Scratch & Sniff Book of Weed

Matlins Seth

Description

Legal in all 50 states, this entertaining, informative, and whimsically illustrated guide covers 4,000 years of weed and its significancepsychoactive, cultural, medical, sexual, and morein just 22 pages and with 20 scratch-&-sniff scents. From the science behind the munchies to the botanical link between weed and beer; from weed's sexual upsides to its (literal) sexual downsides; from Tupac to Shakespeare to why weed makes music sound better: This book may just be the greatest-ever gift for anyone from the cannabis connoisseur to the cannabis curious.

Sujets

• Sociologie, société et politique
• Popular culture
• Humour

Informations

• Publié par: ABRAMS BOOKS
• Date de parution: 18 avril 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781683351948
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

Why We Get High

Know why cannabis is the most widely used illicit substance in the world?

Because it s awesome, that s why.

And why s it awesome? For one thing, it s medicine, used since the days of Aristotle

and the pharaohs, to help relieve everything from pain to anguish and anxiety.

For another, getting high feels good-really good. It enhances your

sensory experiences, plays hopscotch with your sense of time,

and can make even the mundane magnificent.

To begin our scratch-and-sniff

exploration of the

neurological, historical, physiological, psychological, sexual,

cultural, and political world of weed, let s start with what

happens in your mind and body when you smoke, the most

common form of consumption.

Smoking releases weed s active compounds (cannabinoids

and terpenes-more on those later), which pass through your

mouth, high-fiving your olfactory epithelium (the thing you smell

with), and head down to your lungs. They then hitch a ride in

your bloodstream, your heart pumping them like little boats of

happiness, all the way to your brain, where they dive-bomb

your cannabinoid receptors, cuing the release of dopamine,

which boosts your receptivity to pleasure, whether in the

form of music, sex, Cool Ranch Doritos, or vacuuming.

See? Awesome.

But while getting high is definitely weed s funnest

effect, it s not the only one, nor the most medically

important. We ll get into all of that, but suffice it to say

that the individual effects vary based on a whole bunch

of things, including botany, potency, consumption

method, and genetics.

Come on, girlfriend. You can t sniff an ebook.
Mmmm,

french fries.

This book is dedicated to Mary Jane Rathbun, and whoever it was that first

married fire and cannabis. We thank you both.

And it doesn t stop there. Weed s true impact travels beyond our individual bodies

and minds-to our culture, our industry, our politics, our society, our spirituality, and,

of course, our noses-all of which we ll explore in the next twenty pages of this book, our

brief homage to this awesome plant.

Humans have given cannabis many names: weed, chronic, Miley Cyrus, pot. But there s one,

marijuana

, that we choose to avoid because of its racist origins. Harry Anslinger, the first

head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, who really began the war on drugs, popularized

marijuana in the 1930s. Anslinger, seeking weed s prohibition, stoked racist fires, saying

that marijuana makes darkies think they re as good as white men, and telling tales of

Mexicans and African Americans, high on marijuana, running through the streets commit-

ting murder and mayhem. With so many other terms to choose from, we won t use this one

unless it s factually necessary, and hope you won t either. We are the world and all that.
A (Really) Brief Histoy

2700 BC: FIRST RECORDED USE

The great mythological

emperor and pioneer-

ing herbalist Shen

Nung first classifies

cannabis in his

prehistoric Chinese

pharmacopoeia.

1213 BC: EGYPTIANS USE

CANNABIS FOR GLAUCOMA,

INFLAMMATION, AND ENEMAS

And no, not in a Ramesses, dude,

you gotta try this, it s like a bong hit

for your butt way.

1454: THE GUTENBERG BIBLE

IS PRINTED ON HEMP

1500: MUSLIM DOCTORS IN INDIA

USE CANNABIS TO STIFLE SEXUALITY

In a dubious move, cannabis is adminis-

tered to decrease sexuality. No report on

whether or not that worked.

1545: FIRST RECORDED ARRIVAL

IN THE NEW WORLD

Spanish colonists bring cannabis plants

to Chile to grow crops for fiber.

1753: LINNAEUS COINS

THE NAME

CANNABIS SATIVA

;

IT STICKS

Because when the father of modern

taxonomic nomenclature gives you

a name, you run with it.

1799: NAPOLEON INVADES

EGYPT, FINDS WEED

The little bastard imposes prohibition

on the Egyptians, but brings weed

back to France.

1900: WEED USED

FOR PAIN RELIEF

Before aspirin s

rediscovery, weed

is used as a common

substitute for pain

relief in the U.S.

CC:

@

DEA

1937: MARIHUANA TAX ACT OF 1937

Introduced by Harry Anslinger,

legalization s great nemesis, the act

was a legal milestone, making

weed s use, sale, and production a

federal offense.

Tea, because Shen

was an herbalist.

*