Cannabis

Cannabis is a genus of flowering plant believed to be indigenous to Central Asia, China, and the north-west Himalayas. The common name for Cannabis is hemp, although this term is sometimes used to refer only to strains cultivated for "industrial" (non-drug) use. Cannabis plants produce a unique family of compounds called cannabinoids, several of which produce mental and/or physiological effects when consumed. The drug usually comes in the form of dried flowers and leaves (marijuana), resin (hashish), or various extracts. The cultivation or possession of Cannabis for drug purposes is outlawed in most countries. In Australia each state has different rules for the amount of marijuana you can possess before facing criminal charges.

Sourced

• Make the most of the Indian hemp seed, and sow it everywhere!
  • George Washington in a note to his gardener at Mount Vernon (1794), The Writings of George Washington, Volume 33, page 270 (Library of Congress)
  • Washington also recorded his concern that the male and female plants be separated:

May 12-13 1765: Sowed Hemp at Muddy hole by Swamp.

August 7, 1765: —began to seperate (sic) the Male from the Female Hemp at Do —rather too late.

Some assert his interest in separating the male and female plants is an indication that he may have used Indian hemp medicinally to treat his chronic tooth aches. Others note that fiber of the male and female hemp plants have a different optimum harvest times.

Unsourced

• "If someone wants to do drugs … as long as he or she isn’t corrupting minors or driving under the influence or endangering others, shouldn’t a person have that right?"
  • Brad Pitt

• "Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves."
  • Ronald Reagan, U.S. President (1980-1988)

• "If the words 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness' don't include the right to experiment with your own consciousness, then the Declaration of Independence isn't worth the hemp it was written on."
  • Terence McKenna

• "Why use up the forests which were centuries in the making and the mines which required ages to lay down, if we can get the equivalent of forest and mineral products in the annual growth of the hemp fields?"
  • Henry Ford

• "It really puzzles me to see marijuana connected with narcotics dope and all of that stuff. It is a thousand times better than whiskey. It is an assistant and a friend."
  • Louis Armstrong

• "All these governments and this and that, these people that say they're here to help, why them say you cannot smoke the herb? Herb... herb is a plant, you know? And when me check it, me can't find no reason. All them say is, 'it make you rebel'. Against what?"
• "Herb is the unifier of the people."
• "Music and herb go together. It's been a long time now I smoke herb. From 1960s, when I first start singing."
  • Bob Marley

• "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 usage. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers and any others."
  • Harry J. Anslinger, Federal Bureau of Narcotics Commissioner for 32 years, testimony to Congress, 1938

• "The illegality of cannabis is outrageous, an impediment to full utilization of a drug which helps produce the serenity and insight, sensitivity and fellowship so desperately needed in this increasingly mad and dangerous world."
  • Carl Sagan

• "Please don't throw your shit at me... unless that shit resembles a bag of marijuana"
  • Les Claypool

• "I have never seen two people on pot get in a fight because it is fucking IMPOSSIBLE. 'Hey, buddy!' 'Hey, what?' 'Ummmmmmm....' End of argument."
  • Bill Hicks

• "I think that marijuana makes you stupid but sensual. I've watched many of my friends and loved ones become more erotic and dumber--just going around with a glazed expression on their faces from their last orgasms to the next--and found them really quite boring."
  • Timothy Leary

• "A poem: Slowly the foreign air enter me. I feel tingles and sensations. My life becomes a fantasy. Cannabis now rules thee."
  • Thaddeus

• "Marijuana is addictive in the sense that all great things in life are worth repeating."
  • Jenna Sheehan

• "Hey hey heyeyea...Smoke weed every day."
  • Nate Dogg, from Dr. Dre's "Chronic 2001" (NOT Dave Chapelle)

• "Legalize it, and I will advertise it."
  • Peter Tosh

• "When I was in England I experimented with marijuana a time or two, and I didn't like it. I didn't inhale."
  • Bill Clinton, U.S. President (1993-2001)

• "I never understood that line. The point was to inhale. That was the point."
  • Barack Obama, When asked, "Unlike other presidents, did you inhale?"

• "I'm not going to be Bill Clinton and say I never inhaled. I did inhale. I liked tobacco a lot better."
  • Frank Zappa

• "You bet I did -— and I enjoyed it."
  • Michael Bloomberg - New York City Mayor, when asked if he had ever smoked marijuana.

• "Penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself; and where they are, they should be changed. Nowhere is this more clear than in the laws against possession of marihuana in private for personal use... Therefore, I support legislation amending Federal law to eliminate all Federal criminal penalties for the possession of up to one ounce of marihuana."
  • Jimmy Carter, U.S. President in a message to the U.S. Congress (1977)

• "Congress should definitely consider decriminalizing possession of marijuana... We should concentrate on prosecuting the rapists and burglars who are a menace to society."
  • Dan Quayle U.S. Representative and Vice president (March 1977)

• "You see, I think drugs have done some good things for us. I really do. And if you don't believe drugs have done good things for us, do me a favor. Go home tonight. Take all your albums, all your tapes and all your CDs and burn them. 'Cause you know what, the musicians that made all that great music that's enhanced your lives throughout the years — rrreal fucking high on drugs. The Beatles were so fucking high they let Ringo sing a few tunes."
  • Bill Hicks

• My choice is what I choose to do,
  And if I'm causing no harm, it shouldn't bother you.

  Your choice is who you choose to be,
  And if you're causin' no harm, then you're alright with me.

  If you don't light my fire, then don't come around,
  'cause I'm gonna burn one down.
  Yes, I'm gonna burn one down.

  Herb the gift from the earth,
  And what's from the earth is of the greatest worth.
  So before you knock it try it first,
  Oh, you'll see it's a blessing and not a curse.

  • Ben Harper

• "I don't know what is marijuana. Perhaps I will try it when it will no longer be criminal. I will have my money for my fine and a joint in the other hand."
  • Jean Chretien, former Prime Minister of Canada, on the decriminalization of Marijuana