The marijuana papers;

by David Solomon (editor)

Editor's Foreword: The Marihuana Myths by David Solomon Introduction by Alfred R. Lindesmith
The Pleasant Assassin: The Story of Marihuana by Norman Taylor The Marihuana Problem: Myth or Reality by Alfred R. Lindesmith Marihuana: A Sociological Overview by Howard S. Becker
Becoming a Marihuana User
Marihuana Use & Social Customs
The Marihuana Tax Act
Bhang & Alcohol: Cultural Factors in the Choice of Intoxicants by Geo Morris Carstairs
The Politics, Ethics & Meaning of Marijuana by Timothy Leary Historical Notes by W. Reininger
The Herb Pantagruelion by Francois Rabelais
The Hashish Club Theophile Gautier
An Excerpt from the Seraphic Theatre by Chas Beaudelaire
Red Dirt Marihuana by Terry Southern
1st Manifesto to End the Bringdown by Allen Ginsberg Experiments with Hashish by Victor Robinson
Notes on the Use of Hashish by Sheldon Cholst
The Marihuana Problem in the City of NY: Mayor LaGuardia's Committee on Marihuana: Foreword; Introduction; The Sociological Study; The Clincal Study; Medical Aspects: Symptoms & Behavior; Organic & Systemic Functions; Psychological Aspects: Psychophysical Functions; Intellectual Functioning; Emotional Reactions & General Personality Structure; Family & Community Ideologies; Comparison Between Users & Non-users; Addiction & Tolerance; Possible Therapeutic Applications; Pharmacological Study; Summary
Psychiatric Aspects of Marihuana Intoxication by Samuel Allentuck & Karl Bowman
A New Euphoriant for Depressive Mental States by Geo Tayleur Stockings
Pyrahexyl in the Treatment of Alcoholic & Drug Withdrawal Conditions by Lloyd J. Thompson & Richard Proctor
Points of Distinction Between Sedative & Consciousness-Expanding Drugs by Wm S. Burroughs
Therapeutic Application of Marihuana by Rbt Walton
Cannabis: A Reference by Wm H. McGlothin
Appendix 1: The Question of Cannabis: UN Economic & Social Council
Appendix 2: The Marihuana Tax Act of '37
Appendix 3: Period Propaganda Poster & Index

Genres: Nonfiction

475 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1960

Reviews

[notgettingenough]

A potted history.

I keep getting mails from Methodist Ladies College asking me to be a mentor. Apparently their current flock will benefit from my life experience. The first time I got this message I took it to heart, pen to paper and scribbled away, only to sit back to reread what I’d been writing at some point and it was like this. ‘What to do after you’ve spent all your rent money on dope…’ Not ‘Don’t spend your rent money on marijuana’, for example, which I imagine is pretty sound advice. Nup, not that. And even then, the advice could still go down a channel that might work for young ladies. ‘What to do after you’ve spent all your rent money on dope.’ Check in somewhere. Even check out somewhere. But my advice was more for the stayers. The ones who are going to, on a monthly basis, find that they have a seriously fucked up life. They need to know things like how to feed a couple of people on $5 a week and – the hard part of the equation – how to find the five bucks.

Rest is here:

http://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpres...

[Erik Graff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every spring Dad gave me the choice of getting a job or going to summer school. With the exception of the last one spent at home, when worries of paying for college dominated, I chose summer school. Freshman year it was Biology, sophomore year it was Public Speaking...

Don Martello, the Communication teacher, was generally popular and I was afraid of speaking in front of groups, so the choice was clear. His method of teaching mostly consisted of having us select areas of research, then report back to class. Psychotropic drugs was one topic I picked because marijuana and LSD were much in the news, particularly in Time and Life magazines, both of which my paternal grandparents subscribed to.

I started with the Time/Life publications and was mightily impressed by their articles LSD and mushrooms. The stories were generally favorable. I didn't know then, but later learned that the Luces, the conservative publishers, were not only friends of the mycologist Wasson couple featured in their mushroom story, but personally experienced with psychedelics, Henry famously having met god on the links one day. From there I proceeded to back issues of Scientific American, another generally positive resource, and finally to the card catalog of Maine Township High School South itself, which had quite a few books about psychoactive drugs. I gave my report. It was well-received.

From that summer on I started seeking out information about the psychotropics, picking up Solomon's book and reading it the next year. Now, relatively well-informed, I was no longer afraid of psychoactives per se, but discrimating. Since almost all my older friends were smoking pot, I tried it and for a couple of years smoked it regularly until I eventually recognized I wasn't getting anything important out of it any longer but was only using it to fit into socially. LSD and the related psychedelics were, however, another story...

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A weird mixture of a book - the subtitle explains: an Examination of Marijuana in Society, History and Literature - contains studies of marijuana and its effects, historical papers on its use from ancient times to now (now being 1968), reports from the likes of Baudelaire (on the Club de Hachichins), De Quincy, excerpts from Ludlow's mid 1800s treatise The Hasheesh Eater and then 1960s writers like Timothy Leary, Ginsburg and Bowles. Burroughs has a chapter entitled: 'Points of distinction between sedative and consciousness-expanding drugs'. It also includes fiction like Terry Southern's Red Dirt Marijuana.
As you can guess it's definitely pro-marijuana.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a surprisingly interesting (and still relevant) collection of essays, scientific papers, and short stories concerning good old MJ circa 1966. While I skipped the lengthy resources on tax laws and police records, I learned a lot while reading the rest, particularly on the early years of MJ prohibition in the 30's. The best were Terry Southern's short story and many of the early, circa 1800s essays about hashish.

[Lysergius · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty dull stuff. No attempt to look at the long term effects. I got more out of terry Southern and Paul Bowles.