HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL USES
OF CANNABIS AND THE CANADIAN "MARIJUANA CLASH"
Prepared For The Canadian Senate Special
Committee On Illegal Drugs
Leah Spicer
Law and Government Division
12 April 2002
LIBRARY OF PARLIAMENT
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
Part I – Cultural Uses of Cannabis Throughout the World
A. Historical Origins and Uses of Cannabis
1. China
2. Central Asia
3. Ancient Near East
a. Sumerians
b. Biblical Origins
B. Properties of the Production of Cannabis
1. Climatic Conditions for Cannabis Production
2. Classes of Psychoactive Cannabis Preparations
C. Cultural Uses of Cannabis
1. India
2. Africa
3. South America – Brazil
4. Jamaica
a. Ganja Socialization in the Home and Use Primarily by Males in
Lower-Class Working Families
b. Rastafarians
c. Working Class Women in Jamaica
Part II – North American Context of Cannabis Use
A. History of Cannabis in North America
B. Cannabis Use in Canada
Conclusion – The Marijuana Clash in Canada:
A Moral Debate
INTRODUCTION
This paper provides a brief summary of the cultural uses of
cannabis throughout history. As far back as the Mesolithic,
or Middle Stone Age, the cannabis plant was originally
harvested for the fibre from its thick-stemmed girth for use
in everything from a ships’ rigging, to the noose that
hangmen slipped around the necks of the condemned.([1]) Even
today, cannabis is cultivated for similar industrial
purposes such as making paper and clothing.
The focus of this paper will be on the much more
controversial usage of cannabis. In addition to its
production of fibre, the cannabis plant also became known as
early as pre-historical times for its thick sticky resin
(delta-1-tetrahydrocannabinol or THC([2])), which produces
psychoactive effects in humans.
Presently, in some countries this intoxicating resin is
illegal (e.g., Canada). Yet, in other countries the use of
cannabis is tolerated (e.g., Netherlands). These wandering
legalities of cannabis are not rootless and can be best
understood with cultural and historical perspectives in
mind. As anthropologists and historians have revealed,
cultural traditions, climatic differences, medicinal
practices, as well as historical, political, legal and
economic forces play a large part in the type of role
cannabis has in different societies and cultures.([3]) This
creates marked cultural differences in uses of the plant as
well as the context of its use. For instance, many cultural
groups from around the world believe that “the smoking of
marijuana is a valuable means of relaxation, introspection,
and sociability”([4]) while other cultural groups believe
that “marijuana has the immediate effect of producing a
burst of energy sufficient for completing laborious
tasks.”([5]) The realization that cannabis plays
significantly different roles in various cultures is of
great significance for Canadians since Canada is a mosaic
country containing a cross-section of immigrants from
countries throughout the world with varying cultural values
regarding cannabis. Recognizing different cultural usages of
cannabis is challenging however, because ‘we do not like to
see other people defend something we [as Canadians have
historically] regard[ed] as morally wrong.’([6]) However
such an understanding is important not only for gaining
insight into why the cannabis issue has come to a boiling
point in Canadian society (as well as many other countries),
but also for informing future policy developments on
cannabis in Canada.
To begin, this paper gives a brief description of the
historical origins of the cultural psychoactive uses of
cannabis. Before continuing with further cultural uses of
psychoactive cannabis, a description of the climatic growing
conditions and the potency levels of psychoactive cannabis
is given in order to emphasize that environmental conditions
play a significant part in the cultural use of the cannabis
plant. Following this is a discussion of the various
cultural uses of cannabis in regions such as India, Africa,
Brazil and Jamaica. The second half of the paper then
discusses the North American and specifically the Canadian
cultural context of the use of the cannabis plant, including
an examination of the economic, political and legal factors
that have influenced its use. It illustrates that Canadian
society did not use cannabis for psychoactive purposes until
the middle of the 20th century. The paper concludes by
emphasizing that since Canadians have recently been exposed
to different cultural uses of psychoactive cannabis,
knowledge of other cultural uses of cannabis is important
for future policy development of the cannabis issue in
Canada.
PART I – CULTURAL USES OF CANNABIS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD
A. Historical Origins and Uses of Cannabis
It is difficult to say exactly where and when the cannabis
plant originated. Some believe its origins were in central
Asia. Others however, believe that because of its extensive
medical and agricultural documentation in ancient Chinese
literature, the cannabis plant actually originated in China.
“Although the body of literature concerning hemp (cannabis)
has grown rapidly in the last decade, the exact origin of
the plant has yet to be established; the historical routes
of its diffusion remain obscure.”([7])
1. China
Archaeologists discovered an ancient village in China,
containing the earliest known record of the use of the
cannabis plant. This village dates back over 10 000 years to
the Stone Age. Amongst the debris of this village,
archaeologists found small pots with patterns of twisted
hemp fibre decorating them. This use of the cannabis plant
suggests “men have been using the marijuana plant in some
manner since the dawn of history.”([8]) Cannabis fibre
(hemp) was not only used in China as decoration, but it was
also used to make clothes,([9]) ropes, fishing nets([10])
and paper.([11]) It was also important as a food plant and
was originally considered one of China’s five cereal
grains.([12]) The cannabis plant took on such great
importance in the Chinese culture that early priest doctors
began using the cannabis plant’s stalk as a symbol of power
to drive away evil.
Eventually, when the process of extraction was developed,
the Chinese realized the psychoactive use of the oil (resin)
from the cannabis seed and applied this to their medicinal
practices. The first evidence of the medicinal use of
cannabis is found in the book Pên-ts’ao Ching, attributed to
the Emperor Shen-nung of about 2000 B.C. Since Chinese
medicine has its origins in magic, this book provides
records of the Chinese using marijuana both in their
medicinal and ritual practices. It was used in cases
involving menstrual fatigue, gout, rheumatism, malaria,
constipation, and absentmindedness, and to anaesthetize
patients during surgical operations.([13]) Other historical
therapeutic uses of cannabis that are also emphasized in
folk medicine throughout modern Asia include ‘wasting
diseases.’ For example, in Thailand, “cannabis is frequently
used to stimulate the appetite of sick people and make them
sleep… its use to counteract diarrhoea and dysentery is
equally common.”([14])
There is debate in Chinese history over the hallucinogenic
use of the cannabis plant’s psychoactive properties. Some
Chinese denounced marijuana as the “liberator of sin.”([15])
This may have been due to the growing Chinese religion of
Taoism in which “anything that contains yin, such as
marijuana, was regarded with contempt since it enfeebled the
body when eaten. Only substances filled with yang, the
invigorating principle in nature, were looked upon
favourably.”([16]) However a late edition of the Pen Ts’ao
asserted that while “ma-fen (the fruits of cannabis)… taken
in excess will produce hallucinations (literally ‘seeing
devils’), if it is taken over a long term, it makes one
communicate with spirits and lightens one’s body.”([17]) By
the first century A.D., Taoists were using cannabis seeds in
their incense burners to provide hallucinations that they
valued as a means to achieving immortality.
However, by the 8th century A.D. cannabis had fallen into
the background as a hallucinogen and opium took on much
greater significance as a hallucinogen in Chinese culture.
This non-adoption of cannabis as a hallucinogen can be
explained on a cultural basis.
Opium is an Euphorica, a sedative of mental activity.
Cannabis, on the other hand, is a Phantastica, a
hallucinogenic drug that causes mental exhilaration and
nervous excitation. It distorts the sense of time and space.
Overuse may cause rapid movements… these effects were duly
noted by Chinese physicians at least from the second century
A.D. or earlier. They were in every respect inconsistent
with the philosophy and traditions of Chinese life. The
discontinuation of the use of cannabis by the Chinese can
perhaps simply be referred to its unsuitability to the
Chinese temperament and traditions. The conformity of an
individual in Chinese society is regulated by a culturally
instilled sense of shame. The Confucian personality is a
shame-oriented personality. The adoption of opium and the
non-adoption of cannabis reflect a behavioural response to
traditional Chinese society. The opium user was more likely
to remain pacific and sedated, and thus not challenge social
norms. Cannabis, with its stimulating of erratic effects,
was likely to induce acts that might bring shame upon the
user or his family.([18])
Thus, while the psychoactive properties of cannabis have
been cited as used by the Chinese, the value of cannabis in
China was primarily as a fibre source. There was, however, a
continuous record of hemp cultivation in China from
Neolithic times, suggesting that cannabis use may have
originated in China, rather than in central Asia([19]) where
the origination of cannabis has long been attributed.
2. Central Asia
Many western scholars attribute the origins of cannabis to
the Scythians around the 7th century B.C. in and around
Siberia, North Central Asia. According to Herodotus, a Greek
historian who lived in the fifth century B.C., marijuana was
an integral part of the Scythian cult of the dead wherein
they honoured the memory and spirits of their departed
leaders.([20]) These funeral ceremonies involved the
erection of small tents, into which they placed metal
censors containing rocks heated from the funeral fires. The
Scythians would throw cannabis seeds onto the heated stones
to create a thick vapour that they would inhale and become
intoxicated. “Seemingly, the purification was the Scythian
counterpart to the hard-drinking frazzled Irish wake, with
marijuana instead of alcohol as the ceremonial
intoxicant.”([21])
This first ethnographic description of ancient peoples
inhaling marijuana as a psychotropic stimulant was further
confirmed by a Russian archaeologist, Professor S.I. Rudenko
in 1929, who discovered that marijuana was also used by the
Scythians in everyday life.([22]) Not only did Rudenko come
across the embalmed body of a man and a bronze cauldron
filled with burnt marijuana seeds, but he also found some
shirts woven from hemp fibre and some metal censors designed
for inhaling marijuana smoke, which did not appear to be
connected with any religious rite. “To Rudenko, the evidence
suggested that inhalation of smouldering marijuana seeds
occurred not only in a religious context, but also as an
everyday activity, one in which Scythian women participated
alongside the men.”([23])
As recently as 1993, Russian archaeologists confirmed
Rudenko’s theory when they discovered a 2000-year-old
woman’s body frozen in a tomb in the same Siberian burial
ground where Rudenko had made his first discovery. The
female Russian mummy was so well preserved that intricate
tattoos were found on her left arm, leading the
archaeologists to conclude that she was both a Scythian
princess and a priestess. Buried in a hollowed tree trunk,
the archaeologists found a few of her possessions buried
alongside her, including a small container of cannabis,
which ‘archaeologists believe was smoked for pleasure and
used in pagan rituals.’([24])
3. Ancient Near East
a. Sumerians
Several cannabis commentators believe that the peoples of
the Near East were the first to use cannabis for religious
purposes due to man’s inability to engage in
introspection.([25]) The theory is that the cannabis plant
assisted in giving man the ability for introspection, but
that man initially believed his own introspection was
actually the gods speaking to him. According to Julian
Jaynes, a psychologist who wrote, The Origin of
Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind,
“ancient people from Mesopotamia to Peru could not ‘think’
as we do today, and were therefore not conscious… they
experienced auditory hallucinations – voices of gods,
actually heard as in the Old Testament or the Iliad – which,
coming from the brain’s right hemisphere, told a person what
to do in circumstances of novelty or stress.” Terrence
McKenna expanded this theory in his book called Food of the
Gods, and suggests that, “psychoactive plants, like the
psilocybin mushroom and cannabis, acted as catalysts and
accelerators for mankind’s transition into consciousness and
self reflection. The hallucinations and mystical insights
experienced by those who consumed these plants convinced the
ancient worshippers that they had come into contact with the
divine.”([26])
In an example of this, the Sumerians of the Ancient Near
East each developed their own ‘personal deity’ whom they
would worship each day by burning cannabis. The Sumerians
believed that the daily worship of their personal deity
assisted them in earning a living and being courageous in
battle. However, commentators believe that this ‘personal
deity’ was actually just a “personification of a man’s luck,
and his capacity for thinking and acting.”([27]) In other
words, cannabis became entrenched into Sumerian religion
because they believed it was putting them in touch with
their gods. Researchers believe however, that cannabis
inhalation was actually just facilitating the Sumerians’
discovery of personal inner thinking.
b. Biblical Origins
There are many contested theories of the appearance of the
use of cannabis by peoples of the Near East in the Old
Testament. These theories are often challenged as being
quite obscure with no clear history.([28]) However as C.
