| Cannabis, also known as marijuana (from the Mexican Spanish marihuana) and by other names, a[›] refers to preparations of the Cannabis plant intended for use as a psychoactive drug and as medicine. Chemically, the major psychoactive compound in marijuana is delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC); it is one of 400 compounds in the plant, including other cannabinoids, such as cannabidiol (CBD), cannabinol (CBN), and tetrahydrocannabivarin (THCV), which can produce sensory effects unlike the psychoactive effects of THC. Marijuana is the herbal form of cannabis, and comprises the flowers, the subtending leaves, and the stalks of mature, pistillate female plants; hashish is the resinous, concentrated form of cannabis. Contemporary uses of marihuana and cannabis are as recreational drug, as religious rite, as spiritual rite, and as medicine; the earliest recorded uses date from the 3rd millennium BC. In 2004, the United Nations estimated that global consumption of cannabis indicated that approximately 4.0 percent of the adult world population (162 million people) used cannabis annually, and that approximately 0.6 percent (22.5 million) of people used cannabis daily. In the early 20th century, the possession, recreational use, and sale of cannabis preparations containing psychoactive cannabinoids was made illegal in most countries of the world; nonetheless, the UN indicated that cannabis is the most used illicit drug in the world. |
