Memories of my Thanksgiving Day 2016 and a few thoughts on “Agriculture”
Sitting here on Thanksgiving Day (2016), watching the Vikings play Detroit Lions. Trying some Blue Dream, just chilling, talking about nothing and the subject got on Cannabis. Mikey (my neighbor) asked about my favorite strain, etceteras, and I happened to answer, I don’t pay much attention to all the different strains that are available today, Blue Dream, Grandma’s Belly Button Lint, whatever.
Back in the day, WHEN we were young, like the age of those cute young things behind the counter at the typical dispensary, we had one strain as far as I was concerned. In the 1960’s, they had Panama Red/Punto Roja and Colombian Gold/Santa Marta, but the best as far as I was concerned was ACAPULCO GOLD!
Mikey and I also chatted about the measurement and pricing language today, versus the 60’s. Eighths, quarters, etceteras. How complicated it is today, with all the strains, and all the different levels of pricing. compared to a nickel bag of yesteryear.
A nickel, which stood for five dollars, was what you paid for 3.5 grams of weed, and that was for mostly leaf and stem, with a few buds thrown in. Today, the typical Arizona dispensaries that I have visited, charge medical customers around $10 per gram for the low end bud, which means that the “Nickel Bag” amount of bud, (no leaf) today costs you $45.00.
Some of the strains can be pretty pricey. For instance, “Grandma’s Belly Button Lint” can go as high as $19.00 per gram. It’s all good as far as I’m concerned, and MUCH better than the famous strains from the 60’s. Long gone are the Nickel bags.
Another difference from when we were teenagers, and today, is the “Medicinal” angle. Today, we talk of the wonderful medical aspects of all the various strains. One strain is for aches and pains, another strain might be for mood adjustment and control, yet another strain controls seizures.
Back when I was a kid, you didn’t think about curing some illness. All you thought of was getting high, and most of the shit that I smoked CAUSED………….Wait for it…………Paranoia!
The stuff I have smoked lately has been pretty darn good, when I compare it to the Acapulco Gold of the 60’s. Very inspiring, this Purple Haze or what ever it’s called. Blue Dream, that’s it.
Almost forgot about Woodstock. This is funny. Mikey and I are still remembering the good old days, although I am 10 years older. So Mikey and I have been having this conversation about Cannabis, when somehow, I mention Woodstock. 
The manner in which it came up as a subject, and what I had to say about it, would leave one on the edge of their seat, waiting for me to tell MY Woodstock story, and I’m thinking at that moment, especially my new friend Mikey. Great time talking to Mikey today, sharing a few bowl loads, drinking a Henry’s Ginger Ale. Later for my “Woodstock” story, which I call, “The Dead Armadillo”.
Thanksgiving. A day for tons of food. Maybe 50 different menu items. From soup to nuts, as they say, and of course, the turkey. This year I was unable to make it to SOCAL to be with the kids for the holiday. Note: See my last post for what I think of Thanksgiving.at:
“Grandma! Why are you dumping MY Turkey Gravy down the garbage disposal?”
So, my new friends Linda and Mikey, during our trip to the pot store yesterday, politely and graciously said that they were going to bring me a “Plate”. I said quite honestly, just save me a piece of DARK MEAT. So today, when Mikey brought it up again, and I repeated my response, “It’s not necessary to bring me a plate of food, really. My microwave doesn’t work even if you brought me a plate, so just a small piece of DARK MEAT would be awesome”.
Right after I said that to Mikey, the thought took off as I said, “In fact, if you bring me that small piece of DARK MEAT, I’ll have it BRONZED! Hahaha”. To remind me of my Thanksgivings past. When the kids were younger, fighting over the DARK MEAT.
I was always the last to sit down at the table, and although we did wait to eat until after blessing the food, before I made it to the table with the last item, the hot gravy in the gravy serving thingy, the family had already served up, piled up, their fucking plates with food.
Yes, we were all polite and Normal, “Pass the mashed potatoes please”. Not really. By the time I made it to the table, everyone else had filled their plates. Every year, it was my son taking almost ALL the fucking DARK MEAT, and leaving me with NONE! “Tommy, that’s not fair, you took all the DARK MEAT, you big prick”.