Creighton wrote in his article, On Indications of the
Hashish-Vice in the Old Testament, “there are reasons… why
there should be no clear history. All vices are veiled from
view, and that is true especially of the vices of the East.
Where they are alluded to at all, it is in cryptic, subtle,
witty and allegorical terms. Therefore, if we are to
discover them, we must be prepared to look below the surface
of the text.”([29])
In Creighton’s text, he asserts that cannabis appears to
have been eaten by both Saul and Jonathan in I Samuel 14,
25-45. In Jonathan’s case, the Bible passage is as
follows:
And all [they of] the land came to a wood, and dropped; but
no man put his hand to his mouth: for the people feared the
oath. But Jonathan heard not when his father charged the
people with the oath; wherefore he put forth the end of the
rod that was in his hand and dipped it in an honey-comb, and
put his hand to his mouth; and his eyes were
enlightened.([30])
Creighton asserts that over the years the Hebrew words
‘yagarah hadebash’ have been translated incorrectly into
‘honey comb.’ He says that, “The earlier [translations],
however obscure, show that the ‘honey’ was of a peculiar
kind”([31]) and that the Syrian version of the text is
actually a better account. The Syrian account says that
Jonathan dipped his rod in a field of flower-stalks with
resinous exudation, which would be produced in times of heat
– similar to the behaviour of cannabis resin.
If proof exists that peoples in the Old Testament used
cannabis, this in fact predates the belief that the word
‘cannabis’ originated with the Scythians. Like Creighton,
commentators such as Sula Benet, Sara Bentowa and Chris
Bennett also delve below the surface of the Biblical text to
argue that the word cannabis was actually borrowed by the
Scythians from Semitic languages such as Hebrew. The word
‘kaneh bosm’ appears several times in the Old
Testament([32]) “both as incense, which was an integral part
of religious celebration, and as an intoxicant,”([33]) but a
specific example sees Moses using it in Exodus 30:23 when
God commanded him to make “holy anointing oil of myrrh,
sweet cinnamon, kaneh bosm, and kassia.” Benet explains that
in this passage the Hebrew definition of kaneh bosm is
‘aromatic reed,’ kan meaning ‘reed’ or ‘hemp,’ while bosm
means ‘aromatic.’([34]) The linguistic resemblance of the
word ‘kaneh bosm’ to the Scythian word cannabis, and the
Hebrew definition of kaneh bosm provide Benet and Bentowa
with enough evidence to assert that the intoxicating
properties of cannabis were probably first used by the
peoples of the Near East and then spread through contact
with the Scythians.([35])
Today, there are groups such as The Ethiopian Zion Coptic
Church who fully believe in the teachings of the Bible and
that “marijuana is a godly creation from the beginning of
the world… Its purpose in creation is as a fiery sacrifice
to be offered to our Redeemer during obligations… Ganja
(cannabis) is the sacramental rights of every man
worldwide.”([36]) As further confirmation of this belief,
they point to the Encyclopedia Brittanica’s section on
Pharmacological Cults, which states: “the ceremonial use of
incense in contemporary ritual is most likely a relic of the
time when the psychoactive properties of incense brought the
ancient worshipper into touch with supernatural
forces.”([37])
B. Properties of the Production of Cannabis
Before continuing with an outline of several cultural uses
of the cannabis plant’s psychoactive properties, it is
important to describe the climatic conditions required for
growing cannabis since this is an influential factor in the
cannabis plant’s production of the psychoactive resin (THC).
In addition, it is necessary to clarify that there are
different classes of psychoactive cannabis preparations, as
well as various cultural names for each class.
1. Climatic Conditions for Cannabis Production
Cannabis is like a weed and will grow almost anywhere.
However, its optimum resin-producing environment is in very
hot climates where cannabis protects itself from death by
producing as much resin as is needed in order to trap in
water. “Depending on the conditions under which it grows,
cannabis will either produce more resin or more fibre. When
raised in hot, dry climates, resin is produced in great
quantities and fibre quality is poor. In countries with
mild, humid weather, less resin is produced and the fibre is
stronger and more durable.”([38]) Thus, since Europe has
milder, humid weather, it is not surprising that “most
Europeans knew very little of the intoxicating properties of
cannabis until the 19th century when hashish was imported
from India and the Arab countries.”([39]) Prior to the 19th
century, most Western countries used the cannabis plant only
as a source of fibre.
2. Classes of Psychoactive Cannabis Preparations([40])
The cannabis plant has two significant varieties that were
catalogued in 1753 by Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus. The
most common is cannabis sativa, which is gangly,
loose-branched, can reach a height of twenty feet and is
productive of fibre and inferior seed oil. Cannabis indica
grows to three or four feet in height, is densely branched,
shaped like a pyramid and yields higher quantities of
intoxicating resin.([41]) There are three separate resin
potency levels in cannabis plants, subject to which part of
the plant is used. Each potency level has a different name
dependent upon cultural language.
Mild Potency: Marijuana (Europe and North America),
Mariguango (Mexican) Dagga (South Africa), Kif (North
Africa), Bhang (India):
The flowering leaves of ripe male and female hemp plants
secrete a sticky resin which is the source of all, or almost
all, of the THC (delta-1-tetrahydrocannabinol, the
ingredient which reproduces in man all the mind-altering
effects that follow smoking or eating marijuana or hashish)
in cannabis. In this form of cannabis use, the leaves and
sometimes the stems and even seeds or entire plants are
ground up and smoked or baked into cookies. The potency
varies with the THC content. Bhang is a little different as
it usually involves only leaves, is drunk and is usually
somewhat richer in THC than North American marijuana.
Intermediate Potency: Ganja (India):
The dried flowering tops of cultivated plants are covered
with THC as a result of not having released their seeds.
These are harvested and used in ‘ganja.’ Ganja is usually
smoked, however it is also drunk, or baked into sweets.
Outside of India, it is virtually unknown.
High Potency: Charas (India), Hashish (Arabia and North
America), Hashishi (Syria):
Almost all of the THC is contained in the resin on the
leaves near the flowering tops. The resin is scraped off of
the leaves, pressed into blocks, and usually smoked. Hashish
is about 10 times as powerful as marijuana and is the only
cannabis derivative that has the capacity to produce
hallucinogenic and psychotomimetic effects with any
regularity. An Indian pharmacologist, Chopra, has described
another method of harvesting charas: Sometimes men, naked,
or dressed in leather suits or jackets, passed through the
fields of cannabis sativa rubbing and crushing roughly
against the plants early in the morning just after sunrise
when a fall of dew has taken place. The resinous material
that sticks on is then scraped off them and forms the charas
resin of commerce.
Other common names for cannabis include grifa in Spain and
Mexico; anascha in Russia; kendir in Tartar; konop in
Bulgaria and konope in Poland; momea in Tibet; kanbun in
Chaldea; dawamesk in Algeria; liamba or maconha in Brazil;
and bust or sheera in Egypt.([42])
C. Cultural Uses of Cannabis
1. India
Cannabis has always been a customary part of life in India,
and was “intimately associated with magical, medical,
religious, and social customs in India for thousands of
years.”([43]) This may partially be due to India’s semi-arid
climate, perfect for growing an abundance of cannabis.
According to legend found written in a collection of four
holy books called the Vedas, an Indian god named Siva is
described as The Lord of ‘Bhang,’ the drink made of cannabis
leaves, milk, sugar and spices. Historically and continuing
today, “bhang is to India what alcohol is to the
West.”([44]) Orthodox Hindu rules have traditionally
prohibited the use of alcohol except for the warrior Rajput
caste who, despite the rules, indulge in alcohol. For
Members of the Brahmin caste, cannabis was unequivocally
sanctioned for social use in order to help achieve the
contemplative spiritual life they strive to lead. According
to one historian of cannabis, even in the 1940’s bhang was
integral to social activities including special festivities
and in the home.([45]) In special festivities such as
weddings, it was said that a father must bring bhang to the
ceremonies to prevent evil spirits from hanging over the
bride and groom. Bhang was also a symbol of hospitality. “A
host would offer a cup of bhang to a guest as casually as we
would offer someone in our home a glass of beer. A host who
failed to make such a gesture was despised as being miserly
and misanthropic.”([46])
Cannabis is also renowned in India for its use in the
Tantric religious yoga sex acts. About an hour before
carrying out the yoga ritual, the devotee would put a bowl
of bhang before him and after reciting a mantra to the
goddess Kali, the devotee would drink the bhang potion. “The
goal of the Tantra initiate was to achieve unity of mind,
body, and spirit through yoga and marathon sexual episodes.
This was fuelled by bhang, which heightens the
experience.”([47])
The most potent Indian preparation of cannabis called
‘charas’ has the same religious importance to many Hindus
that wine has to Christians celebrating the Eucharist. The
Hindu mystics who smoked charas in the prayer ceremony
called Puja especially favoured charas.([48]) As well, the
holy men called ‘fakirs’ who were famous for walking on hot
coals and sleeping on beds of nails, believed that charas
put them in closer communion with their gods.([49])
While the cannabis plant’s pre-eminence in India was, and
continues to be its association with religious life and as a
social lubricant, cannabis was also used as a medicinal aid.
In Indian folk medicine, hemp boughs were thrown into fires
in order to overcome evil forces. Sushruta, a legendary
physician of ancient India, recommended it to relieve
congestion, a remedy for diarrhoea and as an ingredient in a
cure for fevers.([50]) A number of years later, when the
Indian Hemp Drug Commission of 1893-1894 heard testimony
from hundreds of both native and Western doctors about the
cannabis plant’s therapeutic uses in treatment of everything
from cramps and headaches to bronchitis and diabetes as well
as its use as an analgesic for toothaches and anaesthetic
for minor surgeries, the Commission realized that “hemp
drugs appear now to be frequently used for precisely the
same purposes and in the same manner as was recommended
centuries ago, [and] many uses of these drugs by native
doctors are in accord with their application in modern
European therapeutics. Cannabis must be looked upon as one
of the most important drugs of Indian material medica.”([51])
Despite the fact that the Indian Hemp Drug Commission
rejected total prohibition of cannabis because of its
importance in medicine as well as in cultural rituals and
traditions, in 1896 the British Indian Government passed Act
XII to discourage the habitual use of cannabis and its use
as an intoxicant. The Act requested that state governments
improve their local excise systems. Later in 1930 the
Dangerous Drugs Act was passed, empowering state governments
to make rules permitting and regulating the inter-state
import and export from the territories under their
administration, the transport, possession and sale of
manufactured drugs (which included medicinal
cannabis).([52]) While there continued to be no national
legal provisions for the control of the cannabis plant, the
India national government persisted in pressing state
governments to discourage the use of cannabis. By 1964 India
had both signed and ratified the Single Convention on
Narcotic Drugs, 1961 and then in 1985 the cultivation,
possession, use and consumption of any mixture of cannabis
came to be prohibited with severe penalties by the national
government of India under the Narcotic Drugs and
Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985. Today, although cannabis
continues to be an integral element of cultures in India,
the laws seem to have succeeded in discouraging its use.
