Hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) and abortion.

The correspondence of Zias et al. (1993), related the finding of carbonized matter containing tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the primary psychoactive component of marijuana, in the abdomen of an adolescent girl who apparently died in childbirth around 400 AD. The researchers’s hypothesis was that Cannabis was administered to women in child birth to relieve pains and increase uterine contractions because at this time assisting women in labour by physicians was prohibited. Prioreschi and Babin (1993) criticized the hypothesis of Zias et al., arguing that in ancient medicine many plants were used for this purpose. They said that if Cannabis was used in a difficult delivery, it doesn’t prove that it was used because of it’s pharmacological properties stated, and they asked why Zias et al. believed ‘that in antiquity physicians were prohibited by law from attending women in labour’. These authors concluded that in ancient Mesopotamia physicians presumably attended deliveries as they performed caesarean sections. In the Rif, the northern zone of Morocco, the Cannabis crop is linked to local population history. Herbal remedies were commonly used to treat different ailments because many communities and villagers live in remote areas where health facilities are not available. An intensive and systematic survey was conducted in fourteen districts of the Rif region for folklore information about drugs plants used for abortion. Midwives, whose knowledge in attending women in chilbirth was very appreciated, control the use of traditional herbal preparations to provoke abortion in the Rif zone. Eight midwives from 58 to 74 years old were inquired, each one having up to 20 of experience. Interviews reveal that each one had assisted around ten women in delivery per year and that they recognized the use of abortive preparation in case of accidental pregnancy although it was prohibited by muslim religion. In their careers our eight informants have practiced abortion with success; they recognized around 14 abortion cases, a number that we consider below to the real situation. Ethnobotanical data shows that two polyberbal preparations were used to induce abortion. * Corresponding author. Fax: +34-958-243912. E-mail address: [email protected] (A. Merzouki).