I really liked it when we went to Modesto for Thanksgiving. There were so many people, all related to my ex. One time there were at least 40 of us. When it was time to eat, we all got in line cafeteria style, which split off into two lines which passed both sides of the food tables.
It was cool, I didn’t have to butt in front of Cousin Sara, whoever she was, no matter where you were in line, there always was………….Wait for it……….DARK MEAT. Those are memorable times.
The Modesto Thanksgivings were at least ten turkeys with plenty of leftover meat to pick over. So, the bronzing part of the story is fiction, but my saying that to Mikey the neighbor as we were sharing a couple of bong loads today, made me think of how precious that dark meat was at OUR house on Thanksgiving. I’ll end this when Mikey and Linda delivers my piece of DARK MEAT this afternoon (hasn’t arrived yet).
Movie idea: 1959 to 2017 In closing, I think I’ll write a new story/synopsis. About what the world would be like today if Cannabis had been “normal” from the early 1950’s on to today. The opening scene is typical 1959. Black and White film, kid riding his bicycle on the street in front of his home, fall leaves on the ground, cameras from different shots showing different locations on Thanksgiving day, a backyard, a gas station, someone yelling to a neighbor across the street, “Happy Thanksgiving, Mr. Rogers”, etceteras etceteras etceteras.
Then, two minutes into the film, a camera zooms in from outside Jimmy’s house, all the way through the kitchen where mom is grabbing the bowl of mashed potatoes, and Dad is just finishing up the gravy, camera moves slowly into the dining room.
Now we are actually experiencing the end of Thanksgiving dinner, the audience isn’t expecting what happens next. Grandpa is taking a big hit on the family bong, and passes it on to Cousin Mary. The audience thinks, “Whoa now, where the fuck is this going?”.
No one at the dinner table is telling Grandma not to forget to take her evening pills as she takes a hit off the bong. Grandma’s 137 years old. Great Uncle George over across the table is 164 years old, and this is in 1959.
The beginning of the discovery of cures for illness and disease began in the early 1930’s. By the time your grandson was born, people are living past 200.
Note to self: That whistling sound you have been ignoring for the past two minutes? That’s your brand new teapot whistling at you from the kitchen. Oh yeah, I remember now, I purchased a teapot because I sometimes boiled my sauce pot of water down to bone dry, almost to that pot is melting smell. French Press, the ONLY way to brew coffee. Break time.
Use your own imagination on where this film is going. MAYBE, if pot had always been a normal part of our lives on this planet, there wouldn’t have been WW1, WW2, Korean War, Vietnam, all the fucking wars going on today. After this, I hope you go on to read a not so brief history of Cannabis/Hemp. Many scientist believe that it was the very first agricultural product that our species raised. Think of that!
What if the film shows our progress in areas such as science and medicine continually advancing to the point where in 2016, there are no wars, Cancers have been defeated, people love one another with no bigotry, racism and hatred. The “Police” are just a small token of what we really have today, and they don’t carry guns. What police that we do have, are really looked upon as servants to the community.
Since there are no wars, there are no armies or military/industrial complex. There is no such thing as “overpopulation”, after all, this planet is HUGE. there are no “Green House Gases”. No pollution. The oceans are full of fish. Everything is cool.
In this imaginary modern age, power is generated 100% environmentally clean. Food is plentiful. Life is good. I guess what I am suggesting here folks, is much bigger than Cannabis, and our national holiday called Thanksgiving.
This is off the subject, but it’s MY blog. The “Golden Rule”, what many think is attributed to Jesus, and maybe a few other people, has been around since our species first had free thought and free will, and that’s tens of thousands of years ago. The people that got it right the first time lived good lives regardless of their life paths and outcomes.
My wish is for a world like the one I paint in this little short story of how I celebrated Thanksgiving this year (2016) which started the whole process of thinking of what the future COULD be like. That little piece of DARK MEAT? I’m not going to bronze it, I’m going to…………Wait for it………Eat it!