“From the numerous popular stories that are current among
the people, it would appear that the habitual use of
cannabis existed on a much more extensive scale in India in
past centuries.”([53])
2. Africa
The cultural use of cannabis is widespread throughout
Africa. While the plant is not indigenous to Africa, several
traditions of religious, medical and recreational cannabis
smoking have developed since its introduction to Africa over
six centuries ago.
Aside from Egypt, where cannabis has been grown for over a
thousand years due to the influence of India and Persia, the
first archaeological evidence of cannabis in central and
southern parts of Africa comes from 14th century Ethiopia
where two ceramic smoking-pipe bowls containing traces of
cannabis were discovered.([54]) Researchers hypothesize that
since cannabis was outlawed in Egypt in the 3rd century A.D.
and was punishable by religious law and judicial
authorities, several Muslim communities who wanted to
continue to grow cannabis migrated south and introduced
cannabis to Ethiopia.([55]) Researchers also believe that
later on, around 1500 A.D., the fully developed trade routes
between Arabia, Turkey, India and Persia with the East
African coast, permitted the Arab traders to introduce
cannabis to the more southern parts of Africa.([56])
While Arab traders and North Africans brought cannabis to
the central and southern parts of Africa, they did not
import techniques of psychoactive cannabis use. For the
Hottentot tribe of the Cape of Good Hope, “the simple but
efficacious practice of throwing hemp plants on the burning
coals of a fire and staging what might today be called a
‘breathe-in’ seems to have been popular initially.”([57])
The King of another tribe called the Kafirs, also of the
Cape of Good Hope, administered cannabis through beverages
very similar to the Indian ‘bangue.’ “Those the chief
desired to entertain were offered food and intoxicating
spirits which they must drink, although against their
stomach, not to condemn the king’s bounty.”([58])
Eventually, by 1705, the Hottentots learned the art of
smoking. The habit of smoking cannabis, which many tribes
called ‘dagga,’ spread from tribe to tribe quite quickly.
The primary method in which southern and central African
tribes learned of smoking dagga was through their trading
relations with the nomadic ‘San’ tribe hunters. “The hunters
were addicted to smoking and so in exchange for tobacco and
dagga they supplied feathers, game, and other products
collected in the hunt.”([59]) Learning the art of smoking
dagga altered African culture from chewing to smoking, and
elaborated the techniques of dagga consumption.([60])
Several different pipes began to be developed out of gourds,
bamboo stalks and coconut bowls. When smoking cannabis
reached the northern areas of Africa, “it was the North
Africans who developed the water pipe, which cooled and to
some degree purified the smoke.”([61]) North African tribes
referred to cannabis under the name kif in this apparatus.
There are several examples of how cannabis took on different
prominent symbols in African tribes. In North Africa,
“music, literature and even certain aspects of architecture
have evolved with cannabis-directed appreciation in mind.
Some homes actually have kif rooms, where family groups
gather to sing, dance, and relate histories based on ancient
cultural traditions.”([62])
A researcher visiting the Congo, discovered that around
1888, the King of the Balubas tribe, which had conquered
several tribes near it with similar rituals,
ordered all the ancient idols and fetishes of conquered
territories to be publicly burned. He realized that a
multiplicity of tribal gods would hardly serve as a unifying
force, so he acted to strengthen his lordship and bind his
subjects into one ‘nation’ by replacing the old idols with a
new and more powerful one – Cannabis!([63])
Thus for the Balubas tribe, cannabis took on ritualistic
importance on state and feast days and as an evening
pastime.
Cannabis was also incorporated into many African tribes’
religious and magical beliefs. The Bashilenge was a
religious cult that developed out of several small clubs of
hemp smokers who had their own plots of land for the
cultivation of hemp.
Each tribesman was required to participate in the cult and
show his devotion by smoking as frequently as possible. They
attributed universal magical powers to hemp, which was
thought to combat all kinds of evil and they took it when
they went to war and when they travelled. The hemp pipe
assumed a symbolic meaning for the Bashilenge somewhat
analogous to the significance that the peace pipe had for
American Indians. No holiday, no trade agreement, no peace
treaty was transacted without it.([64])
The Bashilenge tribe also made cannabis an important part of
their jurisprudence.
Any native accused of a crime was required to smoke dagga
until he either admitted his crime or lost consciousness. In
cases of theft, the robber had to pay a fine, consisting of
salt, to each person who witnessed his smoking. The crime of
adultery required that the guilty male smoke dagga as well.
However, there was no fine. The amount of dagga to be smoked
depended on the status of the man who had been cuckolded. If
the latter were important, the guilty man had to smoke until
he lost consciousness. He would then be stripped, pepper
would be dropped into his eyes and/or a thin ribbon would be
drawn through his nasal bone.([65])
Several tribes such as the Zulu and the Sothos were known to
smoke cannabis prior to going to war. “Young Zulu warriors
were especially addicted to dagga and under the exciting
stimulation of the drug were capable of accomplishing
hazardous feats.”([66]) There are those historians who also
believe that the Zulus were intoxicated with dagga when they
attacked the Dutch at the Battle of Blood River in
1838.([67]) Similarly, the Sothos tribe used dagga to
strengthen their spirits prior to an onslaught.
Besides for Northwest Africa where “cannabis either was not
introduced or was not accepted until after the Second World
War”([68]) African tribes throughout the rest of the
continent also used cannabis in folk traditional medicinal
practice. “The plant was used as a remedy for snake bite
(Hottentots), to facilitate childbirth (Sotho), and among
Africans of Rhodesia as a remedy for anthrax, malaria,
blackwater fever, blood poisoning, and dysentery. It was
also famous in relieving the symptoms of asthma.”([69])
Africa became a country of cannabis cultures long before the
arrival of Europeans. Despite the Europeans’ attempts to
outlaw the psychoactive use of cannabis, it continues to be
deeply ingrained in the cultures of several African tribes.
3. South America – Brazil
In 1549, the French and the British imported Angolan slaves
from the southwest coast of Africa to work as labourers on
the sugar plantations of northeastern Brazil. “The slaves
carried the seeds in cloth dolls tied to their ragtag
clothing. The planters permitted slaves to grow their
maconha between the rows of cane, and to smoke and dream
during the periods of inactivity between harvests. But the
planters stuck to their perfumed cigars.”([70]) Many
planters felt that allowing their slaves to smoke marijuana,
encouraged them to work hard.([71])
Cannabis came to be regarded in Brazil as the opium of the
poor, used for cordage and clothing, comestible and spice,
energizer and invigorant, as well as medicine and euphoriant.([72])
This pattern of cannabis use replicated a pattern that Vera
Rubin calls the “ganja complex.” “Except for ritual purposes
involving members of the priestly class, regular
multipurpose use in the folk stream has been generally
confined to the lower social classes: peasants, fishermen,
rural and urban artisans and manual labourers.”([73])
Upper class use of cannabis in Brazil was not unheard of
however. In 1808, the Portuguese Royal Court, threatened by
Napoleon’s invasion of the Iberian Peninsula, escaped from
Portugal to Brazil, settling in Rio de Janeiro. The Court
spent approximately six years in Brazil, returning to
Portugal at the end of the Napoleonic Wars. In 1817, Queen
Carlota Joaquina, wife of Emperor Don Joao VI, King of
Portugal and Brazil, was dying. She asked her favourite
Angolan slave who accompanied her back to Portugal from
Brazil to “bring an infusion of the fibres of damba do
amazonas, with which we sent so many enemies to hell.” The
slave made an infusion of cannabis and arsenic and gave it
to her. “Upon taking the infusion, Dona Carlota felt no pain
while dying because of the analgesic action of diamba.”([74])
With this account, there are some anthropologists who
believe that it was actually the Portuguese Court who
introduced cannabis to Brazil during their short stay.
Whether it was the Angolan slaves or the Portuguese Court
who introduced cannabis to Brazil, there are indications
that smoking marijuana was also observed among the Indians
during the Colonial period.([75]) The Catimbo Indians used
marijuana in their own practices in order to receive spirits
to cure sick people. An influence of the African Angolan
practices led the Catimbo to also use marijuana to induce
divination, revelation of secrets and mystic hallucinations.
In the 19th century the use of marijuana was prohibited in
Rio de Janeiro. However, the prohibition was not enforced in
the provinces where smokers continued to enjoy marijuana use
and began growing their own plots next to their houses for
personal use.([76]) Often cannabis was used for medicinal
and therapeutic purposes: “usually, a preparation of tea,
mixed with marijuana leaves is swallowed by the patient to
relieve rheumatism, “female troubles,” colic and other
common complaints such as toothaches in which marijuana is
packed around the aching tooth.”([77])
Near the beginning of the 20th century, the ‘ganja complex’
had fully developed and many lower class individuals were
smoking marijuana both in rural areas and within the cities.
Groups of canoemen and fishermen as well as other
lower-class Brazilians gathered together on a weekly basis
for sessions of collective smoking. This custom, was called
Club de Diambistas([78]) in which the primary goal was the
search for psychedelic experiences.([79]) It was also smoked
in the military barracks and in the prisons, to alleviate
boredom and despair.([80])
4. Jamaica
Cannabis did not take root in Jamaica until the
mid-nineteenth century when East Indian indentured labourers
were brought over by the British to work in Jamaica.([81])
Eventually, their knowledge of the cannabis plant and
methods of smoking cannabis, or ‘ganja,’ diffused to the
black working class.
While cannabis is presently officially illegal in Jamaica,
‘cannabis is integrated with many dimensions of Jamaican
culture and is governed by social rules that guide its use
and inhibit abuse.’([82]) For Jamaicans, ganja is thought of
not only as a recreational drug, but certain cross-cultural
groups within Jamaica also view it as an herb that has both
religious and medicinal value. Anthropological studies have
shown that the use of ganja in Jamaica is extraordinarily
widespread.([83]) It is possible to recognize three major
groups who use it in culturally varied ways. First and
traditionally, lower-class Jamaicans are socialized to the
uses of ganja at a very young age because of its domestic
use in the home. In addition, young children become exposed
to their fathers social use of ganja. Secondly, members of
the Rastafarians, a politico-religious movement in Jamaica,
use ganja as a religious sacrament. Thirdly and most
recently, perhaps due to the growth of Rastafarianism, it is
no longer unusual to see Jamaican women smoking ganja in the
manner of their male counterparts.
a. Ganja Socialization in the Home and Use Primarily by
Males in Lower-Class Working Families
Through the ingestion of teas and tonics in herbal remedies,
all young children in lower-class working families in
Jamaica have at one time or another been exposed to ganja.
This social strata of Jamaican society holds the belief that
ganja helps to ‘maintain good health and prevent illness and
is therapeutic for a variety of complaints including upper
respiratory infections, asthma, intestinal problems,
glaucoma, gonorrhea, wasting due to malnutrition, and infant
diarrhea, endemic fevers, discomfort of teething, and skin
burns and abrasions.’([84]) Although the child may have been
well aware of the basic ingredient of the teas or tonics,
the child never heard the ganja ingredient spoken of by any
of the family members because “an aura of secretiveness
often surrounds this ordinary practice.”([85])
Subsequently in a youngster’s adolescent years, even though
young boys were cautioned against it, they would often be
introduced to smoking ganja by their older peers, who had
discovered that their fathers were regular smokers. Not to
take part in smoking ganja classified the non-smoker as an
outsider because it was symbolic of courage, and of crossing
the line from child to man, as well as a sign of friendship
and trust.
