Queen Victoria was a pothead!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

Last edited Sun Mar 30, 2014, 09:36 PM - Edit history (1)

I just finished reading a most illuminating article about marijuana and its various issues in the February 20, 2014 issue of The New York Review of Books.

The author is reviewing the book A New Leaf: The End of Cannabis Prohibition which was written by Alyson Martin and Nushin Rashidian, and is published by New Press.

The article is a calm and clear discussion about the plant.

Among many other facts, I learned that Queen Victoria used it for "...relief of menstrual discomfort."

The article is well worth reading! Here's a link: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2014/feb/20/marijuana-high-and-low/?insrc=whc

[KittyWampus]

1. I am such an English History/Victoriana geek. I had no idea...

SQUEE!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. I was amazed also!

I thought the good folk of DU would appreciate hearing this.

[flamingdem]

9. CP there's a show at the Getty about the Queen

She was also into "selfies" I mean Daguerrotypes, very ahead of her time!

(Hmm I hope I have the right queen)

[dflprincess]

26. Given how stern she looks in her pictures (and I know that's how it was done then)

it's hard to imagine her having one of the laughing fits one can have after imbibing...or I've been told that can happen.

[Warpy]

3. We've been denied this incredibly useful plant

for nearly 80 years because a Prohibitionist who lost that fight decided Mexicans wouldn't work hard enough if they still had cannabis. So he named it "marijuana" and campaigned to make it illegal.

The filthy bastard won that war. We're still trying to undo his evil in this country.

I hope Harry Anslinger spends eternity living the lives of everybody his ruthless anti cannabis campaign ruined, from chemo patients to those in chronic pain to growers and kids on campuses who were just trying it out.

[wildbilln864]

22. yes we have!

http://www.jackherer.com/marijuana-facts/billion-crop/

[Tsiyu]

4. Great article, CalPeg

Thanks for sharing it. I wish the Republicans in TN were as enlightened as the ones in CO over this issue.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

5. I regularly enjoy the articles in this particular periodical...

They're like history lessons without the tests or essay writing.

I think the tide is turning on legalization, and even TN will come around eventually.

[Tsiyu]

7. I have it bookmarked

And I hope you are right

[Half-Century Man]

6. Long known. Heard about it in the early seventies.

Part of the discussion fighting Nixon's stupidity.

[WillyT]

8. My Dear Peggy... Thank You For That !!!

That is all... except...

[Warren DeMontague]

10. Odd, then, that she was not more amused.

Seriously.

[eppur_se_muova]

33. *snarf* nt

[NMDemDist2]

11. so did Elizabeth I

[Warpy]

12. And most likely George Washington

whose diaries refer to harvesting "hemp" before it set seeds, counterproductive if he was growing it for bast fiber for maritime ropes and sail material.

[LeftishBrit]

21. And Louisa May Alcott

http://www.homemakerscorner.com/peril.htm

[japple]

13. I used it for for all sorts of "difficulties/discomfort," menstrual, hormonal, social, societial,

mental. Who's to judge me?

[malaise]

14. Thanks for the link

Rec

Legalize it!!!

[kelliekat44]

15. I thought she snorted cocaine? nt

[sarge43]

19. She didn't have to.

She took laudanum, ticture of opium. During the 18th and 19th centuries, it was as common and widely used as aspirin and it was cheaper than gin or whisky. Mary Lincoln was addicted to it.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

41. She may have "sniffed" a little ...

... but "snorted"? Heavens, no. How undignified.

[RainDog]

16. Robert Hooke - 1689 - Royal Society Meeting

via wiki: The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, commonly known as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society still in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London". The Society today acts as a scientific advisor to the British government, receiving a parliamentary grant-in-aid. The Society acts as the UK's Academy of Sciences, and funds research fellowships and scientific start-up companies.

Robert Hooke, a contemporary of Isaac Newton, was also the curator or experiments for The Royal Society. In 1681 he made friends with a sea captain and writer named Robert Knox. From Knox's sea voyages for the East India Company, he had come into possession of "India Hemp" or ganja.