Opinion: Cannabis/Hemp has been around forever. It’s NOT a drug, it’s a plant. It was the FIRST agricultural crop mankind ever cultivated. Take it off the Drug List now! It’s medicinal purposes far outweigh any dangers to society.
10,000-year History of Marijuana use in the World
I am not responsible for ANY mis-spelled names, or words in the following, well I DID try to correct a few myself and gave up. The following is taken directly from: http://www.advancedholistichealth.org/history.html
The oldest known written record on cannabis use comes from the Chinese Emperor Shen Nung in 2727 B.C. Ancient Greeks and Romans were also familiar with cannabis, while in the Middle East, use spread throughout the Islamic empire to North Africa. In 1545 cannabis spread to the western hemisphere where Spaniards imported it to Chile for its use as fiber. In North America cannabis, in the form of hemp, was grown on many plantations for use in rope, clothing and paper.
8,000+ BCE Use of hemp cord in pottery identified at ancient village site dating back over 10,000 years, located in the area of modern day Taiwan. Finding hemp use and cultivation in this date range puts it as one of the first and oldest known human agriculture crops.
As explained by Richard Hamilton in the 2009 Scientific American article on sustainable agriculture “Modern humans emerged some 250,000 years ago, yet agriculture is a fairly recent invention, only about 10,000 years old …
Agriculture is not natural; it is a human invention. It is also the basis of modern civilization.” This point was also touched on by Carl Sagan in 1977 when he proposed the possibility that marijuana may have actually been the world’s first agricultural crop, leading to the development of civilization itself (see 1977, below).
6,000 BCE Cannabis seeds and oil used for food in China.
4,000 BCE Textiles made of hemp are used in China and Turkistan. 2737 BCE First recorded use of cannabis as medicine by Emperor Shen Neng of China.
2,000-800 BCE Bhang (dried cannabis leaves, seeds and stems) is mentioned in the Hindu sacred text Atharvaveda (Science of Charms) as “Sacred Grass”, one of the five sacred plants of India. It is used by medicinally and ritually as an offering to Shiva.
1,500 BCE Cannabis cultivated in China for food and fiber. Scythians cultivate cannabis and use it to weave fine hemp cloth.
700-600 BCE The Zoroastrian Zendavesta, an ancient Persian religious text of several hundred volumes refers to bhang as the “good narcotic.”
600 BCE Hemp rope appears in southern Russia.
700-300 BCE Scythian tribes leave Cannabis seeds as offerings in royal tombs.
500 BCE Scythian couple die and are buried with two small tents covering containers for burning incense. Attached to one tent stick was a decorated leather pouch containing wild Cannabis seeds. This closely matches the stories told by Herodotus. The gravesite, discovered in the late 1940s, was in Pazryk, northwest of the Tien Shan Mountains in modern-day Kazakhstan. Hemp is introduced into Northern Europe by the Scythians. An urn containing leaves and seeds of the Cannabis plant, unearthed near Berlin, is found and dated to about this time. Use of hemp products spread throughout northern Europe.
430 BCE Herodotus reports on both ritual and recreation use of Cannabis by the Scythians (Herodotus The Histories 430 B.C. trans. G. Rawlinson).
200 BCE Hemp rope appears in Greece. Chinese Book of Rites mentions hemp fabric.
100 BCE First evidence of hemp paper, invented in China.
100-0 BCE The psychotropic properties of Cannabis are mentioned in the newly compiled herbal Pen Ts’ao Ching.
0-100 CE Construction of Samaritan gold and glass paste stash box for storing hashish, coriander, or salt, buried in Siberian tomb.
23-79 Pliny the Elder’s The Natural History mentions hemp rope and marijuana’s analgesic effects.
47-127 Plutarch mentions Thracians using cannabis as an intoxicant.
70 Dioscorides, a physician in Nero’s army, lists medical marijuana in his Pharmacopoeia.
100 Imported hemp rope appears in England.
105 Legend suggests that Ts’ai Lun invents hemp paper in China, 200 years after its actual appearance (see 100 BCE above).