On one level, smoking the substance is considered
adventurous by the adolescent boy: by participating in an
illegal practice, even though it is widespread among his
elders, the young smoker believes he is demonstrating
courage, defiance, and, most importantly, manhood. In subtle
ways, the smoking of ganja is considered by the young almost
as a rite de passage, an audacious act signifying transition
from adolescence to maturity. On another level, particularly
for males from the lowest socio-economic rung of the
society, smoking symbolizes camaraderie, equality, and
belonging; it is a sign of friendship and
trustworthiness.([86])
Not all boys become regular smokers however. To become a
regular ganja smoker is dependent on the boy’s reaction to
his first experience, and this is determined by the boy
himself, as well as his peers through a culturally
standardized ‘vision.’ During the first ganja smoking
experience, the boy is supposed to see a little dancing
person or creature, symbolizing a positive ganja smoking
experience. If a boy’s peers decide that he did not see the
vision, they say “he doesn’t have the head for it” and this
means the boy had a negative ganja smoking experience.([87])
Although a negative experience has the potential of giving
the boy social marginality, it is not entirely detrimental,
since members of the Jamaican middle and upper class have
traditionally disapproved of ganja smoking and considered it
illegal. Those who did not participate in ganja smoking had
much better chances for upward social mobility.([88])
When working-class men establish their own households in
their twenties, regular users of ganja plant their own
supply in an inconspicuous place near their homes. Unlike in
younger years when ganja smoking was a central part of
social life, at this stage ganja smoking becomes “a natural
part of the daily round, an almost unnoticed routine at work
parties, lunch breaks, evening visits, and the like.”([89])
Ganja is valued for its ability to increase work capacity,
specifically manual labour. The working-class man believes
that regular doses of ganja build his blood as well as his
strength. In addition, ganja provides immediate bursts of
energy.([90])
Traditional ganja smoking at the working-class level is thus
highly based on customary behaviour depending on age, peers
and work. Sex could also be another category since
traditionally, the female ganja smoker was rare and
considered disreputable.([91])
b. Rastafarians
The Rastafarian cult, unique to Jamaica, is a movement whose
members believe that Haile Selasssie, Emperor of Ethiopia,
is the Black Messiah who appeared in the flesh for the
redemption of all Blacks exiled in the world of White
oppressors. For Rastafarians, Ethiopia is the Promised Land
where Black people will be repatriated through a wholesale
exodus from all Western countries where they have been
slaves.([92])
The Rastafarian movement began to take shape around 1930-33.
In 1940, Leonard Howell launched the doctrine of the
Rastafarian movement and recruited a large following
(between 500-1600 people) to join him in the hills of St.
Catherine, overlooking Kingston where he would not be
harassed by the police for the radical principles of his
doctrine.([93]) Howell became leader of this cult known as
“Ethiopian Salvation Society” at the commune called
“Pinnacle.” For a living, the people of the commune grew
cash crops, including the ganja herb. Many Rastafarians
continue to be ganja farmers today.
Ganja became a predominant symbol in the Rastafarian
movement and its use became a religious sacrament. Even
today, it is believed that ganja is a holy herb and when
inhaled, it allows the Rastafarian to ‘loosen up’ his head
and truly perceive himself as a Black person without the
pre-conditioned forces of European society. This in turn
permits the revelation that Haile Selassie is truly their
God and Ethiopia, the home of the Blacks.([94])
The herb is the key to new understanding of the self, the
universe, and God. It is the vehicle to cosmic
consciousness; it introduces one to levels of reality not
ordinarily perceived by the non-Rastafarians, and it
develops a certain sense of fusion with all living
beings.([95])
In defence of the belief that cannabis forms part of their
heritage, Rastafarians cite several sections of the Bible.
They believe that “God who created all things made the herb
for human use” and will cite Genesis 1:12 as their proof
text:([96])
And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed
after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was
in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
Rastafarians also cite the following sections of the Bible
as further proof that their use of cannabis is
legitimate:([97])
…thou shalt eat the herb of the field. (Genesis 3:18)
…eat every herb of the land. (Exodus 10:12)
… Better is a dinner of herb where love is, than a stalled
ox and hatred therewith. (Proverbs 15:17)
…He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for
the service of man. (Psalm 104:14)
Ganja smoking was also a symbol of protest for the
Rastafarians against the Jamaican establishment and
representative of the Rastafarians freedom from Jamaican
laws.
Although Haile Selassie passed away in 1975, ganja continues
to be an ideological symbol for Rastafarians and continues
to be used in the Rastafarian faith to reinforce their
liberating ideology.([98])
c. Working Class Women in Jamaica
Although traditionally it was socially inappropriate for
women to smoke ganja, the present situation in Jamaica shows
that the number of women who smoke cannabis in a similar
recreational manner to their male counterparts has increased
dramatically.([99]) This may be due to the influence of
Rastafarianism or possibly due to men’s lack of ability to
provide support to women and children due to the harsh
economy. “When there are no benefits for conforming to the
social norms, social rules tend to be observed less
stringently.”([100])
There are a widespread number of views amongst Jamaican
women regarding ganja smoking. Similar to Western medical
belief, many Jamaican women believe that it is especially
harmful to smoke ganja while pregnant. However a number of
other Jamaican women believe that ganja smoking actually
aids the mother’s care-taking abilities as well as the
health of both the baby and the mother.([101]) In a study
carried out in Jamaica in 1980 of 30 ganja smoking pregnant
women and 30 non-ganja smoking pregnant women it was found
that ganja smoking was indeed beneficial for both mother and
baby.([102])
Of significance in relation to cultural uses of cannabis,
the study showed that rather than acting as a recreational
outlet, ganja smoking helped the pregnant women to deal with
the difficulties of pregnancy in a society where, multiple
pregnancies are common, families are often in financial
difficulty and women must continue to perform hard labour
throughout their pregnancy.
For many women, ganja was seen as an option that provided a
solution to problems during pregnancy such as loss of
appetite, nausea, and fatigue. Ganja helped to increase
their appetites, control and prevent the nausea of
pregnancy, assist them to sleep, and give them the energy
they needed to work. For women who are responsible for the
full support of their households and who need to accomplish
work while not feeling well, ganja smoking is an available
and inexpensive solution to this problem. The women with
several pregnancies, in particular, reported that both
social and private smoking alleviated the feelings of
depression and desperation attending motherhood in their
impoverished communities.([103])
Melanie Dreher illustrates in her study that ganja smoking
not only has become a recreational activity for many women
who decide to breach lower-class social norms it also has a
symbolic meaning attached to it for many pregnant women in
Jamaica.
PART II – NORTH AMERICAN CONTEXT OF CANNABIS USE
A. History of Cannabis in North America
While there is strong historical evidence illustrating that
the psychoactive properties of cannabis have been used as
part of cultural practices of several societies throughout
the world, it is unclear when the psychoactive properties of
cannabis were discovered in North America. Some scholars
believe that cannabis probably existed in North America long
before the Europeans arrived. In Chris Bennett’s book Green
Gold: Marijuana in Magic and Religion he says, “there is
some very good physical evidence that indicates cannabis
played a part in some of the native cultures prior to the
arrival of Columbus.”([104]) In 1985, Bill Fitzgerald
discovered resin scrapings of 500-year-old pipes in
Morriston, Ontario containing “traces of hemp and tobacco
that is five times stronger than the cigarettes smoked
today.”([105]) Other archaeological evidence includes stone
and wooden pipes and hemp fibre pouches that were found in
the Ohio Valley from about 800 A.D.([106])
Elders of some North American native tribes can also
remember their ancestors using cannabis in a ritual manner.
According to Richard L. Lingeman in his book Drugs from A to
Z, a 79 year old member of the Cinco Putas tribe in
California
recalls his grandmother’s daily ritual when he was a small
child. She took some cannabis flower tops out of an
intricately carved box then rolled it in handmade corn
paper. She held the resulting ‘joint’ upright in front of
her and, watching the rising swirled smoke, prayed: “Oh
thank-you Great Mother!” for each of the gifts the day had
brought, as well as thanks for her present
relaxation.([107])
Even today, there are some North American tribes, especially
those from Mexico, who have used cannabis as sacred gift
under the name Rosa Maria or Santa Rosa, and continue to use
it today.
Indians in the Mexican states of Veracruz, Hidalgo, and
Puebla practice a communal curing ceremony with a plant
called Santa Rosa, identified as cannabis sativa, which is
considered both a plant and a sacred intercessor with the
Virgin. Although the ceremony is based mainly on Christian
elements, the plant is worshipped as an earth deity and is
thought to be alive and to represent a part of the heart of
God.([108])
However, some scholars are doubtful that cannabis was an
integral part of the cultures of North American native
tribes. “With few exceptions, cannabis has not penetrated
significantly into many native religious beliefs and
ceremonies.”([109]) These scholars believe that the
cultivation of cannabis in the New World originated by its
introduction through white settlers. Even if North American
natives had been using cannabis prior to White man’s arrival
“unfortunately much of the religion and culture of the
aboriginal peoples of the western hemisphere was destroyed
or driven underground by the European invaders.”([110])
Hence, there is little evidence that the natives of the
continent introduced the white settlers to the cannabis
plant or its psychoactive properties. The earliest known
evidence is that Louis Hebert, Champlain’s apothecary,
introduced the cannabis plant to North American white
settlers in 1606. However, the white settlers did not
discover the psychoactive properties of cannabis until the
end of the 19th century. Rather, the cannabis plant was
widely grown across North America for its use as a fibre in
clothing and cordage and to provide sails and rigging for
ships. The pilgrims also planted hemp soon after its
introduction, and used it to cover their wagons.
Colonial governments realized quite quickly the profits that
could be made from the production of cannabis fibre (hemp).
King James I commanded the American colonists to produce
hemp, and later in 1619, the government of the colony of
Virginia imposed penalties on those who did not produce
cannabis, and awarded bounties for cannabis culture and
manufacture.
Similar attempts to stimulate the industry occurred in
Eastern Canada as well. Hemp was grown under the French
regime, and was the first crop to be subsidized by the
government. In 1801, the Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada
distributed hemp seeds to farmers. Later, in the 1820’s, a
gentleman by the name of Edward Allen Talbot, Esq., wrote
Five Years’ Residence in the Canadas. He believed that if
Canada produced enough hemp to supply Britain, this would
end their dependence on a foreign power and greatly benefit
Canadian settlers. In 1822, the provincial parliament of
Upper Canada allocated 300 pounds for the purchase of
machinery to process hemp and 50 pounds a year over the next
three years for repairs. The 1823 budget also offered
incentives to domestic producers. Mr. Fielding, Finance
Minister said that there was a market in Canada and with
some government encouragement a mill could be established in
Manitoba to draw from crops in the vicinity. There were six
hemp mills in Canada at the time, and the government
financed a seventh, the Manitoba Cordage Company. Near the
end of the 19th century however, cannabis production became
overshadowed by cotton production since it was less labour
intensive. Even with the invention of a new machine in 1917
to make it easier to separate cannabis fibre from the
internal woody core, cannabis fibre production did not rise
in production again. The new petroleum based synthetic
textile companies and the large and powerful
newspaper/lumber barons saw hemp production as a threat to
their businesses. Thus in 1937, the United States enacted
the Marijuana Tax Law, and levied an occupational excise tax
upon cannabis fibre producers. The Canadian government,
following the American lead, also prohibited production
under the Opium and Narcotics Act on 1 August 1938.
