Does 4/20 Still Matter? Zoe Wilder
In Mexico, native healers known as the curanderos used cannabis, or
pipiltzintzintli, in their practice to treat a variety of conditions. The shamans believed there was a correlation between medicinal plants and divine spirits, a notion that didn’t sit well with the Spanish church. “Towards the end of the 17th Century, the Catholic Church caught wind of this and banned cannabis, spreading rumors that people who used it were in communion with the devil and would go crazy,” says Steve DeAngelo, one of the world’s leading cannabis activists and founder of California’s Harborside Health Center.