130-200 Greek physician Galen prescribes medical marijuana.
200 First pharmacopoeia of the East lists medical marijuana. Chinese surgeon Hua T’o uses marijuana as an anesthetic.
300 A young woman in Jerusalem receives medical marijuana during childbirth.
570 The French queen Arnegunde is buried with hemp cloth.
500-600 The Jewish Talmud mentions the euphoriant properties of Cannabis.
850 Vikings take hemp rope and seeds to Iceland.
900 Arabs learn techniques for making hemp paper.
900-1000 Scholars debate the pros and cons of eating hashish. Use spreads throughout Arabia.
1000 Hemp ropes appear on Italian ships. Arabic physician Ibn Wahshiyah’s On Poisons warns of marijuana’s potential dangers.
1090-1124 In Khorasan, Persia, Hasan ibn al-Sabbah, recruits followers to commit assassinations…legends develop around their supposed use of hashish. These legends are some of the earliest written tales of the discovery of the inebriating powers of Cannabis and the use of Hashish by a paramilitary organization as a hypnotic (see U.S. military use, 1942 below). Early 12th Century Hashish smoking becomes very popular throughout the Middle East.
1155-1221 Persian legend of the Sufi master Sheik Haydar’s personal discovery of Cannabis and his own alleged invention of hashish with it’s subsequent spread to Iraq, Bahrain, Egypt and Syria. Another of the earliest written narratives of the use of Cannabis as an inebriate.
1171-1341 During the Ayyubid dynasty of Egypt, Cannabis is introduced by mystic devotees from Syria.
1200 1,001 Nights, an Arabian collection of tales, describes hashish’s intoxicating and aphrodisiac properties.
13th Century The oldest monograph on hashish, Zahr al-‘arish fi tahrim al-hashish, was written. It has since been lost. Ibn al-Baytar of Spain provides a description of the psychoactive nature of Cannabis. Arab traders bring Cannabis to the Mozambique coast of Africa.
1271-1295 Journeys of Marco Polo in which he gives second-hand reports of the story of Hasan ibn al-Sabbah and his “assassins” using hashish. First time reports of Cannabis have been brought to the attention of Europe.
1300 Ethiopian pipes containing marijuana suggest the herb has spread from Egypt to the rest of Africa.
1378 Ottoman Emir Soudoun Scheikhouni issues one of the first edicts against the eating of hashish.
1526 Babur Nama, first emperor and founder of Mughal Empire learned of hashish in Afghanistan.
1532 French physician Rabelais’s gargantua and Pantagruel mentions marijuana’s medicinal effects.
1533 King Henry VIII fines farmers if they do not raise hemp for industrial use.
1549 Angolan slaves brought cannabis with them to the sugar plantations of northeastern Brazil. They were permitted to plant their cannabis between rows of cane, and to smoke it between harvests.
- 1550 The epic poem, Benk u Bode, by the poet Mohammed Ebn Soleiman Foruli of Baghdad, deals allegorically with a dialectical battle between wine and hashish.
1563 Portuguese physician Garcia da Orta reports on marijuana’s medicinal effects.
1578 China’s Li Shih-Chen writes of the antibiotic and antiemetic effects of marijuana.
1600 England begins to import hemp from Russia.
1606-1632 French and British cultivate Cannabis for hemp at their colonies in Port Royal (1606), Virginia (1611), and Plymouth (1632).
1616 Jamestown settlers began growing the hemp plant for its unusually strong fiber and used it to make rope, sails, and clothing.
1621 Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy suggests marijuana may treat depression.
1600-1700 Use of hashish, alcohol, and opium spreads among the population of occupied Constantinople. Hashish becomes a major trade item between Central Asia and South Asia.
1753 Linnaeus classifies Cannabis sativa.
1764 Medical marijuana appears in The New England Dispensatory.
1776 Kentucky begins growing hemp.
1794 Medical marijuana appears in The Edinburgh New Dispensary.
1798 Napoleon discovers that much of the Egyptian lower class habitually uses hashish. Soldiers returning to France bring the tradition with them, and he declares a total prohibition.