Between the years of 1840-1900 cannabis was also used in
medicinal practice throughout North America. During this
time, more than one hundred papers were published in the
Western medical literature recommending it for various
illnesses and discomforts. The first physician to introduce
cannabis to Western medicine was W.B. O’Shaunghnessy of
Scotland. He introduced cannabis to Western medicine in 1841
after observing its use in India and performing experiments
on animals to satisfy himself that it was safe for human
use. Soon after its introduction to North America,
physicians began to prescribe cannabis for a variety of
physical conditions such as rabies, rheumatism, epilepsy,
tetanus and as a muscle relaxant. Cannabis became so common
in medicinal use that eventually, cannabis preparations were
sold over the counter in drug stores.
In 1860, the first American Governmental Commission study of
cannabis and health was conducted. Dr. R. R. M’Meens
reported the findings of the Commission to the Ohio State
Medical Society. M’Meens found that,
cannabis effects are less intense than opium, and the
secretions are not so much suppressed by it. Digestion is
not disturbed; the appetite rather increases; the whole
effect of hemp being less violent, and producing a more
natural sleep, without interfering with the actions of the
internal organs, it is certainly often preferable to opium,
although it is not equal to that drug in strength and
reliability.([111])
Up until the early 1890’s doctors continued to find cannabis
valuable for treatment of various forms of neuralgia
especially treating migraine attacks, epilepsy, depression
and sometimes for asthma and dysmenorrhoea. Some doctors
such as H.A. Hare also recommended cannabis to subdue
restlessness and anxiety and distract a patient’s mind in
terminal illness. Dr. Hare believed cannabis was as
effective a pain reliever as opium.
However, the 1890’s also found some doctors suggesting that
the potency of cannabis preparations was too variable, and
individual responses to orally ingested cannabis seemed
erratic and unpredictable. “Cannabis Indica has fallen
considerably in the estimation of the profession, both in
the old country and in this, due no doubt to its variability
and often noticeable uncertainty of action.”([112]) In
addition, since the invention of the hypodermic syringe in
the 1850’s, there was an increased use of opiates and
soluble drugs that could be injected for faster pain relief.
Cannabis was difficult to be administered by injection
because it is highly insoluble. Chemically stable drugs such
as aspirin, chloral hydrate and barbiturates were also
developed at the end of the 19th century. And while
barbiturates were found to be quite dangerous, and many
people died from aspirin induced bleeding, cannabis
continued to fall out of practice as a medicine.
Simultaneously, as cannabis began to fall out of practice as
a medicinal drug, its use as a recreational hallucinogen was
realized in the United States. In 1916, Puerto Rican
Soldiers and Americans stationed in the Panama Canal Zone
were reported to have been using marijuana, and military
authorities did not enforce its disuse because they did not
feel it was as harmful as drinking alcohol. But medical
experts began to “consider cannabis as a narcotic, implying
the dangers of overdose and habit… and saw it as an
aphrodisiac, adding sexual excitement or uncontrollability
to its detriments.”([113])
In 1915 California became the first state to make it illegal
to possess cannabis. By the 1920’s marijuana had become a
major ‘underground drug,’([114]) traced to an influx of
Mexican workers into the Southern United States in the
1910’s and 1920’s.([115]) Subsequent use was apparently
largely confined to lower class ethnic minority groups, with
a high proportion of urban-dwelling Afro and Spanish
Americans among the known users. “When Mexican labourers
introduced marijuana smoking to the United States, it spread
across the south, and by the 1920’s, its use was established
in New Orleans through its importation from Havana, Tampico,
and Veracruz by American and Mexican sailors, and use was
confined primarily among the poor and minority
groups.”([116]) Later in the 1930’s, “cannabis was the first
psychoactive substance (besides alcohol) that became a
common subject in modern popular music, with jazz classics
from the 1930’s such as Louis Armstrong’s Muggles and Cab
Calloway’s That Funny Reefer Man topping the bill of
marijuana-inspired fare.”([117])
The recreational spread of cannabis use, especially in the
United States at the beginning of the 20th century, assisted
in enhancing the narcotic classification of cannabis by
medical experts at the end of the 19th century. Therefore,
medical experts also supported the American Marijuana Tax
Act of 1937, as well as the Canadian Opium and Narcotics Act
in 1938, both of which not only controlled the cannabis
economic industry with prohibitive taxes, but also prevented
further experimentation on the medicinal effects of
cannabis. Years later in 1954, a new offence was created in
Canada for the ‘possession for the purpose of trafficking’
and in 1956, cannabis was also incorporated into the more
comprehensive United States Narcotics Act. Internationally,
cannabis began to be controlled in 1961 by the United
Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961, requiring
states to adopt the necessary legislative and regulatory
measures in order to limit the production, distribution and
use of prohibited substances to medical and scientific
purposes. Canada both signed and ratified the convention in
1961 and the United States later acceded to the convention
in 1967.
Thus, while white settlers to North America have used
cannabis since the early 1600’s, psychoactive usage for
purposes other than medicine was not heard of until the
20th century. Before this, priority was placed on the
economic viability of cannabis fibre production and later,
the cannabis plant’s scientific medicinal uses. By the time
North Americans were exposed to other cultural values of
cannabis (smoking marijuana), via methods such as travel to
other countries and incoming immigrants, cannabis was
already well on its way to being considered by the North
American laws, of little value. Despite reports that
emphasized the harmless effects of smoking marijuana, such
as the La Guardia Report published in 1944 by the New York
Academy of Medicine, cannabis continued to be proscribed.
These laws were not only prohibitive of industrial
production and medical research of cannabis, but also
prohibitive of the psychoactive use of cannabis that was,
and continues to be, an integral part of the cultures that
introduced it to North Americans.
B. Cannabis Use in Canada
While people in the United States were introduced to the
psychoactive use of cannabis (marijuana smoking) in the
early 1900’s by way of ethnic immigrant settlers and contact
with other cultures outside of the United States, “there are
no reliable accounts of the non-medical use of cannabis in
Canada which predate the 1930’s.”([118]) Even between the
years of 1930-46 there were only 25 convictions for cannabis
possession in all of Canada.([119]) Meanwhile in the United
States, several newspapers had begun publishing reports of
young people using marijuana. In 1933, Detective L.E. Bowery
of the Wichita Police Department claimed “no denial can be
made of the fact that marijuana smoking is at present a
common practice among the young people of the city, and that
it is constantly becoming more prevalent…”([120]) Later, by
the early 1960’s
cannabis was well established in many American universities
and among many high school aged youths. This may have been
due to the American involvement in the Vietnamese War, as
well as due to the evolution of the 1960’s hippie
psychedelic ethos, the growth of underground newspapers, and
the mass media’s attention to the drug.([121])
It was not until the mid-to late 1960s, when this level and
type of usage was imitated in Canada. “In 1962 the Royal
Canadian Mounted Police reported only 20 cases connected
with cannabis. In 1968 the number of cannabis related cases
had risen to over 2300, and in 1972 there were nearly 12000
cannabis convictions in Canada.”([122])
The spread of marijuana use among Canadian youth in the late
1960’s is attributable to an adoption of the American social
forces of the psychedelic ‘hippie’ movement. Like their
American counterparts, a Canadian ‘counter culture’ began to
protest society’s values placed on them and held sit-ins and
demonstrations against injustices such as racism, poverty
and the lack of women’s rights. One of these demonstrations
occurred in 1971 in Vancouver’s Gastown. The event was a
‘smoke-in,’ with a few hundred cannabis activists, and
hippies in attendance.([123])
Travel, is another possibility as to how marijuana use
spread quickly throughout Canada during the late 1960’s and
early 1970’s. The late 1960’s brought about a time when
Canadians followed their fellow American counterparts to
regions such as the Far East where they became exposed to
different cultural practices of cannabis use in their search
for cheap hashish. “Travel and transportation are crucial
variables in drug history, just as they are in the history
of infectious diseases.”([124])
Thus in part, the increase of marijuana use in Canada during
the 1960’s could also be correlated with the increase in
numbers of people travelling from other countries to settle
in Canada, bringing with them, an array of cultural
practices. Until the 1960’s, Canada’s immigration laws
prevented immigrants from countries other than Britain, the
United States, and Europe from settling in Canada. Moreover,
immigrants were expected to shed their distinctive heritage
and assimilate almost entirely to existing cultural norms of
a ‘white settler’ society. Therefore until this time,
contact with cultures that may have used cannabis for
purposes other than industrial or medical purposes, was
limited.
In 1961 however, Canadian immigration policy changed and
since this time people have travelled from their native
countries in Asia, the Caribbean, Africa, Central and South
America([125]) to come to live in Canada. But while
immigration laws were expanded in 1961, the Government
continued to expect immigrants to assimilate to the white
settler society. It was not until the late 1960’s to early
1970’s when the Canadian hippie movement came into full
swing, that
under pressure from immigrant groups, the Canadian
government rejected the assimilationist model of
immigration, and instead adopted a more tolerant policy
(multi-culturalism policy) that allows and indeed encourages
immigrants to maintain various aspects of their ethnic
heritage. Immigrants were now free to maintain some of their
old customs regarding food, dress, recreation, and religion
and to associate with each other to maintain these
practices. This is no longer seen as unpatriotic or
‘un-Canadian.’([126])
However only certain cultural values of incoming migrants
were allowed to exist, while others that conflicted with
Canadian ‘common-values’ were ignored. For many migrants who
came from societies where cannabis was integral to their
culture, this was one practice the Canadian Government would
not permit. Such is a form of “legal moralism in which the
government intervenes in drug use in the name of its
responsibility to preserve common values that are vital to
the well-being of society.”([127]) However, the increase in
cannabis use throughout the 1960’s and 1970’s illustrates
that these ‘common values’ regarding cannabis were beginning
to deteriorate and new moral values were permeating the
cannabis issue in Canadian society. The transnational
movement of an array of cultural values was occurring in
Canada, even despite laws that legitimated or prohibited
them.([128])
During the period of Canadian social change in the late
1960’s, both by protests from the hippie movement and
transnational movement of cultural practices, the Canadian
Government seemed prepared to ease up on marijuana
prohibition. In the early 1970’s the Le Dain Commission was
appointed in Canada to undertake a complete and factual
study of marijuana use and its effects. It concluded that,
“Canada’s prohibition laws had only served to create a
sub-culture with little respect for the law and law
enforcement, as well as diverting law enforcement
capability, clogging the judicial system, and providing a
base of funds for organized crime.”([129]) In 1972, Trudeau
added this recommendation to his election platform although
his government did not change the marijuana laws after his
re-election. As marijuana use continued to steadily grow
especially amongst youth throughout the 1970’s, in 1978, yet
another report was commissioned on marijuana laws,
recommending once again, that marijuana be decriminalized
and legalized.([130]) Later in 1979, under the leadership of
then Prime Minister Joe Clark, the Progressive Conservative
government of 1979-80 gave notice in its Throne Speech that
it intended to reform the Criminal Code provisions regarding
cannabis, but the Conservative Government was defeated
before making these revisions. Meanwhile, a number of
regional studies that were conducted in various populations
throughout the 1970’s in Canada showed that current use
amongst students was fast approaching 25 percent, with 1979
being a peak year where over 30 percent of students in
grades 7, 9, 11, and 13 reported use in the previous
12 months.([131]) Youthful cannabis use in the 1970’s could
be viewed as a continuation of the epidemic of the sixties.
Despite the 1978 report that advocated the decriminalization
and legalization of marijuana, in 1979 the Liberal
government made the decision to sign the UN’s Convention on
Psychotropic Substances (1971). The newly elected American
Reagan-Bush Administration heavily influenced this decision
with its campaign on the ‘War on Drugs.’ By signing the
convention, the Canadian Government halted any plans to
legalize marijuana([132]) and prevented conflict with their
American neighbours.
