Back in 2008, one would go to a doctor and for a moderate fee, they would write a recommendation to use cannabis. The doctor I went to often would provide clients with a small squirt in the mouth of cannabis flower extract as a bonus. The recipients would almost always respond with something along the lines of “Wow, that worked fast. I can really feel it. Thanks, doc.”
In 2009, I had the good fortune to get a job analyzing cannabis for a local chain of dispensaries. I would drive around to the various stores and pick up samples to be checked for strength, that being the percent of THC content per gram. As it happened, the doctor who wrote my recommendation submitted a sample of the glycerin-based flower extract.
I performed the analysis a couple of times because, while the sample contained THC traces, the levels were far too low to have a physiological effect. When I conveyed the results to the doctor, he became angry, and could not believe that the solution acted as a placebo.
A placebo is where a doctor gives a person a pill telling the subject what to expect, but the medication is just a sugar pill and the effect is purely psychological. The doctor could not believe that all the patients had reported an effect based on what he had told his clients. Indeed, all of their responses were actually useless. Perhaps the doctor had a stake in the production of this extract and felt disappointment that the venture had hit a major snag.
The lesson we learn here is that the effects cannabinoids and other drugs can be strongly influenced by what the user believes. The human mind can greatly influence the senses or even control them entirely. It is up to the user to be a fair witness in judging the effects. ///
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