1800- Marijuana plantations flourished in Mississippi, Georgia, California, South Carolina, Nebraska, New York, and Kentucky. Also during this period, smoking hashish was popular throughout France and to a lesser degree in the US. Hashish production expands from Russian Turkistan into Yarkand in Chinese Turkistan.
1809 Antoine Sylvestre de Sacy, a leading Arabist, suggests a base etymology between the words “assassin” and “hashishin” — subsequent linguists study disproves his theory.
1840 In America, medicinal preparations with a Cannabis base are available. Hashish is available in Persian pharmacies.
1842 Irish physician O’Shaughnessy publishes cannabis research in English medical journals.
1843 French author Gautier publishes The Hashish Club.
1846 French physician Moreau publishes Hashish and Mental Illness
1850 Cannabis is added to The U.S. Pharmacopoeia.
1850-1915 Marijuana was widely used throughout United States as a medicinal drug and could easily be purchased in pharmacies and general stores.
1854 Whittier writes the first American work to mention cannabis as an intoxicant.
1856 British tax “ganja” and “charas” trade in India.
1857 American writer Ludlow publishes The Hasheesh Eater.
1858 French poet Baudelaire publishes On the Artificial Ideal.
1870-1880 First reports of hashish smoking on the Greek mainland.
1890 Greek Department of Interior prohibits importance, cultivation and use of hashish. Hashish is made illegal in Turkey. Sir J.R. Reynolds, chief physician to Queen Victoria, prescribes medical marijuana to her.
1893-1894 The India Hemp Drugs Commission Report is issued. 70,000 to 80,000 kg per year of hashish is legally imported into India from Central Asia.
1906 In the U.S. the Pure Food and Drug Act is passed, regulating the labeling of products containing Alcohol, Opiates, Cocaine, and Cannabis, among others. Early 20th Century Hashish smoking remains very popular throughout the Middle East.
1910 The Mexican Revolution caused an influx of Mexican immigrants who introduced the habit of recreational use (instead of it’s generally medicinal use) into American society.
1914 The Harrison Act in the U.S. defined use of Marijuana (among other drugs) as a crime.
1916 United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) chief scientists Jason L. Merrill and Lyster H. Dewey created paper made from hemp pulp, which they concluded was “favorable in comparison with those used with pulp wood” in USDA Bulletin No. 404. From the book “The Emperor Wears No Clothes” by Jack Herer the USDA Bulletin N. 404 reported that one acre of hemp, in annual rotation over a 20-year period, would produce as much pulp for paper as 4.1 acres (17,000 m2) of trees being cut down over the same 20-year period. This process would use only 1/7 to 1/4 as much polluting sulfur-based acid chemicals to break down the glue-like lignin that binds the fibers of the pulp, or even none at all using soda ash. The problem of dioxin contamination of rivers is avoided in the hemp paper making process, which does not need to use chlorine bleach (as the wood pulp paper making process requires) but instead safely substitutes hydrogen peroxide in the bleaching process. … If the new (1916) hemp pulp paper process were legal today, it would soon replace about 70% of all wood pulp paper, including computer printout paper, corrugated boxes and paper bags. However, mass production of cheap news print from hemp had not developed in any country, and hemp was a relatively easy target because factories already had made large investments in equipment to handle cotton, wool, and linen, but there were relatively small investments in hemp production.
1915-1927 In the U.S. cannabis begins to be prohibited for nonmedical use. Prohibition first begins in California (1915), followed by Texas (1919), Louisiana (1924), and New York (1927).
1919 The 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution banned the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcohol and positioned marijuana as an attractive alternative leading to an increase in use of the substance.
1920s Greek dictator Ioannis Metaxas cracks down on hashish smoking. Hashish smuggled into Egypt from Greece, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, and Central Asia.
1924 Russian botanists classify another major strain of the plant, Cannabis ruderalis.
1926 Lebanese hashish production is prohibited.
1928 Recreational use of Cannabis is banned in Britain.
1930 The Yarkand region of Chinese Turkistan exports 91,471 kg of hashish legally into the Northwest Frontier and Punjab regions of India. Legal taxed imports of hashish continue into India from Central Asia.