Throughout the 1980’s the Reagan-Bush administration carried
out ‘The War on Drugs’ campaign. In Canada, regular Gallup
polls showed evidence that cannabis use was stabilizing and
even may have been decreasing in the youth
population.([133]) This may have partly been due to several
prohibition measures that were enabled by national,
provincial and local organizations in order to suppress
cannabis use as well as cannabis trade. And although
marijuana use in both the United States and Canada had moved
from primarily lower class use to use across a spectrum of
societies, the non-using population continued to forcefully
object to marijuana use because of the lifestyle they
associated with it.([134]) Thus, smoking marijuana became
more of a private and personal activity, done at home and
out of sight of friends, coworkers and family members. In
1987 Canada’s Drug Strategy (1987) was implemented ‘to
address both the supply and demand reduction strategies and
programs in enforcement, treatment and prevention
programming were funded.’([135]) Some say that at the time,
this may have been the most severe cannabis censorship
strategy in the world.([136])
However, the 1990’s saw a substantial increase in cannabis
use across Canada. Between 1993-1994 alone, cannabis use
increased from 4.2% to 7.4%.([137]) As well, while 1980’s
statistics show that cannabis use was much higher in adult
populations between the ages of 30-49 years of age, the
1990’s saw a reverse of this trend in Canada. The statistics
for Ontario show that between 1996 and 2000, cannabis use
among 18-29 year olds increased from 18% to 28%.([138])
According to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health’s
Ontario Student Drug Use Survey, this was a result of
weakening perceptions of risk of harm and weakening moral
disapproval of drug use.([139])
Although increasing acceptance of marijuana use may be
attributable to a number of factors, the 1990’s were
described as the decade of immigration in Canada, with the
average number of immigrants per year remaining well over
200 000 throughout.([140]) Thus once again, just as in the
late 1960’s and early 1970’s, the increasingly permissive
attitude of Canadians towards marijuana could potentially be
linked to theories of transnational movements of cultural
values, therefore leading Canadians to increased exposure
and acceptance of different values of marijuana usage. As
Kearney suggests, ‘global implosion’ tends to take place
when migrants move from their homeland to another nation.
They bring with them their cultural practices, which may go
through ‘transnational transformations’ as they are adapted
to the national culture.([141])
The mid-1990’s also saw the rise of a cannabis
decriminalization movement joined by hundreds of
recreational smokers who say that Canada’s laws against
cannabis are outdated and out of step with the rest of the
Western world. Many governments in a number of European
countries, including the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and
Spain, have now decided not to prosecute for possession of
cannabis for personal use. Despite this, in 1997 the
Canadian Government passed the Controlled Drugs and
Substances Act, which prior to its enactment was criticized
by The Canadian Foundation for Drug Policy, The Addiction
Research Foundation of Ontario, The Canadian Police
Association and The Canadian Bar Association, for its war on
drugs approach.([142])
With the enactment of such a heavy-handed law in 1997, which
continued the trend of Canadian prohibition of cannabis
despite the growing permissive mentality for its use, the
past five years have seen the marijuana issue quickly rising
to a boiling point. Several Canadians have gone directly to
the police and to the courts to challenge what they say are
the country’s anachronistic drug laws([143]) and the courts
have made decisions in favour of marijuana use for medicinal
purposes.
Of significance is the 1997 Terrence Parker case([144]) that
ultimately led to Canada’s adoption of a system regulating
the medicinal use of marijuana in July 2001. Terrence
Parker, who uses marijuana as a means of controlling his
epileptic seizures, had been arrested and charged numerous
times since 1987 for marijuana possession. However, when he
was charged once again in 1997, an Ontario Court judge ruled
that people must be able to access necessary medical
treatment without fear of arrest. Thus on 10 December 1997
Terrence Parker became the first Canadian to be exempted
from further prosecution for possession or cultivation of
marijuana.([145]) Later when the case was appealed in 2000,
the Court of Appeal for Ontario upheld the decision and said
that by making marijuana illegal throughout Canada, Canada’s
Controlled Drugs and Substances Act violated the Charter of
Rights and Freedoms. At this time, the Court ordered the
federal government to clarify the rules surrounding medical
marijuana. By April 2001 the Federal Government released its
proposed solution. After further deliberations, in July 2001
Canada began regulating the medicinal use of marijuana. The
regulations allow access to marijuana for symptoms
associated with terminal illnesses, for symptoms associated
with medical conditions listed in a schedule and for
symptoms associated with other medical conditions. The
application process differs depending on the symptoms
involved.
Also of recent significance are court challenges that have
arisen in Canada regarding the religious use of marijuana.
In Canada, Ontario’s Church of the Universe has been arguing
for the religious freedom to smoke marijuana in various
cases since 1989. Since the ruling in the Terrence Parker
case, Brothers Tucker and Baldasaro have filed a challenge
that the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act is not only
unconstitutional for people who need it for medicinal
purposes, but also unconstitutional in their continued
battle for the recognition of their rights to use cannabis
as a sacrament. However, as of 30 January 2002, Ontario’s
Church of the Universe had not yet received a court date.
Similar court cases are also occurring in the United States.
For instance, in September 2000, the Supreme Court of Guam
dismissed criminal charges against a man who claimed that he
is a Rastafarian and was importing marijuana for religious
use. The Guam Supreme Court concluded that because marijuana
was a necessary sacrament of the Rastafarian religion, and
because the prosecution failed to justify the burden placed
on the practice of the Rastafarian religion by the law
against importing marijuana, the importation ban violated
Guam’s free exercise protection.([146]) Because Guam is a
United States territory, in November 2001 the case was
appealed to an American Federal Court in Honolulu where the
American Civil Liberties Union argued,
Just as eight states have passed local laws recognizing the
usefulness of marijuana for medicinal purposes, the U.S.
territory of Guam should be allowed to guarantee individuals
the right to use marijuana for religious purposes without
fear of federal interference.([147])
The American Court will not likely give a ruling until
Spring 2002.
While the argument for the religious use of marijuana has
not yet been as successful as the argument for the medical
use of marijuana, in 1991, a Canadian Law Reform Commission
Report entitled Statutory Criminal Law recommended a
study:
to determine whether or not any groups in Canada
traditionally make use of controlled drugs in their
religious practices. If a need for some mechanism is found
in the study, the report recommends that a statutory
mechanism for application by religious groups for exemption
be adopted. Further, the LRCC report recommends that
specific exemptions be granted to individual religions to
avoid the uncertainty and litigation inherent in a general
broadly worded exemption. It also suggests that an exemption
from drug offence legislation only be granted when it is
sought by a bona fide religion; the drug used is central to
a ceremony or practice of the religion; and its use would
not indirectly make the drug more widely available in the
general community.([148])
This recommendation by the Law Reform Commission of Canada
has not yet been adopted by Canada. Eleven years ago when
the study was suggested, this may have been too large of a
step in the way of a permissive attitude towards marijuana
use for Canadians to take. However, the recent acceptance of
marijuana use for medical purposes in Canada does suggest
that Canadians are becoming more open-minded to certain
valid uses for marijuana.
Such open mindedness to the psychoactive use of cannabis is
new to Canada and has only been developing since the 1960’s.
Finally, the psychoactive usages of cannabis have reached
Canadian soil through Canadians’ exposure to other societies
who have known its use for centuries. The past 40 years have
seen several different, and fast-paced social developments
of psychoactive cannabis users in Canada. The overlapping
epidemics of the 1960’s and 1970’s saw the cannabis user as
the ‘flamboyant explorer and adventurer([149]) where “young
people deserted the suburbs and congregated in costumed
array in central city neighbourhoods. In the summertime,
they roamed across the country as hitchhiking transients.
The media were fascinated by these ‘hippies’ or ‘flower
children,’ and sensationalized their drug use.”([150]) The
1960’s and 1970’s saw a steady increase in use especially by
youth. However, the 1980’s ‘war on drugs’ era saw a
levelling out of cannabis use amongst the youth population,
and rather a quiet, but steady increase of use in adults
between the ages of 30-49. At this point in time in Canada,
studies show that marijuana use “was more frequently
reported by single (never married) respondents, people
looking for work, and, in the working population,
blue-collar workers.”([151]) The 1990’s saw this trend
reverse itself, with reports of cannabis use once again
steadily increasing amongst those between the ages of 18-29.
Between 1996-2000, reports show that for this age range,
cannabis use increased from 18.3% to 28.2% with use tending
to be highest among those with some post-secondary education
and lowest among those with a university degree.([152])
While there is evidence that marijuana smoking is once again
becoming a social activity, it is with the worry of
protecting oneself from rumours that would refer themselves
to as a ‘drug addict.’
Joints are rolled as discreetly as possible, very quickly,
and in such as way that they look as much like a cigarette
as possible… If there is one thing, however, that is
important to young people, it is the image their parents
have of them. Rumours spread quickly, and who knows what
parents might learn from a neighbour? If they are afraid of
police intervention, it is not so much because of the
potential risks as it is because they are afraid that the
police might burst into the family home. Therefore, they
hide from neighbours who could potentially talk with their
families, and more readily smoke in public areas where there
is less of a chance of running into someone they
know.([153])
While there have been fast-paced increases and decreases of
marijuana use over the past 40 years in Canada “in
retrospect, cannabis usage rates in the late sixties seem
modest”([154]) compared to today. For instance, the
proportion of ‘past year cannabis users’ aged 30 to 49 years
steadily increased from 15.4% to 46.5% between 1977 and
1996.([155])
This growing permissive attitude in Canada of marijuana use
was validated in a May 2001 survey. University of Lethbridge
sociologist Reginald Bibby found that 47 percent of
Canadians favour the legalization of marijuana, which is up
from 31 percent in 1995 and 26 percent in 1975.([156]) There
are also many, such as the Canadian Association of Chiefs of
Police, the RCMP and the Canadian Medical Association
Journal who to varying degrees feel that marijuana should
not necessarily be legalized, but at least decriminalized in
some manner.([157])
However, in the face of a much more permissive attitude
towards marijuana, there are still many Canadians who are of
the traditional Canadian mindset that marijuana use should
continue to be illegal. Many continue to believe, as the
Canadian Police Association has advocated, that legalizing
marijuana use will have several serious harmful societal
effects including sending the wrong message to youth,
facilitating the use of more harmful drugs, contributing to
soaring health-care costs, and encouraging driving while
high.([158])
The conflict between the growing numbers of Canadians who
are taking a more permissive attitude towards marijuana use
and those who continue to view the marijuana issue in the
traditional Canadian manner is coming to a rapid boil in the
21st century. Distinct values in favour of marijuana use are
coming to the foreground in Canada, some of which have
already led to a reintroduction of the medicinal use of
marijuana. Policy makers, who continue to grapple with
future policy development on the controversial marijuana
issue, must realize that ‘the moralistic legal vision that
has dominated Canadian discourse supporting the maintenance
of prohibitions against drugs’([159]) may no longer suffice
as more and more Canadians step outside of this common
morality.
Conclusion – The Marijuana Clash in Canada:
A Moral Debate
The first half of this paper studied various cultural values
found throughout the world in favour of cannabis use for
psychoactive purposes, values often deeply embedded in a
culture’s historic rituals and practices. In contrast, the
second half of this paper examined North American, and more
specifically Canadian, values where there is little history
of psychoactive cannabis use and traditionally, most of
society opposes the psychoactive use of cannabis. The
comparison exemplifies that “the use of cannabis has a
different meaning in [many] Eastern cultures where a long
history and tradition surrounds its use than it does in the
West, where it is a relatively recent phenomenon.”([160])
Cultural differences play a large part in the adoption or
non-adoption of marijuana. For example, as mentioned in this
paper, the Chinese did not embrace the psychoactive use of
cannabis because it was inappropriate in respect of the
Chinese temperament and tradition of a shame-oriented
personality. They discouraged the use of psychoactive
cannabis because they felt it was apt to provoke impulsive
acts that might bring shame upon the user or his family. In
comparison, anthropological evidence illustrates that
several eastern societies actually wanted to adopt the
psychoactive use of cannabis for the very reason of its
capacity to produce motivational effects, providing
increased work capacity (Jamaica) and the ability to win
wars (African tribes).
