History & context
How modern medicine arrived at where it is.
- ArticleA History of Cannabis in Medicine
Cannabis has been used in medicine for thousands of years. Here's how we got from ancient pharmacopoeias to Australia's modern regulatory framework.
- ArticleAncient Use of Medicinal Plants
Humans have been using plants as medicine for at least 60,000 years. Here's what the archaeological record actually shows — and what we should be careful about claiming.
- ArticleA Timeline of Australian Drug Scheduling
A plain-English timeline of Australian drug scheduling, from colonial poisons laws to the Poisons Standard, cannabis changes and psilocybin in 2023.
- ArticleAustralia’s 2016 Medicinal Cannabis Legalisation
How did medicinal cannabis legalisation happen in Australia in 2016? A plain-English look at the Act, the scheduling changes and the gap between law and access.
- ArticleHow the TGA Came to Be
How the TGA came to be: from thalidomide and patchwork state rules to the 1989 Act, and why that history still shapes how we read product claims.
- ArticleIsolation of the First Plant Alkaloids
How the first plant alkaloids were isolated from poppy, cinchona and coca, and why that early chemistry still shapes plant medicine and regulation.
- ArticleThe 1925 Geneva Convention and Cannabis
The 1925 Geneva Convention first placed cannabis inside an international drug treaty. Here is what it said, who argued, and what evidence existed.
- ArticleThe 20th-Century Shift to Synthetic Drugs
How 20th-century chemistry sidelined plant medicine — and why understanding that shift still matters for reading modern research clearly.
- ArticleThe Birth of Pharmacognosy
From Dioscorides to the TGA, pharmacognosy has a longer, stranger history than most people realise. Here's how plant medicine became a science.
- ArticleThe Discovery of the Endocannabinoid System
How a synthetic cannabinoid, a persistent Israeli biochemist, and decades of scepticism led to one of the most significant discoveries in neuroscience.
- ArticleThe Entourage Effect: History of an Idea
The entourage effect is one of cannabis science's most repeated ideas. Here is where it came from, and what the evidence does and does not show so far.
- ArticleThe Origins of Cannabis Prohibition
Cannabis wasn't always a prohibited substance. Understanding how prohibition came to pass reveals as much about politics and race as it does about pharmacology.
- ArticleThe Re-emergence of Botanical Medicine
From Dioscorides to the modern TGA register: how botanical medicine fell out of fashion, then quietly came back — and what the evidence actually shows.
- ArticleThe Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs (1961)
The 1961 Single Convention reshaped how the world classifies cannabis and opiates. Here's what it actually said, and how it still echoes in Australian law today.
- ArticleUN Scheduling of Cannabis
How a 1961 treaty locked cannabis into its most restrictive category — and what the 2020 UN vote actually changed, and didn't.