HerbalGram Publishes First Cannabis Cover in its 30-Year History (AUSTIN, Texas, February 7, 2013) HerbalGram, the journal of the American Botanical Council (ABC), has unveiled its first cannabis cover in 30 years of publishing history. The beautiful cover image of Cannabis sativa, photographed by Johnny Wiggs, accompanies the issue’s cover story on the federal medicinal cannabis program in Israel, written by associate editor Lindsay Stafford Mader. The cannabis cover represents an important milestone for ABC and is symbolic of the progress being made by the global medicinal cannabis community. According to ABC Founder and Executive Director Mark Blumenthal: There is obvious growing social demand for and acceptance of medicinal cannabis, and for this, and other reasons, ABC has increased its cannabis coverage in recent years. Now, more than 20 years since our first cannabis story, we have decided to recognize this important plant with the first-ever HerbalGram cannabis cover…. Other herb organizations also are dealing with cannabis. The American Herbal Pharmacopoeia is developing a Standards Monograph and Therapeutic Compendium — the first of its kind in North America — and the American Herbal Products Association’s Cannabis Committee just released draft recommendations for regulators on the legal dispensation of medicinal cannabis. As members of the medicinal cannabis community continue to work on quality standards, scientific research, and legal advocacy, ABC will maintain its medicinal cannabis coverage. From our perspective, cannabis is just another medicinal plant — one with a compelling history and an apparently promising future. HerbalGram 97 The entirety of Blumenthal’s Dear Reader column — available on ABC’s website and in HerbalGram issue #97 (in mailboxes and on newsstands in the coming days) — further discusses ABC’s history of cannabis coverage. Mader’s feature story, “The Quiet Giant: Israel’s Discreet and Successful Medicinal Cannabis Program,” also is available on ABC’s website and in HerbalGram #97. Please consider joining ABC so you can receive your own subscription to the acclaimed journal HerbalGram. Information about the many benefits of ABC membership can be found here.