Aside from the recent resurgence of marijuana use for
medicinal purposes, Canada has not embraced the psychoactive
use of cannabis. Unlike many eastern societies that believe
the psychoactive effects of marijuana produce impulsive
effects, traditionally, Western culture associates marijuana
use with an “introspective, meditative, non-aggressive
stereotype”([161]) or the “amotivational syndrome.”([162])
This moral belief developed out of the 1960’s hippie
movement use of marijuana. “The public mind often conceives
of the marijuana-user as a long-haired hippie”([163])
leading a way of life many believed was irresponsible and
lazy. Westerners, who are noted for cultural emphasis on
achievement, activity and aggressiveness([164]) tend to
associate marijuana use with a life-style and set of values
very different from their own.([165])
Cross-cultural comparisons of cannabis use are therefore
difficult to apply to the Western situation – Western
society views the effects of psychoactive cannabis
differently, and this understanding of its effects gives
rise to Western moral opposition towards anyone who uses
marijuana no matter what the cultural background is for
their use of marijuana.([166])
Canadian laws have promoted and tried to protect this moral
hegemony since the early 1930’s, but especially during the
1980’s when the American “War on Drugs” campaign began.
However as a result of several factors such as the hippie
movement in the late 1960’s, travel to other countries, and
the transnational movement of cultural practices, Canadians
have gained exposure to other cultural values of marijuana
use which has resulted in the emergence of new Canadian
attitudes towards marijuana, threatening the traditional
moral hegemony. “Where the moral issue is not accepted
uniformly throughout society, it intensifies
conflict.”([167]) Since the early 1990’s, groups of
Canadians have been forming a decriminalization movement and
questioning traditional Canadian values about marijuana use.
The Canadian law, which has upheld these traditional
Canadian values and morals towards marijuana use, is facing
increasing pressure from the Canadian public’s recognition
of other values of cannabis use.
Such is the ‘marijuana clash.’ While on the surface the
debate includes scientific arguments regarding the harms or
benefits of marijuana, below the surface the debate is
actually informed by preconceived cultural morals and
values.([168]) In other words, prior to seeking an answer to
scientific questions, for instance of marijuana’s desirable
or noxious effects, it must first be established whom the
question is directed to([169]) because this highly
influences the answer. “Our morality ebbs and flows in
accordance with our personal ethics, where our ethics are
the ideal and morality is the means by which we approach
that ideal.”([170]) Therefore, it is only natural that
cultural backgrounds obscure answers to scientific questions
in regards to marijuana. All sides of the debate can
represent and defend their moral position by drawing upon
scientific reasoning. Thus “the marijuana controversy is
primarily a political, rather than a scientific debate”
because it pits morals against morals, that are informed by
cultural backgrounds. In turn, the ‘marijuana clash’
involves people in Canada who strive to legitimate their
moral positions (defended by scientific reasoning) through
the enactment of laws.
As Canadian society has recently, over the past forty years,
been exposed to other historical cultural values of
psychoactive cannabis uses, one can postulate that this may
be the reason why marijuana usage rates in Canada have
increased. Whether or not they are aware that their
permissive attitude may have developed from exposure to
other cultural values of cannabis, many groups have begun to
promote these ‘new’ values towards cannabis use in
opposition to the traditional Canadian moral position. Thus,
it is important for Canadian policy makers to be conscious
of other cultural values of psychoactive cannabis use.
Canadian policy approaches to marijuana in the 21st century
failing to take into consideration the existence of other
cultural values towards cannabis in Canada will result in
ineffective policies that will simply continue to escalate
the moral debate over cannabis use. This does not mean that
insight into different cultural values of cannabis use will
solve the ‘marijuana clash.’ Rather, it will help to
deconstruct the moral conflicts that veil the underlying
scientific cannabis question in Canada.
([1]) Stuart Walton. Out of It: A Cultural History of
Intoxication. London: Hamish Hamilton Ltd, 2001. p. 96.
([2]) The chemical make-up of the cannabis sativa resin was
not discovered until 1964 by an Israeli named Raphael
Mechoulam who synthesized the basic chemical properties of
the resin. (Solomon Snyder. Uses of Marijuana. New York:
Oxford University Press, 1971. p. 5.)
([3]) Richard Rudgley. Essential Substances. New York:
Kodansha International, 1994. p. 5.
([4]) John Kaplan. Marijuana – The New Prohibition.
Cleveland: The World Publishing Company, 1970. p. 17.
([5]) Lambros Comitas. “The Social Nexus of Ganja in
Jamaica.” In Cannabis and Culture. Ed. Vera Rubin. Chicago:
Mouton Publishers, 1975. p. 129.
([6]) Ibid.
([7]) Sula Benet. “Early Diffusion and Folk Uses of Hemp.”
In Cannabis and Culture. Ed. Vera Rubin. Chicago: Mouton
Publishers, 1975. p. 39.
([8]) Ibid., p. 4
([9]) Hui-lin Li. “The Origin and Use of Cannabis in Eastern
Asia.” Cannabis and Culture. Ed. Vera Rubin. Chicago: Mouton
& Co., 1975. p. 54. A traditional practice dating back to
second century B.C. and still seen today, is that mourners
for the dead are required to wear clothes made from hemp
fabric.
([10]) Ibid., p. 53.
([11]) Ernest Abel. Marijuana: The First Twelve Thousand
Years. New York: Plenum Press, 1980. p. 7.
([12]) Hui-Lin Li. p. 55.
([13]) Abel, p. 12.
([14]) Michael Aldrich. “History of Therapeutic Cannabis.”
In Cannabis in Medical Practice. Ed. Mary Lynn Mathre. North
Carolina: McFarland & Company Inc. Publishers, 1997. p. 36.
([15]) N. Taylor. Narcotics: Nature’s Dangerous Gifts. New
York: 1966.
([16]) Abel, p. 13.
([17]) Ibid., p 56.
([18]) Hui-Lin Li, p. 59 and footnote 8 on p. 61.
([19]) Richard Evans Schultes and Albert Hoffman. Plants of
the Gods – Their Sacred, Healing and Hallucinogenic Powers.
Vermont: Healing Arts Press, 1992.
([20]) Abel, p. 23.
([21]) Ibid.
([22]) Abel, p. 24.
([23]) Ibid.
([24]) Alessandra Stanley. “Tattooed Lady, 2,000 Years Old,
Blooms Again.” Special to the New York Times from the Moscow
Journal. 12 July 1993.
([25]) Chris Bennett. “When Smoke Gets in My Eye.” Cannabis
Culture. April 1995.
www.cannabisculture.com/backissues/apr95/smoke_in_my_i.html,
Bennet discusses several theorists assertions that marijuana
assisted man in self-reflection and belief in the divine.
This section uses a few of Mr. Bennet’s examples.
([26]) Bennett, p. 3.
([27]) Ibid., p. 5.
([28]) Abel and Sherman, Smith and Tanner believe that there
is no valid evidence of marijuana in the Old Testament and
that references to ‘kaneh bosm’ are actually references to
sugar cane.
([29]) C. Creighton, M.D. “On Indications of The Hachish-Vice
in the Old Testament.” Janus. Amsterdam: 1903. p. 1.
([30]) Ibid., p. 3.
([31]) Ibid., p. 2.
([32]) Chris Bennet provides several passages of the
appearance of Kaneh Bosm in the Old Testament in his article
“The Hidden Story of Cannabis in the Old Testament.”
([33]) Benet, p. 40.
([34]) Benet, p. 40.
([35]) Both Benet and Bentowa put forth arguments as to how
Scythians came into contact with the people of the Near
East. Benet argues that they were actually Ashkenaz tribe of
the Old Testament and Bentowa argues that they were the
relatives of the Medes who were neighbours of the people of
the Near East.
([36]) The Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church. “Marijuana and the
Bible.” Beacon Press, 1988. p. 1.
www.erowid.org/plants/cannabis/cannabis_spirit2.shtml.
([37]) Encyclopedia Brittanica, 5th edition, 1978, as quoted
in Green Gold The Tree of Life: Marijuana in Magic &
Religion. p. 95.
([38]) Abel. pp. x-xi.
([39]) Ibid. In order to limit the length of this paper, the
History of the cultural uses of cannabis in Europe has been
omitted. Suffice it to say that in Europe, the development
of the use of cannabis occurred similarly as this paper’s
section on the cultural uses of cannabis in North America.
([40]) The chart in this section was taken from Solomon
Snyder. Uses of Marijuana. New York: Oxford University
Press, 1971. pp. 5-7.
([41]) Richard Davenport-Hines. The Pursuit of Oblivion: A
Global History of Narcotics, 1500-2000. London: Weidenfield
and Nicolson, 2001. p. 3.
([42]) Davenport-Hines, pp. 2-3.
([43]) Michael Aldrich. “History of Therapeutic Cannabis.”
In Cannabis in Medical Practice. Ed. Mary Lynn Mathre. North
Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers 1997. p. 36.
([44]) Abel, p. 18.
([45]) Ibid.
([46]) Ibid.
([47]) Ibid.
([48]) Matthews, p. 17.
([49]) Carol Sherman and Andrew Smith with Eric Tanner.
Highlights: An illustrated history of cannabis. Toronto:
Smith Sherman Books, 1999. p. 17.
([50]) Aldrich, p. 37.
([51]) Ibid., p. 38.
([52]) I. C. Chopra, R. N. Chopra. “The Use of Cannabis
Drugs in India.” United Nations Office for Drug Control and
Crime Prevention Publications. 1957/01/01.
http://www.undcp.org/bulletin/bulletin_1957-01-01_1_page003.html.
([53]) Chopra and Chopra. http://www.undcp.org/bulletin/bulletin_1957-01-01_1_page003.html.
([54]) Nikolaas J. Van Der Merwe. “Cannabis Smoking in
13th-14th Century Ethiopia: Chemical Evidence.” In Cannabis
and Culture. Ed. Vera Rubin. Chicago: Mouton Publishers,
1975. p. 79.
([55]) Brian M. Du Toit. “Dagga: Cannabis Sativa in Southern
Africa.” Cannabis and Culture. Ed. Vera Rubin. Chicago:
Mouton Publishers, 1975. p. 83.
([56]) William A. Emboden Jr. “Ritual Use of Cannabis Sativa
L.” Flesh of the Gods. Ed. Peter T. Furst. New York: Praeger
Publishers, 1972. p. 226.
([57]) Ibid.
([58]) Abel, p. 138.
([59]) Du Toit, p. 94.
([60]) Ibid., p. 139.
([61]) Emboden, p. 226.
([62]) Ibid., p. 227 (Quote of composer and writer Paul
Bowles).
([63]) Ibid., p. 226.
([64]) Benet, p. 45.
([65]) Abel, p. 144.
([66]) A.T. Bryant. The Zulu People, cited in T. James,
“Dagga: A Review of Fact and Fancy,” Medical Journal 44
(1970): 575-80.
([67]) Abel, p. 142.
([68]) Du Toit, p. 101.
