Marijuana for Everybody!: The Definitive Guide to Getting High, Feeling Good, and Having Fun

Introduction

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 plant’s 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 states—most notably Washington and Colorado—have 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, we’ve 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, it’s high time that we share what we’ve 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 life’s greatest and most misunderstood natural resources. Here you’ll 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 magazine’s 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.

CHAPTER 1

the How and Why of Getting High

Marijuana for Everybody!

History of Cannabis

OUR LITTLE GREEN FRIEND

In the popular consciousness, marijuana burst onto the scene in a major way in the 1960s, as if America’s hippie generation somehow discovered the amazing properties of this magnificent plant all on their own. But what most squares didn’t realize back then, and still don’t know today, is that the benevolent botanical called Cannabis sativa actually first befriended mankind way back at the dawn of pre-history, when the herb’s 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

PREHISTORIC POT

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 mountains—a 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 plant’s 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 cords—one of the earliest examples of hemp’s role as a strategically vital natural resource and key to military supremacy.

Archeologists have recently made discoveries proving that people used cannabis as fiber and medicine much earlier in history than previously believed. A well-preserved Neolithic site called Çatalhöyük, located in Turkey, contained a nine-thousand-year-old piece of hemp cloth. Cannabis pollen was present in a 4,200-year-old gravesite near the town of Hattemerbroek, in the Netherland’s largest province of Gelderland, the discovery of which occurred during construction of the Hanzelijn railway, and showed that certain among the Dutch appreciated getting stoned long before the first Amsterdam coffeeshop opened. The tombs also contained meadowsweet, another medicinal plant with pain relieving and fever-reducing properties, leading archaeologists to conclude that their occupant must have been ill before death. This key bit of evidence establishes medicinal use of cannabis in Europe very early in human history.

Cannabis seeds were eagerly traded as a food, fiber, and medicine, spreading this commodity all over the world. Nutritious seeds were also favored by many migratory birds that aided in the propagation of the species, another factor that helps explain the herb’s rapid spread to almost every corner of the globe.

MEDICINE MAN

Emperor Shen Nung, the true O.G. of traditional Chinese medicine, who lived sometime between 2700 and 2300 B.C.E. and is still a revered figure, called cannabis one of the Supreme Elixirs of Immortality. His Pen Ts’ao Ching, or Great Herbal, is one of the oldest known pharmacopoeias, compiled from Shen’s writings sometime in the first or second century B.C.E. In it, Shen documents the many medicinal uses of cannabis for the first time, recommending it to treat over one hundred different maladies, from gout and rheumatism to absentmindedness. In folk medicine, marijuana was used in the form of a tea or edible extract, and it would have been psychoactive to varying degrees. Shen Nung also makes note of the superior healing power of cultivating only female cannabis plants for their medicinal properties. (Seedless female flowers, now known as sinsemilla, contain more psychoactive resin than seeded plants.)

Mention was made of the psychoactive properties of cannabis in this early pharmacopoeia, but Shen Nung considered the medicinal uses more important. Other ancient peoples did use cannabis for its visionary properties, since the mystical village shaman was also a healer. The 2008 discovery of the mummified remains of a Gushi shaman who roamed the plains of Northwestern China over 2,700 years show that there were some who had already turned on and tuned in.

Cherchen man, with stash.

Called Cherchen man, the mummy had blond hair and blue eyes, stood over six feet tall, and was approximately forty-five years old when he died. Inside his tomb, besides other high-value items like bridles, brilliantly woven cloth, archery gear, and a harp, archeologists discovered almost two pounds of highly potent cannabis, a psychoactive head stash most likely meant for use in the afterlife. Experts speculate that this ancient spiritual guide must have eaten the cannabis (it would need preparation beforehand) or inhaled it over a burning fire, since no smoking tools accompanied the herb.

