Obama has become more hostile to medical marijuana patients than any president in U.S. history

[RainDog]

169. it's not my attempt

what I was trying to explain is that you're stupid if you think Washington held the same view about cannabis plants as you do.

But you can also simply look at the probability of something. We already know that attitudes toward such things were not the same as they are today. People could pay their taxes with hemp. Hemp was considered essential to survival for the colonies. They loved hemp.

It's only been within the last decades, over the entire history of this nation, that people thought cannabis was anything other than one of the most useful plants in existence.

That you think it's such a stretch to think Washington could have used cannabis is really an indication of close-minded ignorance - that's all.

If the only reason for Washington to separate female plants was because of use as something smoked or eaten or suspended in liquid to use as medicine, then I can certainly accept that he might have used cannabis.

You know, back in those days, Americans drank more liquor than anything else. It was perfectly normal and the amts of alcohol consumed would astonish people today. For me to acknowledge this doesn't mean I am saying it was a good or bad thing - it just means it's part of history. Hemp is also part of America's history - a big part. Independence from the British depended upon America growing its own hemp. Americans also grew and consumed tobacco - see, none of these things are modern inventions.

Cannabis has been used as medicine for 5000 years, first mentioned by the Chinese. It was also mentioned by the Greeks. The founders who were educated all read Greek and Latin. Washington had actors perform Roman plays for the troops.

Herodutus, considered the "first historian" wrote about the use of cannabis that's burned and inhaled to induce euphoria in the 400s, bce. The use of cannabis was mentioned to treat depression in Anatomy of Melancholy, a FAMOUS BOOK - still in print, btw - by the British clergyman, Robert Burton, in the 1600s. The New English Dispensatory, in 1764, recommended hemp roots for medicine, and The Edinburgh New Dispensary, in 1794, listed hemp as the cure for various ailments. The slaves that worked Washington's farm came from Africa, where cannabis was used as medicine and for intoxication in rituals as well.

Jan van Riebeeck was the first governor of the Dutch colony at the Cape of Good Hope. In 1658, he described the Hottentot's use of cannabis. They called it Dagga. They didn't smoke it until later, another 50 years or so, but still before Washington's time, but they ingested it to use as an intoxicant . And, of course, the Dutch were the original colonists in the New York area.

Anyway, since you didn't even know about hemp, maybe you should reserve judgement until you know something about a topic.