([69]) Michael Aldrich. “Medicinal Characteristics of
Cannabis.” Ed. Mary Lynn Mathre. Cannabis in Medical
Practice. North Carolina: McFarland & Company Publishers,
1997. p. 41.
([70]) David T. Courtwright. Forces of Habit. Cambridge:
Harvard University Press, 2001. p. 41.
([71]) Gilberto Freyer. Nordeste. Rio de Janeiro: Jose
Olimpio Editora, 1937.
([72]) Courtwright, p. 41.
([73]) Vera Rubin. “Introduction.” Cannabis and Culture. Ed.
Vera Rubin. The Hague: Mouton Publishers, 1975. p. 4.
([74]) Harry William Hutchinson. “Patterns of Marijuana Use
in Brazil.” In Cannabis and Culture. Ed. Vera Rubin.
Chicago: Mouton Publishers, 1975. p. 175.
([75]) Alvaro Rubim De Pinho. “Social and Medical Aspects of
the Use of Cannabis in Brazil.” In Cannabis and Culture. Ed.
Vera Rubin. Chicago: Mouton Publishers, 1975. p. 294.
([76]) Ibid., p. 295.
([77]) Hutchinson, p. 181.
([78]) Jayme R. Pereira. “Contribuicoes para o Estudo das
Plactas Alucinatorias, particularmente da Maconha,” 1958. p.
129.
([79]) Rubin, p. 4.
([80]) Ibid.
([81]) Abel, p. 102.
([82]) Melanie C. Dreher. “Cannabis and Pregnancy.” In
Cannabis in Medical Practice. Ed. Mary Lynn Mathre. North
Carolina: McFarland & Company Inc. Publishers, 1997. p. 162.
([83]) Lambros Comitas. “The Social Nexus of Ganja in
Jamaica.” In Cannabis and Culture. Ed. Vera Rubin. Chicago:
Mouton Publishers, 1975. p. 120.
([84]) Dreher, p. 162.
([85]) Comitas, p. 126.
([86]) Ibid., p. 129.
([87]) Rubin, pp. 261-262.
([88]) Comitas, p. 130.
([89]) Ibid., p. 127.
([90]) Comitas, p. 129.
([91]) Dreher, p. 163.
([92]) Leonard E. Barrett, Ph.D. The Rastafarians: Sounds of
Cultural Dissonance. Boston: Beacon Press, 1977. p. 1.
([93]) According to Barrett, p. 85, Leonard Howell advocated
six principles that formed the doctrine of the Rastafarian
movement: 1. hatred for the White race; 2. complete
superiority of the Black race; 3. revenge on Whites for
their wickedness; 4. humiliation and persecution of the
government and legal bodies of Jamaica; 5. preparation to go
back to Africa; and 6. acknowledging Emperor Haile Selassie
as the Supreme Being and only ruler of Black people.
([94]) Barrett, p. 216-217.
([95]) Ibid., p. 217.
([96]) Ibid., p. 129.
([97]) Ibid.
([98]) Barrett, p. 129.
([99]) Dreher, p. 163.
([100]) Ibid.
([101]) Dreher, p. 164.
([102]) Ibid. Babies of ganja smoking mothers were found to
be more socially responsive and were more autonomically
stable in comparison to babies of non-ganja smoking mothers.
([103]) Dreher, p. 168.
([104]) Chris Bennett, Lynn Osburn and Judith Osburn. Green
Gold: Marijuana in Magic & Religion. Frazier Park, CA:
Access Unlimited, 2001. p. 267.
([105]) Judi Martin, “Historical Evidence Lies Buried Near
Morriston,” Sparetime Magazine, 28 August 1985, as quoted in
Green Gold: Marijuana in Magic & Religion. p. 267.
([106]) Hemp Museum in Amsterdam. As quoted in Green Gold:
Marijuana in Magic & Religion. p. 268.
([107]) As quoted in Bennett. pp. 268-269.
([108]) Ibid.
([109]) Richard Evans Schultes. “Nectar of Delight.” Plants
of the Gods – Their Sacred, Healing and Hallucinogenic
Powers. Vermont: Healing Arts Press, 1992. p. 8.
([110]) Bennett, p. 267.
([111]) www.lindesmith.org/library/mmjgrins.html, p. 3.
([112]) (“Cannabis Indica.” An ephemeris of Materia Medica,
pharmacy, Therapeutics and Collateral Information 3 (April
1892): 1290-1291.
([113]) H. Wayne Morgan. Drugs In America: A Social History,
1800-1980. New York: Syracuse University Press, 1981. pp.
20-21.
([114]) Rudgley, p. 10.
([115]) Courtwright, p. 43.
([116]) Schultes, p. 8.
([117]) Ibid.
([118]) Melvyn Green and Ralph D. Miller. “Cannabis Use in
Canada.” In Cannabis and Culture. Ed. Vera Rubin. The Hague:
Mouton Publishers, 1975. p. 498.
([119]) Ibid.
([120]) Abel, p. 226. As quoted from M.H Hayes and L.W.
Bowery, “Marijuana” Journal of Criminology 23, (1933): 1093.
([121]) The Report of the Canadian Government Commission of
Inquiry into the Non-Medical Use of Drugs – 1972. Chapter 4.
([122]) Green and Miller, p. 499.
([123]) Complete History of Cannabis. p. 5.
www.cannabisculture.com/library/history_of_pot.html.
([124]) Courtwright, p. 46.
([125]) Will Kymlicka. Citizenship and Identity. p. 21. and
Myer Siemiatycki and Engin Isin, Immigration, Diversity and
Urban Citizenship in Toronto. p. 77.
([126]) Kymlicka, p. 21.
([127]) Line Beauchesne. “Conditions for Real Public Policy
on Harm Reduction: the Role of the Federal Government.”
Brief Submitted to the House of Commons Special Committee on
the Non-Medical Use of Drugs. March 2002. p. 4.
([128]) In anthropology, there is a body of literature
concerned with forms of population movement and the movement
of information, symbols, and cultural practices (cultural
values) across transnational boundaries. The theory
postulates often these movements initiated by migrants will
conflict with the jurisdiction and power of states to which
the migrants move and assimilation will take place. At the
same time, these movements of cultural values often
immensely influence the people of the state and changes to
the nation state will occur. I am postulating in this paper
that marijuana use, which has been shown to be an integral
cultural practice to many different societies in the first
part of this essay, is an example of this transnational
movement and transformation theory. See: M. Kearney, “The
Local and the Global: The Anthropology of Globalization and
Transnationalism”; R. Rouse, “Making sense of settlement:
class transformation, cultural struggle, and
transnationalism among Mexican migrants in the United
States; World Cultures Institute UC Merced, “California,
Merced and the Pacific Rim”; Arjun Appadurai, “Disjuncture
and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy”; Anthony
King, ed. “Culture, Globalization and the World-System.
Contemporary Conditions for the Representation of Identity.”
([129]) “The Complete History of Cannabis in Canada.”
www.cannabisculture.com/library/history_of_pot.html.
([130]) www.cannabisculture.com/articles/1789.html, p. 5.
([131]) Blackwell, p. 239.
([132]) “The Complete History of Cannabis in Canada.”
www.cannabisculture.com/library/history_of_pot.html.
([133]) Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. “Recent
Trends in Illicit Drug Use among Young People, Canada.” MMWR
Weekly. 25 January 1985/34(3); 35-37.
([134]) John Kaplan. Marijuana – The New Prohibition.
Cleveland: The World Publishing Company, 1970. p. 4.
([135]) Diane Riley, PhD. Drugs and Drug Policy in Canada: A
Brief Review & Commentary. November 1998. http://www.cfdp.ca/sen8ex1.htm.
([136]) “The Complete History of Cannabis in Canada.” p. 5.
([137]) Riley.
([138]) CAMH Monitor eReport: Addiction & Mental Health
Indicators Among Ontario Adults, 1977-2000.
([139]) Adlaf, Ivis, Smart and Walsh, Ontario Student Drug
Use Survey, 1977-1999, Addiction Research Foundation.
([140]) Usha George and Esme Fuller-Thomson. “To Stay or Not
to Stay: Characteristics Associated with Newcomers Planning
to Remain in Canada.” Canadian Journal of Regional Science.
Spring-Summer 1997. p. 181.
([141]) Kearney, p. 554.
([142]) Riley.
([143]) Isabel Vincent. “Enforcers Challenge Cannabis
Liberation Movement.” Globe and Mail. 6 April 1998.
([144]) R. v. Parker. 31 July 2000. Ontario Court of Appeal.
([145]) Amina Ali and Owen Wood. “The Need for Weed: Medical
Marijuana.” CBC News. July 2001. www.cbc.ca/news/indepth/background/medical_marijuana.html.
([146]) Alchemind Society. “Rastafarian wins religious
defense before Guam Supreme Court.” Cannabis Culture. 15
September 2000.
([147]) American Civil Liberties Union Freedom Network.
www.aclu.org/issues/drugpolicy/cases/Guam_v_Guerrero.html.
([148]) Professor Brian Etherington. Review of
Multiculturalism and Justice Issues: A Framework for
Addressing Reform. Department of Justice, Research and
Statistics Directorate. May 1994.
([149]) Rodolphe Ingold. “A Retrospective Look at Drug
Addiction Trends from 1970 to the Year 2000.” Drugs and Drug
Addictions: Indicators and Trends. French Monitoring Centre
for Drugs and Drug Addictions. p. 187. This study shows
similar patterns as Canadian trends.
([150]) Judith Blackwell. “An Overview of Canadian Illicit
Drug Use Epidemiology.” Illicit Drugs in Canada: A Risky
Business. Judith Blackwell & Patricia G. Erickson, Eds.
Nelson Canada, 1988. p. 237.
([151]) Blackwell, p. 239.
([152]) CAMH Monitor eReport: Addiction and Mental Health
Indicators Among Ontario Adults, 1977-2000. p. 62.
([153]) Sylvain Aquatias. “Ethnographic Approach to Cannabis
Use in the Parisian Suburbs.” Drugs and Drug Addictions:
Indicators and Trends. French Monitoring Centre for Drugs
and Drug Addictions. p. 203.
([154]) Blackwell, p. 237.
([155]) CAMH Monitor eReport. Addiction and Mental Health
Indicators Among Ontario Adults, 1977-2000. p. 62.
([156]) Julian Beltrame. “Reefer Madness: The sequel.”
Maclean’s. 6 August 2001. Vol. 114. pp. 22-25.
([157]) Ibid.
([158]) Ibid.
([159]) Line Beauchesne, p. 4.
([160]) Canadian Government Commission of Inquiry into the
Non-Medical Use of Drugs. Appointed by the Government of
Canada under Part I of the Inquiries Act on 29 May 1969. p.
8.
([161]) Lester Grinspoon. Marijuana Reconsidered.
Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1971. p. 333.
([162]) Comitas, p. 129.
([163]) Kaplan, pp. 4-5.
([164]) Grinspoon, p. 333.
([165]) Ibid.
([166]) Canadian Government Commission of Inquiry into the
Non-Medical Use of Drugs. p. 3.
([167]) Kaplan, p. 17.
([168]) Eriche Goode. “Marijuana and the Politics of
Reality.” In The New Social Drug. Ed. David E. Smith. New
Jersey: Prentice Hall Inc., 1970. p. 170.
([169]) Goode, p. 172.
([170]) Rosenwig, M. Pour une éthique de la clinique des
assuétudes et des addictions Conférence prononcée au
Colloque Quelle prise en charge des patients toxicomanes…
aujourd’hui… demain? Société Belge d’Éthique et de Morale
Médicale, Mons, 23 avril, 1999. pp. 3-4. (excerpted from
Line Beauchesne).
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