REEFER AND RELIGION

In Central Asia, around 2000 B.C.E., wandering Aryan and Muslim tribes spread cannabis from their homelands to the Indian Himalayas, Persia, and the Middle East, where it was enthusiastically embraced as a multipurpose resource. The Hindus even integrated the plant into their religion, calling it a gift to the world from the god Shiva. The Sanskrit word for this wonderful new plant was canna, meaning cane. The Greeks would later call it Kannabis, providing the inspiration for the modern scientific name Cannabis sativa, as taxonomist Carolus Linnaeus dubbed the plant in 1753.

Smelling just as sweet no matter what its name, this weedy camp follower steadily adapted to new and widely varying climates as it spread, splitting into several distinct subspecies along the way. In the colder climates of northern Europe, the fibrous hemp plant established itself as ruderalis, while more psychoactive sativa strains developed in the warmer southern climates of India, Persia, the Middle East, and Africa. Eventually, shrubby Afghani varieties became distinct enough from the tall, willowy plants in Asia or Europe to distinguish them as Cannabis indica, a subspecies with wide leaves and resistance to chilly mountain weather that was selectively bred to make hashish.

As various civilizations interacted with the plant, they would carry over and sometimes devise new uses for their favorite flora. Intentional inhalation of cannabis smoke for the purpose of getting high didn’t become commonplace until after tobacco was introduced to the Old World in the early sixteenth century. For most of ancient history, the plant was used in topical applications or processed into hashish and eaten. However, the Scythian descendants of nomadic Aryans stumbled upon inhaling cannabis smoke for its euphoric qualities around 700 to 300 B.C.E. This earliest hot boxing happened when Scythians threw canna branches into bonfires they trapped under tents in order to form a psychedelic sweat lodge that made them howl with pleasure. The practice was soon imitated in Africa after traders introduced cannabis from the Middle East, along with Portuguese sailors from India who facilitated its adoption on the eastern coast.

Called dagga and regarded as a tool of spiritual insight, the plant was thrown onto bonfires and used in rituals along with drumming, singing, and dancing by the Pygmies, Zulus, and Hottentots. Shamans in Africa revered cannabis as a sacred plant, and believed that the changes in consciousness associated with its use could reveal hidden knowledge and the power to heal.

Prior to the formation of the Roman Catholic Church, a form of Christianity was practiced in Ethiopia with cannabis as a central sacrament. This explains why the earliest known ceramic bongs were recovered in a cave in Ethiopia and date to 1320. And even today, the Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church performs a cannabis-based Eucharist ritual traced back to their earliest ancestors.

The Old Testament’s recipe for holy anointing oil, for example, included infusing the oil with large amounts of an ingredient called kanna-bosm— also known as cannabis—which is Aramaic for fragrant cane.

WAS JESUS A STONER?

In his controversial 2003 article for High Times, Was Jesus a Stoner?, religious scholar Chris Bennett made a compelling case that the scientific basis for the healing miracles described in the Bible are likely due to kanna-bosm.

This holy anointing oil, as described in the original Hebrew version of the recipe in Exodus (30:22-23), contained over six pounds of kanna-bosm, Bennett explains, a substance identified by respected etymologists, linguists, anthropologists, botanists, and other researchers as cannabis, extracted into about six quarts of olive oil, along with a variety of other fragrant herbs. Such a high concentration of cannabis would have rendered this oil potently psychoactive. Bennett notes that in the ancient world, people thought diseases like epilepsy were caused by demonic possession, and so if an epileptic was cured, this miraculous healing was considered to be a heroic feat on par with an exorcism. And cannabis is in fact highly effective in treating many of the ailments healed by Jesus, such as skin diseases (Matthew 8, 10, 11; Mark 1; Luke 5, 7, 17), eye problems (John 9: 6-15), and menstrual problems (Luke 8:43-48).

Christ is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Messiah, a term best translated into English as anointed one. According to the Bible, Jesus anointed his twelve apostles and instructed them to go out into the world and anoint others. And they cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them. (Mark 6:13) Gnostic accounts excluded from Roman Catholic Church canon include The Acts of Peter and the Twelve Apostles, which predates the New Testament, describing Jesus as bestowing a box of unguent (oil) and a pouch full of medicine on his followers and telling them to minister to the sick. Christ taught his followers to heal the bodies first before they could heal the heart.

