Cannabis

by Jonathon Green

Whether you are a staunch supporter of marijuana, a passionate opponent, or somewhere in the vast in-between, one thing is for there is no issue hotter than hemp. Cannabis is the first completely illustrated guide to all the ways which marijuana affects the lives of the user and nonuser alike. Included in the text are the many uses of marijuana, past and present, including discussions on medicinal marijuana, recreational smoking, and the use of pot for creative inspiration. Also addressed are the politics of pot, in particular how marijuana legislation has, in fact, increased use of the drug and caused an increase in potency. Cannabis also shows how different religions throughout the world have utilized hemp as a spiritual tool, oftentimes to enhance devotion and prayer. Green tackles all the important issues surrounding marijuana, including the “gateway drug” theory and the scientific causes of the “high.” Supplementing the text are 150 full-color and 30 black-and-white photographs illuminating the worldwide uses of marijuana, as well as an extensive dictionary of marijuana-related terms and endpapers made of high quality hemp paper. Cannabis is an often humorous, always enlightening look at the world’s most famous drug.

Genres: Drugs

256 pages, Paperback

First published October 18, 2002

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

I am a lexicographer, that is a dictionary maker, specialising in slang, about which I have been compiling dictionaries, writing and broadcasting since 1984. I have also written a history of lexicography. After working on my university newspaper I joined the London ‘underground press’ in 1969, working for most of the then available titles, such as Friends, IT and Oz. I have been publishing books since the mid-1970s, spending the next decade putting together a number of dictionaries of quotations, before I moved into what remains my primary interest, slang. I have also published three oral histories: one on the hippie Sixties, one on first generation immigrants to the UK and one on the sexual revolution and its development. Among other non-slang titles have been three dictionaries of occupational jargon, a narrative history of the Sixties, a book on cannabis, and an encyclopedia of censorship. As a freelancer I have broadcast regularly on the radio, made appearances on TV, including a 30-minute study of slang in 1996, and and written columns both for academic journals and for the Erotic Review.

My slang work has reached its climax, but I trust not its end, with the publication in 2010 of Green’s Dictionary of Slang, a three volume, 6,200-page dictionary ‘on historical principles’ offering some 110,000 words and phrases, backed up by around 410,000 citations or usage examples. The book covers all anglophone countries and its timeline stretches from around 1500 up to the present day. For those who prefer something less academic, I published the Chambers Slang Dictionary, a single volume book, in 2008. Given that I am in no doubt that the future of reference publishing lies in digital form, it is my intention to place both these books on line in the near future.

Reviews

[LaLa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I spent very little time with the actual text of this book which seemed a little obvious, however the pictures (of children passing joints as sacrament in church, of 17th century self portraits smoking hashish) sparked much discussion in my living room.
Also the little known fact that apparently Louisa May Alcott wrote the story "Perilous Play" in support of the movement. Who knew?

[Ian Brunton · Rating 3 out of 5]

The information is thorough and interesting, but the prose is amateurish and at times awkward.

[251 · Rating 1 out of 5]

Checked out the book for a research project. The book didn't have a single citation to research or data.