1933 The U.S. congress repealed the 21st Amendment, ending alcohol prohibition; 4 years later the prohibition of marijuana will be in full effect.
1934-1935 Chinese government moves to end all Cannabis cultivation in Yarkand and charas traffic from Yarkand. Hashish production become illegal in Chinese Turkistan.
1936 The American propaganda film Reefer Madness was made to scare American youth away from using Cannabis.
1937 U.S. Congress passed the Marijuana Tax Act which criminalized the drug. In response Dr. William C. Woodward, testifying on behalf of the AMA, told Congress that, “The American Medical Association knows of no evidence that marijuana is a dangerous drug” and warned that a prohibition “loses sight of the fact that future investigation may show that there are substantial medical uses for Cannabis.” His comments were ignored by Congress. A part of the testimony for Congress to pass the 1937 act derived from articles in newspapers owned by William Randolph Hearst, who had significant financial interests in the timber industry, which manufactured his newsprint paper.
1938 Supply of hashish from Chinese Turkistan nearly ceases. The U.S. company DuPont patented the processes for creating plastics from coal and oil and a new process for creating paper from wood pulp.
1940s Greek hashish smoking tradition fades.
1941 Cannabis is removed from the U.S. Pharmacopoeia and it’s medicinal use is no longer recognized in America. The same year the Indian government considers cultivation in Kashmir to fill void of hashish from Chinese Turkistan. Hand-rubbed charas from Nepal is choicest hashish in India during World War II.
1942 U.S. scientists working at the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the CIA’s wartime predecessor, began to develop a chemical substance that could break down the psychological defenses of enemy spies and POWs. After testing several compounds, the OSS scientists selected a potent extract of marijuana as the best available “truth serum.” The cannabis concoction was given the code name TD, meaning Truth Drug. When injected into food or tobacco cigarettes, TD helped loosen the reserve of recalcitrant interrogation subjects.
1945 Legal hashish consumption continues in India. Hashish use in Greece flourishes again.
1951 The Boggs Act and the Narcotics Control Act in the U.S. increases all drug penalties and laid down mandatory sentences.
1960 Czech researchers confirm the antibiotic and analgesic effects of cannabis.
1963 Turkish police seize 2.5 tons of hashish.
1965 First reports of the strain Cannibis afghanica and was used for hashish production in northern Afghanistan.
1967 “Smash”, the first hashish oil appears. Red Lebanese reaches California.
1970-1972 Huge fields of Cannabis are cultivated for hashish production in Afghanistan. Afghani hashish varieties introduced to North America for sinsemilla production. Westerners bring metal sieve cloths to Afghanistan. Law enforcement efforts against hashish begin in Afghanistan.
1970 The US National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) forms. That same year the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act repealed mandatory penalties for drug offenses and marijuana was categorized separately from other narcotics.
1971 First evidence suggesting marijuana may help glaucoma patients.
1972 The Nixon-appointed Shafer Commission urged use of cannabis be re-legalized, but their recommendation was ignored. U.S. Medical research picks up pace. Proposition 19 in California to legalize marijuana use is rejected by a voter margin of 66-33%.
1973 Nepal bans the Cannabis shops and charas (hand-rolled hash) export. Afghan government makes hashish production and sales illegal. Afghani harvest is pitifully small.
1975 Nabilone, a cannabinoid-based medication appears.
1976 The U.S. federal government created the Investigational New Drug (IND) Compassionate Use research program to allow patients to receive up to nine pounds of cannabis from the government each year. Today, five surviving patients still receive medical cannabis from the federal government, paid for by federal tax dollars. At the same time the U.S. FDA continues to list marijuana as Schedule I meaning: “A high potential for abuse with no accepted medical value.”
1977 Carl Sagan proposes that marijuana may have been the world’s first agricultural crop, leading to the development of civilization itself: “It would be wryly interesting if in human history the cultivation of marijuana led generally to the invention of agriculture, and thereby to civilization.” Carl Sagan, The Dragons of Eden, Speculations on the Origin of Human Intelligence p 191 footnote.
