OG Raphael Mechoulam
Rob Sanchez
The Cannabis Industry and Culture lost one of the great ones this month. Dr. Raphael Mechoulam passed away at 92 years old. He lived a rich life and made some serious contributions to cannabis. His biggest achievement may be the discovery and isolation of CBD in 1963 and THC in 1964, but this was only the calm before the storm as he and his fellow researchers continued to advance science around the endocannabinoid system and THC/CBD for decades to come. He inspired cannabis folks to become more scientific and scientists to consider the medical and scientific aspects of cannabis. He was ahead of his time and will be missed in the community and his professional and personal families.
Mechoulam had a very interesting upbringing that no doubt contributed to his tenacity and curiosity. He was born in Bulgaria in 1930. His parents helped to shape him into the man he would become. His mother gave him access to an unending stream of knowledge, books and performance arts. While his father, who survived the holocaust, supervised a Jewish Hospital. He later settled with his family in Israel, around1949, where he began studying chemistry in earnest.
Only a few years later in 1952, he received his Masters in Biochemistry from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem followed by his PhD in 1958 from the Weizmann Institute. Embodying the life of a continuous learner, he pushed on toward postdoctoral studies at the Rockefeller Institute in New York in 1959 & 1960.
After discovering and isolating CBD, Mechoulam did the unthinkable and contacted the police to ask for a donation of smuggled hash to research further. The police at the time would burn or destroy anything they confiscated. We’re all thankful to whomever was in charge at the time because Mechoulam received 5kg of delicious Lebanese hash to take back on the bus and study. He knew it had been used for hundreds of years as medicine and wanted to research it further to understand why, despite the stigma society had placed on it. I don’t want to understate this - Mechoulam was groundbreaking and revolutionary in pushing onwards with scientific study of cannabis when other countries were restricting and criminalizing the substance. Only a few years before his successful breakthroughs, the UN signed an international narcotics agreement to cement their position against cannabis and prevent the descheduling below a 2.
In the 80s, Mechoulam announced that if cannabis was made legal it could replace up to 20% of all pharmaceutical drugs! (Wild, right?) He and the researchers he guided and inspired went on to discover Anandamide and 2-AG both are endogenous endocannabinoids. Anandamide is named after the Sanskrit word for “supreme joy” for its association with increased levels of dopamine, possible addiction connections and, well, the “joy” it caused. 2-AG is still being understood further and how it relates to the circulatory system and the blood vessels of the heart. The prevalence of cannabinoids and endocannabinoids meant there was no shortage of research rabbit holes to explore; the exploration of which continues on to this day. The latest breakthrough on Mechoulam’s line of work was the discovery of CBDa (Cannabidiolic Acid Methyl Ester). CBDa is being studied for therapeutic uses in treating inflammation, anxiety and cancer now.
Overall, the dude deserves to be remembered and celebrated by both the cannabis and scientific communities. In the wake of his studies, many other researchers have gone on to document the efficiency of cannabis therapy for PTSD, schizophrenia, HIV, seizures and much more. Dr. Raphael Mechoulam is regarded as the Godfather of THC for these reasons and rightfully so. Go ahead and dedicate a bowl to the man, the myth and the legend. We’re all thankful for his contributions and excited to see what his followers contribute to the world of science and our understanding of cannabis next.
Mechoulam’s Achievements:
1994 – Elected Member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities
1999-2000 – President, International Cannabinoid Research Society (ICRS)
2000 – Israel Prize in Exact Sciences - Chemistry
2001 – Honorary doctorate from Ohio State University
2002 – Honorary Member of the Israeli Society of Physiology and Pharmacology
2003-2005 – Chairman of the Board, International Association for Cannabinoid Medicines (IACM)
2006 – Honorary doctorate from Complutense University
2011 – NIDA Discovery Award
2012 – EMET Prize in Exact Sciences - Chemistry
2012 – Recipient of the Rothschild Prize in Chemical Sciences and Physical Sciences
2014 – IACM Award
2016 – Genius 100 Visionary
2018 – Honoris causa from the University of Guelph
2019 – Honoris causa from the Weizmann Institute of Science
2019-2020 – Harvey Prize of the Technion