Lumír Ondřej Hanuš (Hebrew: לומיר הנוש) is a Czech analytic chemist and leading authority in the field of cannabis research. In 1992, he and William Anthony Devane isolated and first described the structure of anandamide, an endogenous cannabinoidneurotransmitter.
In 1966, Hanuš began studying at the Faculty of Science of Palacký University Olomouc. In 1970, professor Zdeněk Krejčí of the Faculty of Medicine's Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology (where the anti-bacterial effects of cannabis were described in 1955) needed an aide. Hanuš started to work as Krejčí's assistant in the research of cannabis and hashish in December of that year. There, Hanuš also met professors Jan Kabelík and František Šantavý, who, together with Krejčí, laid the foundations of the research of cannabis and its curative effects. Hanuš grew cannabis for research purposes on two fields in the Research Institute of Vegetable Growing and Breeding in Olomouc from 1971. The extracts were also used at the University Hospital Olomouc as a cure for aphthous ulcer, herpes simplex, herpes zoster, and pressure ulcers.[8]
Hanuš graduated with a Master of Science in 1972 and he earned a Doctorate in Science at Olomouc in 1974. He pursued his academic and research activities there until 1990. Hanuš also took part in research at the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences and continued post-graduate research study at Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Brno (today Masaryk University). In years 1978–1979 he worked as a research associate at the University of Mississippi, focusing not only on cannabis, but also on coca leaves.[9] He became associate professor in organic chemistry in Olomouc in 1994 and obtained a Doctorate of Sciences in pharmaceutical chemistry at Charles University in 1995.
Hanuš marks cannabis as "one of the safest known medications".[12]
According to Hanuš, alcohol and tobacco should be "blacklisted" rather than cannabis, as there is a possibility of both physical and psychological addiction to the first two, while there is no possibility of physical, and only limited possibility of psychological addiction to marijuana.[8] Moreover, people under the influence of marijuana are not dangerous to others. He does not support smoking marijuana because of the dangers of smoke inhalation. Hanuš is against uncontrolled use of marijuana, but he fully supports its use for medical purposes.[8]
In April 2010 and September 2011, Hanuš took part in a seminar of the Czech Parliament aimed at introduction of cannabinoid treatment.[12]
September 14, 2005: Hanuš Medal (The Czech Chemical Society in Prague) for furthering creditable work in the fields of chemistry.
November 6, 2006: Memorial Medal (Rector of the Palacký University Olomouc) on the 50th anniversary of the revival and reopening of the university in Olomouc at the occasion of delivering the 13th annual lecture in honour of J. L. Fischer
2011: Honorary Scientific Fellow of the Czech Neuropsychopharmacological Society
2011: nominated for the Addictology award for best achievement in the year 2011
November 22, 2012: Addictology Award (Charles University, Prague) for significant contribution in the field of addictology in the past year
June 13, 2013: Olomouc City Award for the year 2012
March 29, 2014: Recognition (ONEJ), Ljubljana, Slovenia
2014: nominated for the position of The International Cannabinoid Research Society President
March 22, 2016: 2015 Lifetime Award Winner (Americans for Safe Access), Washington D.C., USA
September 10, 2016: Commemorative Medal of the Palacky University in Olomouc for extraordinary representation of Palacky University in the Czech Republic and abroad (Pamětní medaile Univerzity Palackého v Olomouci za mimořádnou reprezentaci Univerzity Palackého v České republice a v zahraničí)
January 13, 2018: Recognition, Punta del Este, Uruguay
September 27, 2018: Lifetime Achievement Award, CanEx Jamaica, Montego Bay, Jamaica
^The Czech Chemical Society, Prague; for furthering creditable work in the fields of chemistry
^Rector of Palacký University Olomouc; on the 50th anniversary of the revival and reopening of the university in Olomouc on the occasion of delivering the 13th annual lecture in honour of J. L. Fischer
^"Lumír Hanuš". blisty.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 2011-05-03.
^Devane WA, Hanus L, Breuer A, Pertwee RG, Stevenson LA, Griffin G, Gibson D, Mandelbaum A, Etinger A, Mechoulam R (December 1992). "Isolation and structure of a brain constituent that binds to the cannabinoid receptor". Science. 258 (5090): 1946–9. doi:10.1126/science.1470919. PMID1470919.
^Mechoulam R, Fride E (1995). "The unpaved road to the endogenous brain cannabinoid ligands, the anandamides". In Pertwee RG (ed.). Cannabinoid receptors. Boston: Academic Press. pp. 233–258. ISBN0-12-551460-3.
