Presidential Pot

[stromboli]

A lot of people didn't know this. I did a paper on it in college, so this was one of the surprises I found.

[Green Bottle]

Cool vid mate, ta much for sharin.......

[Solitary]

  Thanks for making my day!    Solitary

[stromboli]

Yeah, some copies of the Declaration of Independence were written on hemp paper; almost certainly the original, but the copy in the National Archives is parchment. It is also likely that the first American flag sewn by Betsy Ross was also hemp fibers.

Washington, Hamilton, Jefferson and Franklin all raised hemp at some point. It was a major crop in the early colonies.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

OMG OMG OMG..ARREST the people holding on to those documents and artifacts. They belong to the DEA!

[stromboli]

Hey hey, I'm comforted by the image of ol' Abe lighting a doobie and gettin' all chill during the darkest hours of the Civil War. Call me sentimental, call me old fashioned, but its comforting.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Personally I don't care if they did or didn't smoke hemp or marijuana back then,  currently or in the future.

[stromboli]

Personally I don't care if they did or didn't smoke hemp or marijuana back then,  currently or in the future.

Yeah, you never struck me as the sentimental type.
.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Yeah, you never struck me as the sentimental type.
.

I used to be.

[Hydra009]

Yeah, some copies of the Declaration of Independence were written on hemp paper; almost certainly the original, but the copy in the National Archives is parchment. It is also likely that the first American flag sewn by Betsy Ross was also hemp fibers.

Washington, Hamilton, Jefferson and Franklin all raised hemp at some point. It was a major crop in the early colonies.

Okay, so how do we go from there to them lighting up doobies?  I suppose it's possible, marijuana smoking wasn't as taboo then as it is now, but the Founders seemed more interested in hemp than buds.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

I think it's the same argument I used with my parents for me being allowed to have long hair in the 70's...not sure though.

[stromboli]

Okay, so how do we go from there to them lighting up doobies?  I suppose it's possible, marijuana smoking wasn't as taboo then as it is now, but the Founders seemed more interested in hemp than buds.

Marijuana has a very long history and was in use "medicinally" long before the colonies came into being. There is evidence dating back to ancient China like 2700 BCE. That the founding fathers were ignorant of its properties is unlikely, especially since they had slaves that may well have been aware of its use. Marijuana was in use in Rome, and there is knowledge of hemp in egypt about 300 ACE and also much earlier in Persia. there is every reason to believe, even lacking specific data, that all of these cultures knew of the different uses. Use was widespread in India and hemp was considered sacred by the Vedas, the Hindu religious writings.

After the colonial period in Europe the Hashish Eaters, in 1844. So it is certainly possible that the founding fathers knew of its uses, and for sure Abraham Lincoln used it on occasion.

And of course, this
http://www.hightimes.com/read/11-us-presidents-who-smoked-marijuana

[Hydra009]

Wiki has a similar list.  Some surprising faces, too.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Ladies and gentlemen,  the results of being a bunch of lazy, dirty hippies. They become pot smokers and the next thing you know,  communism and murdering people in crowded movies theaters with axes. It's punks like this who killed Jack Webb and lead to the demise of Dragnet and the rise of people like Michael Sam being drafted into the NFL!

[Mandingo]

Cannabis/Marijuana/THC is good stuff! Why, even the pope says so!

And if you have a tooth ache, cocaine is the remedy of choice!