Knox introduced Hooke to the herb, and in 1689, Hooke recommended it to members of the Royal Society for its curative properties - and said the worst side effect was laughter.

William Brooke O'Shaughnessy, who began work shortly before Queen Vic took the throne, is credited with bringing cannabis medicine to Great Britain, after a stint working in India and experimenting with cannabis and observing its use among the population there at the time.

This is probably in the article - but it's a reality that cannabis was part of medical life until it was made illegal in the 1930s. It wasn't until Mexicans began settling in California that it suddenly became the subject of "reefer madness."

[Spitfire of ATJ]

17. You would HAVE to be to do this to a door....

[marble falls]

18. I use it for purely cosmetic reasons. It takes the warts off other peoples faces.

[mountain grammy]

23. Excellent!

[malthaussen]

20. Okay, Now I'm going to have visions of Vicky and John Brown...

... lying on the rug at Balmoral and smoking weed.

-- Mal

[UTUSN]

24. Indigenous people have taught it's a painkiller (for giving birth/broken bones) not recreational n/t

[nikto]

25. back in the early 1970s at college...

A number of women in our social group discovered pot was a fantastic cure for menstrual cramps,
which are common among young women.

My girlfriend used to say it was a "miracle", and was something like 99% effective at giving relief on
the one day a month when she would tend to have bad cramps.

I thought, these days, most women already knew that.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

27. I never heard that. But I lived a very sheltered life until I found DU! n/t

[nikto]

35. If you know any women with bad cramps...

Suggest they smoke some cannabis on their worst day to check out its effectiveness.

They will thank you.

[fizzgig]

30. it's one of the few things that will touch my cramps

and it doesn't make me sick like vicodin does.

[Blue Owl]

28. Her Majesty's Marihuana

n/t

[nikto]

36. The Royal Rush...

The Queen's Cannabis.

The Palace Pot.

The BlueBlood Blaze.

Her Grace's Grass.

Her Highness's Hash.

Royalty's Roach.

Her Supremacy's Sensimilla.

The Royal Reefer.

The Monarch's Marijuana.

The Crown Joints.

[MisterP]

29. Beatrix Potter fed a rabbit a cupful of hemp seeds: he became "wholly unmanageable"

http://www.scotsman.com/news/benjamin-bouncer-and-the-tale-of-beatrix-pot-ter-1-817900

[mwrguy]

31. I know that from listening to Iron maiden

Bruce Dickinson mentions it in between songs on the 'Live After Death' album, iirc.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

32. How cool!

I mostly listen to classical/jazz, so I miss all these bits of info.

[Sentath]

34. Sounds like you've been listening to censored Jazz ( :

http://www.cannabisculture.com/articles/3434.html

http://www.examiner.com/article/4-20-exploring-jazz-s-musical-marijuana-connection

[1000words]

37. She would have likely liked ...

The Kinks:

Long ago life was clean
Sex was bad and obscene
And the rich were so mean
Stately homes for the lords
Croquet lawns, village greens
Victoria was my queen
Victoria, victoria, victoria, toria

I was born, lucky me
In a land that I love
Though I am poor, I am free
When I grow I shall fight
For this land I shall die
Let her sun never set
Victoria, victoria, victoria, toria
Victoria, victoria, victoria, toria

Land of hope and gloria
Land of my victoria
Land of hope and gloria
Land of my victoria
Victoria, toria
Victoria, victoria, victoria, toria

Canada to india
Australia to cornwall
Singapore to hong kong
From the west to the east
From the rich to the poor
Victoria loved them all
Victoria, victoria, victoria, toria
Victoria, victoria, victoria

[Warren DeMontague]

38. Come to think of it...

she does look a little baked, here.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

39. Doesn't she though!

It probably helped her sit for the endless portraits and other onerous duties.

[1000words]

40. LMAO

A little baked, here ...