If Raphael Mechoulam’s life’s work hadn’t focused on a globally prohibited and vilified plant, his might be a household name today. As the first scientist to isolate CBD and THC in the early 1960s, Dr. Mechoulam became a folk hero in the underground cannabis sphere—a status with which he is clearly uncomfortable. But it was his subsequent contribution to discovery of the endocannabinoid system—implicated in an entire spectrum of health and disease states—that is his crowning achievement. Yet even today, decades after its discovery, the endocannabinoid system remains largely under the radar within the mainstream scientific community. We can only hope prohibition surrounding cannabinoid research will end in his lifetime, and the octogenarian scientist will receive his deserved recognition. Read more on mg magazine
