be more widely used in Australia than all other illegal drugs combined. Legal status for recreational use varies enormously by jurisdiction: partially legal in some places, decriminalised in others, and remaining a criminal offence elsewhere.

Medicinal use

Cannabis has a long history of therapeutic use, and in recent decades has seen a significant resurgence in formal medical application. It’s used to manage a range of conditions and symptoms, including chronic pain, chemotherapy-induced nausea, epilepsy, and muscle spasticity, among others, with an increasing number of jurisdictions establishing legal medical cannabis frameworks even where recreational use remains restricted or illegal. Medical use typically involves specific formulations, dosing, and clinical oversight distinct from recreational consumption.

Entheogenic use

Beyond recreation and medicine, cannabis has a substantial history as an entheogen — a substance used in religious, spiritual, or shamanic contexts to facilitate a sense of the sacred, altered states of consciousness, or spiritual insight. Its entheogenic use traces back to the Vedic period on the Indian subcontinent, roughly 1500 BCE, and continues today in traditions including Rastafarianism, where cannabis (referred to as ganja) is used in communal “reasoning sessions,” as well as within some Hindu, Coptic, and Tantric Buddhist practices. In these contexts, cannabis isn’t used primarily to relax or to treat a condition, but as a tool for prayer, meditation, ritual, or spiritual exploration — a use case that predates, and exists independently of, its modern recreational and medical framings.

One substance three contexts?

Cannabis’s use across recreational, medicinal, and entheogenic contexts isn’t a case of three unrelated plants that happen to share a name — it’s the same plant, understood and used differently depending on cultural, spiritual, and clinical framing. Public and legal discourse around cannabis often collapses these into a single “drug vs medicine” debate, but its entheogenic and spiritual history in particular is frequently overlooked in that framing, despite predating most modern recreational and medical use by thousands of years.

Position in this vault

This pillar sits alongside this vault’s other substance-related notes, offering a broader, more culturally and historically grounded view of a single substance’s varied use — a useful contrast to the more narrowly clinical framing found in notes like Addiction.