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To: PaxMacian
"You are more concerned with the founding fathers intent in growing a gift from God"

Trust me. I'm not the least bit concerned with the Founding Fathers growing anything. YOU brought it up.

If they were growing it for hemp, what's your point? If they were growing it to smoke it and get high, I'd like to see some proof.

Otherwise, go away.

153 posted on 12/18/2004 8:30:13 AM PST by robertpaulsen
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To: robertpaulsen

"If they were growing it for hemp, what's your point? If they were growing it to smoke it and get high, I'd like to see some proof."

Intent is irrelevant. It is an herb! Prove the enumerated power exists to eradicate an herb gifted by God!


156 posted on 12/18/2004 8:36:04 AM PST by PaxMacian
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To: robertpaulsen
If they were growing it for hemp, what's your point? If they were growing it to smoke it and get high, I'd like to see some proof.

The extent of cannabis smoking during the Colonial era is still subject to debate. President George Washington wrote a letter that contained an oblique reference to what may have been hashish. "The artificial preparation of hemp, from Silesia, is really a curiosity." 38 Washington made specific written references to Indian hemp, or cannabis indica, and hoped to "have disseminated the seed to others. " 39 His August 7, 1765 diary entry, "began to separate the male from the female () plants," describes a harvesting technique favored to enhance the potency of smoking cannabis, among other reasons. 40 Hemp farmer Thomas Jefferson and paper maker Ben Franklin were ambassadors to France during the initial surge of the hashish vogue. Their celebrity status and progressive revolutionary image afforded them ample opportunities to try new experiences. Jefferson smuggled Chinese hemp seeds to America and is credited with the phrase in the Declaration of Independence, "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

Did the Founding Fathers of the United States of America smoke cannabis? Some researchers think so. Dr. Burke, president of the American Historical Reference Society and a consultant for the Smithsonian Institute, counted seven early presidents as cannabis smokers: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, Zachary Taylor and Franklin Pierce. 41 "Early letters from our founding fathers refer to the pleasures of hemp smoking," said Burke. Pierce, Taylor and Jackson, all military men, smoked it with their troops. Cannabis was twice as popular among American soldiers in the Mexican War as in Vietnam: Pierce wrote to his family that it was "about the only good thing" about that war.

Central and Western African natives were farming and harvesting cannabis sativa in North America as slaves. If they did smoke on the plantations, that would be kept secret. 42 By the time of the Louisiana purchase in 1803, New Orleans had a mixed Spanish, French, Creole, Cajun, Mexican and Black population. The city teemed with adventurers and sailors, wise to the ways of cannabis. It was mixed with tobacco or smoked alone, used to season food 43, to treat insomnia and impotence, and so on.

Cannabis was mentioned as a medicinal agent in a formal American medical text as early as 1843.

Reference: http://www.umsl.edu/~rkeel/180/highsociety.html UIniversity of Missouri - St. Louis

Numbers are footnotes.

And if you do a search on George Washington or Colonial America and marijuana you will find many more references.

By the way, who authorized you to make a statement such as "Otherwise, go away." You seem to lose control as you lose your argument(s).
310 posted on 12/19/2004 2:45:15 PM PST by Beckwith (John, you said I was going to be the First Lady, as of now, you're on the couch . . .)
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