Hemp fiber was common in colonial America, it was used for a thousand everyday purposes from ropes to tablecloths to paper. Hemp grows great in America and was in constant demand. But hemp was not a profitable crop because of the high labor costs to prepare the fibers. The one exception was in 1800s Kentucky,…
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Did George Washington Grow Marijuana? It is no secret that George Washington grew cannabis for hemp fiber at his Mount Vernon plantation. Hemp grew all over colonial America and was always in demand. But is it possible that the first President may have grown marijuana as well? A closer look at the evidence reveals tantalizing…
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What matters is not why it was done, but how it was done in the USA. In Part I we discussed how cannabis was originally prohibited through a series of international drug control treaties and local bans in many countries and 29 US states. Mexico banned cannabis in 1920 and the League of Nations, including the UK and Canada, banned cannabis…
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Cannabis was controversial long before it came to the USA. If you Google the question, “why was marijuana made illegal?” you will find many articles on the subject, most of which start the story in early 1900’s America and focus on Harry Anslinger, the Marihuana Tax Act, racism, and perhaps some wild industrial conspiracy theories….
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The history of marijuana in America is also a history of American popular music. Cannabis medicines and hashish were sold openly in the United States in the 1800’s, though consuming them recreationally was a relatively obscure vice. The practice of smoking cannabis as marijuana in cigarette form came to the USA in the early 1900’s…
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They don’t teach you in Sunday school that cannabis appears in the Old Testament but modern scholarship shows that cannabis was used sacramentally by Moses and the ancient Israelites. Cannabis appears by name five times in the original Hebrew text of Bible according to research by Polish etymologist Sula Benet whose work was later expanded…
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The Biblical creation story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden can be viewed as a prohibition myth that tells the story of how Eve discovered cannabis, began agriculture, and brought forth civilization. Rather than the fall of man, the Garden of Eden myth can be seen as the fall of the Goddess…
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As efforts for cannabis legalization heats up prohibitionists are quick to say that we need more research in order to know if cannabis is safe. Prohibitionists always seem to overlook that society has had a long history with cannabis and it is generally the federal government that has prevented adequate research from being done. Cannabis…
Continue reading →Five states will be voting on the legalization of recreational marijuana in the upcoming elections, plus four more voting on medical use. What is at stake is much bigger than simply the right for adults to get high, the movement to end cannabis prohibition is part of the same cultural battle as Black Lives Matter,…
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Marijuana legalization is culture war. From cultural conservatives fearful of losing the war on drugs to counter culture leftists who equally fear their precious herb will be corrupted by the poisoned chalice of capitalism and big business. Marijuana is representative of long standing culture wars and the prospect of legalization has implications far beyond arrest…
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