Although many Gnostic works were destroyed as heresy, Bennett finds that The surviving Gnostic descriptions of the effects of the anointing rite make it very clear that the holy oil had intense psychoactive properties that prepared the recipient for entrance into ‘unfading bliss.’

At the time Jesus and his apostles supposedly used cannabis for its healing properties (see Was Jesus a Stoner?), the fragrant cane was already a well-established traditional folk remedy throughout the Middle East, as confirmed by modern archeological evidence. Ancient Assyrians used cannabis smoke to cure arthritis, which they called the poison of all limbs. And cannabis ash was discovered in the Jerusalem tomb of a young girl who died in childbirth around the fourth century, presumably kept on hand as an herbal remedy to ease the pain of labor and speed delivery.

Many other religions were also sparked by psychedelic experiences and revelations. This phenomenon inspired a group of ethnobotanists and mythological scholars to coin the word entheogen in 1979 to describe certain psychoactive plants used in a shamanic or ritualized context, in order to generate the divine within, and inspire spiritual insight. It’s believed that the Zoroastrians of ancient Persia pioneered the religious use of cannabis, which their priest class adopted as a holy sacrament. The three Magi who attended the birth of Christ—famously bringing gold, frankincense, and myrrh—were Zoroastrians, whose mystical traditions inspired the word magic, for these Magi were seen as having otherworldly powers. The Zoroastrians later converted to Islam, forming a mystical sect known as the Sufis, who believe that cannabis brings divine revelation and oneness with Allah.

By the eleventh century, hashish eating became widespread throughout Arabia, with early texts calling cannabis by names like shrub of emotion, shrub of understanding, peace of mind, branches of bliss, and thought morsel. The oldest Arabic monograph on hashish, called Zahr al-’arishfi tahrim al-hashish, dates to the thirteenth century. Around the same time, Sufis filled the streets of nearby Cairo, bringing with them copious amounts of hashish and collectively cultivating an urban ganja garden in a park known as Cafour. The Egyptian authorities didn’t find the ongoing pot party too groovy, however, and launched one of history’s first drug wars to push them out in 1253.

After the Cafour gardens were burned, cannabis production moved outside the city, but the persecution did not end. Cannabis farmers continued to face execution, while hashish eaters had their teeth yanked out as punishment.

In Europe, the growing power of the Roman Catholic Church led to violent suppression of nature-worshipping pagan tribes and their rituals. Mystic folk healers who used cannabis and other plants to create medicinal potions were tortured or killed, driving the use of cannabis deep underground. From the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century, friends of cannabis had to hide, so little mention of their activities can be found in the historical record.

A SOURCE OF HAPPINESS

In India, the religious use of gunjah (a.k.a. ganja) began sometime around 2000 B.C.E. India also served as one of the earliest centers for hashish production, which at the time meant resin hand-rubbed from plants and rolled into small balls called charas that could be eaten or smoked out of a chillum.

According to the sacred Hindu texts called The Vedas, gunjah—one of five sacred plants—was a source of happiness that would release us from anxiety. Associated with the Lord Shiva, gunjah most often appeared as part of a refreshing drink called bhang, made from milk, pounded nuts, ginger, and garam masala (see "Shiva’s Sativa Bhang" recipe on page 142).

India’s most renowned cannabis enthusiasts—ascetics known as sadhus—shun material life and live simply in the forests, growing long beards and wearing only loincloths or ragged clothing, while striving for spiritual freedom and seeking divinity by fasting, keeping celibate, and smoking gunjah and charas. It’s believed that using bhang helps a sadhu honor Shiva, who was legendarily always high on cannabis. Bhang is still used at festivals such as Holi, where celebrants douse themselves in colored pigments that add to the sensual and psychedelic nature of the festivities.

Sadhu smoking from a