12 Things I Learned From Ernest L. Able’s book “Marihuana.”
1. Cannabis first appeared in Asia, but it’s use was discouraged due to having elements of yin and yang. When Daoism become popular, devotees mainly wanted exposure to the yang elements of nature.
2. Workers in India would run naked through cannabis fields and eventually scrape off the THC laden resin from their body. They used the cannabis resin in a milky drink called bhang.
3. A war mongering cannibal African tribe renounced it’s violence after it was introduced to cannabis or “dagga.”
4. In France, Dr. Moreau held an experiment in the Hôtel Lauzun with famous writers, artists, and poets to study the affects of cannabis on humans. Dr. Moreau would present a paste with hashish inside served in a crystal container. One of the writers, Alexandre Dumas, published the Count of Monte Cristo after these experiments. Some artists, like Dumas, refused the paste, but remained observers in Dr. Moreau’s experiment.
5. In Egypt, Turkish Delight was one of the many edibles served that contained hashish.
6. The British valued the nautical applications of hemp so much they offered land and pounds of silver in payments, loans, and pensions to Canadian farmers who would grow and process hemp.
7. Shire’s extract was made from cannabis and eventually was used by Queen Victoria.
8. From 1850 to the early 1900s there were no American laws prohibiting marihuana. Of the drug users in America, most were addicted to opium or morphine pills.
9. There were some American marihuana users, since it was available at local pharmacies, but there was no consistent dosage given. Some strains used were too weak, too potent, or mixed with opium.
10. Italians had mastered hemp processing so well they manufactured hemp material to be just as smooth as silk.
11. It is suggested that 50% of the THC in cannabis isn’t inhaled if one smokes marijuana (possibly released in the air). And, despite strains having different responses in each person, this THC-to-get-high ratio is presented at the end of the book: .035 mg per kg. If someone weighs 200 pounds (90.718 kg), it would take 3.17 mg of THC to get high.
12. The half life of THC is 24 hours, which means a 200 pound person smoking 3.17mg of THC would have 1.58 mg in their system one day later.
