history

By Kim Murphy, Los Angeles Times

 

For years, his seed catalogs were scrutinized by discerning cannabis cultivators across the U.S. and Canada, much like the ladies of Cumbria might fuss over Chiltern's inventories of sweet peas and heirloom tomatoes.

 

There was Blue Heaven pot, capable of producing a "euphoric, anti-anxiety high," or Crown Royal, whose "flower tops come to a flat golden crown, sparkling with gems of THC," or Hawaiian Sativa, with its "menthol flavor that tingles the taste buds and tickles the brain."

 

The difference between Marc Emery's pot seeds and countless others on the market was that if you bought Emery's, he'd use the money to launch a cannabis tsunami across North America that would set the war on drugs adrift like a cork on a massive sea of weed.

By. Steve Elliot, Toke of the Town

 

Never-before seen journals found recently at a garage sale outside Buffalo, N.Y., chronicle the life of Lyster Dewey, who tended a United States government hemp farm in the 19th and 20th centuries.

 

Dewey, a botanist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, wrote in detail about growing strains of hemp called Keijo, Chinamington and others on a tract of government land known as Arlington Farm, reports Manuel Roig-Franzia of the The Washington Post.

 

If the "Arlington" part of that name sounds familiar -- as in Arlington National Cemetery -- that's because the acreage used to grow the hemp was handed over to the War Department in the 1940s for construction of the world's largest office building: the Pentagon.

 

So in addition to the already-known intertwining of the noble hemp plant and U.S. history, now it is revealed that the very location of the Pentagon itself was once covered with verdant fields of cannabis.

 

The Hemp Industries Association, a small trade group, bought Dewey's diaries. Leaders of the group are betting that displaying them for the first time on Monday will help increase public knowledge that hemp was used for ropes on Navy ships and World War II parachute webbing.

by NORML

This is part of an ongoing series featuring women who are leading the movement for the elimination of marijuana prohibition and the reform of laws governing its use in the United States. They are making history in law reform advocacy, cannabis related business and politics and in the field of medical research and patient care.

In May 1929, Pauline Sabin (left) founded the Women’s Organization for National Prohibition Reform (WONPR). It was a platform for women who were demanding the repeal of the 18th amendment forbidding the manufacture and sale of alcohol. Known as the Sabin women, the leadership of the WONPR consisted primarily of the nonpartisan wives of leaders of American industry. In a little over a year, almost 1.5 million Sabin Women were publicly calling for an end to prohibition-inspired violence and political malfeasance related to the illegal production of alcohol.

Visitors to Monticello don't learn how Jefferson cultivated poppies, and his personal opium use may as well never have happened.

The following is an excerpt from Jim Hogshire's "Opium for the Masses: Harvesting Nature's Best Pain Medication" (Feral House, 2009).

Thomas Jefferson was a drug criminal. But he managed to escape the terrible sword of justice by dying a century before the DEA was created. In 1987 agents from the Drug Enforcement Agency showed up at Monticello, Jefferson's famous estate.

 

Jefferson had planted opium poppies in his medicinal garden, and opium poppies are now deemed illegal. Now, the trouble was the folks at the Monticello Foundation, which preserves and maintains the historic site, were discovered flagrantly continuing Jefferson's crimes. The agents were blunt: The poppies had to be immediately uprooted and destroyed or else they were going to start making arrests, and Monticello Foundation personnel would perhaps face lengthy stretches in prison.

By. NewsLanc.com

It is important to note the original instances that created our current problem. A racist push for department finances and special interests were the original reasons for marijuana prohibition. Alcohol prohibition had ended. The head of what equaled the DEA 70 odd years ago, needed tax revenue. This is the original mindset and process that criminalized marijuana.

Harry J. Anslinger – most direct founder of marijuana prohibition:

“There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos, and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz, and swing, result from marijuana use. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers, and any others.”