1977-1981 U.S. President Carter, including his assistant for drug policy, Dr. Peter Bourne, pushed for decriminalization of marijuana, with the president himself asking Congress to abolish federal criminal penalties for those caught with less than one ounce of marijuana.
1980s Morocco becomes one of, if not the largest, hashish producing and exporting nations. “Border hashish” is produced in northwestern Pakistan along the Afghan border to avoid Soviet-Afghan war.
1985 Hashish is still produced by Muslims of Kashgar and Yarkland in Northwest China. In the U.S. the FDA approves dronabinol, a synthetic THC, for cancer patients.
1986 President Reagan signed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act, reinstating mandatory minimums and raising federal penalties for possession and distribution and officially begins the U.S. international “war on drugs.”
1987 Moroccan government cracks down upon Cannabis cultivation in lower elevations of the Rif Mountains.
1988 U.S. DEA administrative law Judge Francis Young finds, after thorough hearings, that marijuana has a clearly established medical use and should be reclassified as a prescriptive drug. His recommendation is ignored.
1992 In reaction to a surge of requests from AIDS patients for medical marijuana, the U.S. government closes the Compassionate Use program. That same year the pharmaceutical medication dronabinol is approved for AIDS-wasting syndrome.
1993 Cannabis eradication efforts resume in Morocco.
1994 Border hashish still produced in Pakistan. Heavy fighting between rival Muslim clans continues to upset hashish trade in Afghanistan.
1995 Introduction of hashish-making equipment and appearance of locally produced hashish in Amsterdam coffee shops.
1996 California (the first U.S. state to ban marijuana use, see 1915) became the first U.S. State to then re-legalize medical marijuana use for people suffering from AIDS, cancer, and other serious illnesses. A similar bill was passed in Arizona the same year. This was followed by the passage of similar initiatives in Alaska, Colorado, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Washington D.C., Hawaii, Maryland, New Mexico, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
1997 The American Office of National Drug Control Policy commissioned the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to conduct a comprehensive study of the medical efficacy of cannabis therapeutics. The IOM concluded that cannabis is a safe and effective medicine, patients should have access, and the government should expand avenues for research and drug development. The federal government completely ignored its findings and refused to act on its recommendations.
1997-2001 In direct contradiction to the IOM recomendations, President Clinton, continuing the Regan and Bush “war on drugs” era, began a campaign to arrest and prosecute medical cannabis patients and their providers in California and elsewhere.
1999 Hawaii and North Dakota unsuccessfully attempt to legalize hemp farming. The U.S. DEA reclassifies dronabinol as a schedule III drug, making the medication easier to prescribe while marijuana itself continues to be listed Schedule I as having “no accepted medical use.”
2000 Legalization initiative in Alaska fails.
2001 Britain’s Home Secretary, David Blunkett, proposes relaxing the classification of cannabis from a class B to class C. Canada adopts federal laws in support of medical marijuana, and by 2003 Canada becomes the first country in the world to approve medical marijuana nation-wide.
2001-2009 Under President G.W. Bush the U.S. federal government intensified its “war on drugs” targeting both patients and doctors across the state of California.
2005 Marc Emery, a Canadian citizen and the largest distributor of marijuana seeds into the United States from approximately 1995 through July 2005 was on the FBI #1 wanted drug list for years and was eventually indicted by the U.S. DEA. He was extradited from Canada for trial in the U.S. in May 2010.
2009 President Obama made steps toward ending the very unsuccessful 20-year “war on drugs” initiated during the Regan administration by stating that individual drug use is really a public health issue, and should be treated as such. Under his guidance, the U.S. Justice Department announced that federal prosecutors will no longer pursue medical marijuana users and distributors who comply with state laws.
2010 Marc Emery of Vancouver, BC, Canada, was sentenced on September 10 in a U.S. District Court in Seattle to five years in prison and four years of supervised release for “conspiracy to manufacture marijuana” (eg. selling marijuana seeds).
