Maurice Payes, now 77, recently described his time as an apprentice pharmacist, then eventual partner and owner of a pharmacy in Waterloo, New Zealand that was one of many pharmacies who prescribed a hemp-based solution for that pesky uncontrollable “backflow” best known as diarrhea.

Payes gave Waterloo’s The Dominion Post an exclusive interview, detailing his long history at the local Waterloo Pharmacy. He began working there in 1955 at age 16, studying at a nearby school two days a week for the first four years, then eventually becoming a partner in 1961. He took full control in 1969, and is now looking to retirement after many years of pleasing patients with an ever-growing list of remedies.

In his discussion with The Dominion Post, Payes recollects the frequent employment of cannabis to combat patients with diarrhea. He recalls a positive response from its use:

"It used to come in liquid form. Not the same kind that was used for smoking, but it came from hemp. It worked quite well apparently.”

Of course, cannabis had been in use as a medicine for a long time before 1955, but it never hurts to have another drop in the bucket supporting the efficacy of its use. While the solution used back then was not likely as refined or exciting as the concoctions we’re coming up with today, it’s one more piece of evidence in the long history of the successful application of marijuana for medicinal purposes.