This book deals with the endocannabinoid system and cannabis as a medicinal remedy. Both are subjects with peculiarities: the endocannabinoid system has a molecular, non-organic existence, and therefore does not resemble organic systems, while cannabis as a remedy does not fit into the prevailing pharmaceutical model. The book arose from the systematization of knowledge acquired during a difficult but rewarding “journey” of study and self-education.

Self-education was necessary because the endocannabinoid system, one of the oldest and most fundamental systems in most animals, is paradoxically not yet considered sufficiently important to be taught by our official educational institutions. This may be due in part to its name, which associates it with the previously “infamous” cannabis plant, while it is millions of years older than both cannabis and Homo sapiens.

As a physician, I was initially cautious, or rather negative, about the therapeutic applications of cannabis. My transformation into an “open” scholar is due to an exhaustive literary search for scientific data. These convinced me that there is something important here, and that our bias prevents us from seeing it. The seed of doubt, which later prompted the search, was sown early on by my late teacher Konstantinos Stefanis with his own studies.

The book is not merely an exposition of medical knowledge – it embodies the transformation of my perspective on a cognitive object that oscillates between unjustified stigma and excessive expectation. The messages that this book aims to convey are as follows:

The complexity of the endocannabinoid system and the pharmacology of cannabis is particularly great. Cannabinoids cannot be treated “lightly” and with the derogatory label “little oils.”

Cannabis and its products, beyond being medicines, have other uses, such as health supplements - not dietary - lifestyle supplements, euphorics, etc. These uses are fundamentally different from therapeutic use, which must exclusively fall under the jurisdiction of physicians, as must the management of misuse and cannabis abuse.

The medical community must take its share of responsibility in research, as almost all research activity so far has been undertaken by other scientific fields, resulting in urgent clinical questions remaining unanswered and financial resources being wasted.

It is imperative that we eliminate both the stigma and the excessive expectation from cannabis. Anything that deviates from the scientific middle ground is harmful.

We must overcome conceptual limitations as imposed by the prevailing pharmaceutical model, because cannabis does not “fit” into this framework. The insistence on the medical management of cannabis under the prevailing pharmaceutical model, especially with high conservatism, ends up depriving patients of a useful medication and further complicates commercial management, e.g., when cannabinoids are categorized as “novel foods”(!).