2010 Proposition 19 to legalize marijuana in California is placed back on the ballet (named The Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010). Current voter poles suggest that the proposition has about 50% population support and will likely win or loose by a margin of only 2%.
Oct 2010 Just weeks before the November 02 California election on Prop. 19 Attorney General Eric Holder said federal authorities would continue to enforce U.S. laws that declare the drug is illegal, even if voters approve the initiative, stating “we will vigorously enforce the (Controlled Substances Act) against those individuals and organizations that possess, manufacture or distribute marijuana for recreational use.”
Nov 2010 California Proposition 19, also known as the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010, was narrowly defeated by 53.6% of the vote. This would have legalized various marijuana-related activities in California, allowing local governments to regulate these activities, permitting local governments to impose and collect marijuana-related fees and taxes, and authorizing various criminal and civil penalties.
Nov 2012 The States of Colorado and Washington legalize marijuana / cannabis for recreational use; promises are made to the people that these new initiatives will have no impact on medical marijuana in those states. The country of Uruguay legalizes marijuana / cannabis for recreational use. The US District of Columbia decriminalizes personal use and possession of marijuana / cannabis.
July 07, 2014 Cannabis City becomes Seattle’s very first legal marijuana shop for over-the-counter purchase & recreational use. This generated world-wide media attention and a serious discussion over the legalization of marijuana and a possible end to the American “drug war.” The first purchase, by Deb Green a 65-year old marathon-running grandmother from Ballard, is part of the collection of the Museum of History and Industry in Seattle, Washington.
Nov 2014 The States of Alaska and Oregon legalize marijuana / cannabis for recreational use; the States of California, Nevada, Arizona, Hawaii and Massachusetts all begin to draft legalization legislation.
July 24, 2015 With the passage of Senate Bill 5052 Washington State medical marijuana comes fully under the control of the newly re-named Washington Liquor and Cannabis Board (LCB).
Well, back to my Thanksgiving story. I feel “how” the Indians feel, now that I know it’s just another American holiday. I AM thankful this evening anyway, for the wonderful day I had. I did miss my family, but I think I wrote a hell of an interesting post this afternoon and early evening.
Those of you that DID make it all the way to the end of this, I sincerely hope you enjoyed reading this, especially my thoughts on…………Wait for it……….DARK MEAT. Oh, and Cannabis has ALWAYS been a big part of our evolution as a species.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL WHO CELEBRATE IT. If you want to read the Indians point of view, go back to my last post at:
“Grandma! Why are you dumping MY Turkey Gravy down the garbage disposal?”
If anyone has some leftover DARK MEAT and would like to send me some, please contact me for my mailing address
American Dollars Spent, and American Citizens Arrested, Because of the Dubious “War On Drugs” THIS Year Alone, go to this link, it’s live and ticking
http://www.drugsense.org/cms/wodclock
Let’s just be really thankful for whomever was the first of our species to discover that inhaling the smoke from a plant that was accidently thrown on the firepit, magically transformed them from a ferocious caveman into a relaxed dude that would go on eventually inventing the wheel and all sorts of other shit. That’s called progress. All part of the evolution of our species and planet. AMEN. God bless America, and can you pass the mashed potatoes please?
Peace & Abide, La paz y la morada, السلام والالتزام , שלום ושמירה, Paix et Demeure, Խաղաղությունը եւ մնալը, Мир и пребывание,, 平和と遵守, 和平與恪守, Aştî û Abad, صلح و عبید, Fred och Abide, Kapayapaan at Patuloy, Frieden und Bleiben, Mir i Ostanite, शांति और निवास, Hòa bình và ở lại, Мир и Абиде, שלום און בלייַבן, สันติภาพและการปฏิบัติ, Mir in bivanje,
Yadhum oore yaavarum kelir, “The World Is One Family”
Dr. T. C. Saxe, DD, RSISHE
Here’s a new website: https://swordsintoplowshares.net/
For those who have been keeping up with my progress with “The Dead Armadillo” story, here’s my latest:
DeadArmadilloInManuscriptFormat022721A
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