McDonough - Marijuana for everybody!: the definitive guide to getting high, feeling good, and having fun

Text copyright 2014 by Trans-High Corporation.

Illustrations copyright 2014 by Toby Triumph.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.

High Times and Cannabis Cup are trademarks of the Trans-High Corporation and are used with permission.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN: 978-1-4521-2888-7 (pb)
ISBN: 978-1-4521-3800-8 (ebook, mobi)

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Tremendous strides have been made in recent years toward legalizing, regulating, and retailing cannabis, making the once demonized weed more safely accessible to millions of people from sea to shining THC. Many of them experience tremendous healing and relief via the plants unique medicinal benefits, while others simply enjoy indulging in a far safer method of altering their consciousness than mere alcohol can provide.

Public opinion regarding marijuana has at last reached a spliffing point. At the time of writing, a majority of Americans favor legalization, and dozens of statesmost notably Washington and Coloradohave variously legalized medical marijuana, decriminalized possession, or legalized it outright for adult use, with still more states moving in that direction.

Naturally we at High Times magazine take great pleasure in seeing marijuana finally going mainstream and getting its due. For forty years, weve advocated for the right of adults to responsibly use cannabis, bringing our readers the kind of in-depth pot reporting that nobody else can even attempt.

And so, as a fragrant wind of change steadily blows us toward ever greater acceptance of pot and pot smokers, its high time that we share what weve learned from real experts and aficionados about the best ways to get high, feel good, and have fun with this amazing all-natural plant.

Marijuana for Everybody! collects this wisdom in a fun, accessible, authoritative handbook to one of lifes greatest and most misunderstood natural resources. Here youll find time-tested wisdom from growers, connoisseurs, activists, advocates, scientists, doctors, politicians, philosophers, and cannabis celebrities in the know, plus answers to burning questions and hand-selected, choice nuggets from the venerable marijuana magazines four decades of publishing, all designed to guide new initiates and seasoned heads alike through the myriad ways marijuana brings joy and relief to millions while serving as the sacred sacrament of an ascendant cannabis culture.

Marijuana for Everybody!

In the popular consciousness, marijuana burst onto the scene in a major way in the 1960s, as if Americas hippie generation somehow discovered the amazing properties of this magnificent plant all on their own. But what most squares didnt realize back then, and still dont know today, is that the benevolent botanical called Cannabis sativa actually first befriended mankind way back at the dawn of pre-history, when the herbs many utilitarian functions as a fiber, food, medicine, and spiritual aid helped spark the development of ancient cultures.

What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON

Stoner scholars trace the likely origin of the cannabis plant to the original Emerald Triangle formed by Samarkand, the Hindu Kush mountains, and the Tien Shan mountainsa landmass encompassing the modern-day countries of Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan.

As far back as 6000 B.C.E ., ancient Chinese peoples used highly nutritious cannabis seeds as a food source, while the earliest evidence of the plants use as a fiber crop dates to Neolithic times over twelve thousand years ago, when hemp ropes were used to make decorative impressions into pottery. A well-preserved site in Zhejiang province yielded several examples of hemp textiles from 4000 B.C.E ., while warriors in Shantung province circa 2300 B.C.E . wore armor sewn together by strong hemp cordsone of the earliest examples of hemps role as a strategically vital natural resource and key to military supremacy.