history
The history of marijuana, including political resistance and social advancements.
'Easy Rider' Review
The first five minutes of Dennis Hopper's Easy Rider is so perfect that at the end of it you feel like you had watched a whole movie. By the time the music kicks in, "The Pusher" from Steppenwolf, you feel like you are watching a sequel to those first five minutes.
Mike MavenfulPublished 7 years ago in PotentWho Was Allen Ginsberg?
As a poet, Allen Ginsberg was able to relate his feelings on being homosexual and a marijuana smoker in his poetry, achieving the status of an almost mystic figure. He had an intense spiritual life and tried to expedite whatever came to his head, and to explore what his mind wanted to pursue.
Wendy WeedlerPublished 7 years ago in PotentWho Is the Stoner Generation?
It's exhausting. When you feel like you've done just about everything there is to do in a town like America you suddenly (or gradually) realize you are tired. Wasted? I've just finished suffering through the true consciousness of a hot grinding time like a lot of others. A decade and more of trying to catharize the impacted shit of the decades and millennia before. It's rough for people my age who are doomed to follow war babies through history.
Frank WhitePublished 7 years ago in PotentLSD Guru Tim Leary Interview
Timothy Leary burst into the limelight, amid a shower of controversy. While members of the left debated whether or not he fingered friends and associates in order to obtain his recent release from prison, Leary eventually came out with a new and radical plan for the future of mankind: SMILE (Space Migration, Increased Intelligence, and Life Extension).
Potent StaffPublished 7 years ago in PotentRehashing the Life of Bruce Lee
All the witnesses agree: during the last months of his life, Bruce Lee was heading for a crack-up. No matter how you sized him up, the danger signals were unmistakable. The most obvious signal was weight loss. During his best years, Lee—who stood between 5' 6" and 5' 7" and was very lightly boned—built himself up through diet and exercise to a peak of 155 pounds. Now this extra poundage began to melt away. Eventually, he went down to 120. When Danny Inosanto, Lee's principal disciple, saw his master for the last time, he was shocked by the change in his appearance. “You’re too thin!” he warned. “How are you going to get your full power?” "My full power?” hissed Lee, “How about this?” With that he gave Inosanto a shoulder shot that sent the disciple flying 12' across the room. All the same, Lee was concerned about his inexplicable weight loss. His solution was to adopt a particularly nauseating diet: congealed bull's blood mixed with raw hamburger steak.
Johnny HashPublished 7 years ago in PotentWhat Is the Origin of 4/20?
4/20 – The major cannabis holiday. We all know about the day, the number, and the time – but how exactly did it come to be? Today we’ll be peering back into history to discover the real origin behind 4/20.
Wendy WeedlerPublished 7 years ago in PotentCan You Smoke Lettuce?
Not everyone who probably would benefit from cannabis products is prepared to to do something illegal. Others have neither the time for meditation nor an appetite for abstinence. The logical solution, then, was to come up with something legal, harmless, potent and available, that would turn on the tastes of the most jaded cannabis connoisseur... Thousands of medicine men and would-be moguls have tried... and most have failed.
David McClearyPublished 7 years ago in PotentChill Parents? Study Shows the Middle-Aged More Likely to Light Up Than Teens
When you think of ‘weed’ plus ‘parents’, some standard scenarios generally come to mind. Your mom showing pictures of your brain on drugs, your dad admonishing you to stay in school and avoid any use of ‘The Marijuana’. Yes, for many years the middle-aged have been the subject of some pretty powerful party-poopin’ stereotypes, while young folks these days are generally assumed to dedicate a fairly substantial amount of time to chasing whatever feels good at the moment. Popular media certainly seems to bear this out ---- while the rebellious teen of your favourite sitcom might occasionally sneak a couple of pulls on a joint, you’re not likely to see their parents clearing space in the den for a shiny new hookah.
Anne St. MariePublished 7 years ago in PotentMarijuana Ads of the Future from the Past
The way things are going, buying marijuana will soon be as easy as buying alcohol or cigarettes. It will be interesting to see how marijuana will be advertised once it is federally legalized. There are innumerable approaches that can be taken in marketing pot. Will it be treated as if it's a health product, like aspirin? Or will it be toted as a recreational product and sold to the public like sounds systems or games? Maybe it will be packaged as exotica, like perfume. Or a status symbol, like an expensive automobile. The possibilities are endless.
Wendy WeedlerPublished 7 years ago in PotentThe India Hemp Drugs Commission Report of 1894 Found Cannabis Totally Chill
Before Clinton extended maximum sentencing, before Reagan announced his policy of zero tolerance, before William Randolph Hearst, DuPont, Herbert Hoover and his cronies gave weed its Spanish name and illegal status to boost their market share, there was the India Hemp Drugs Commission Report. The history of government involvement in chemical research is a story as long as our millennial attention spans are short. But the report written by representatives of the British and Indian governments in 1894 marks one of the strangest and most hilarious examples of straight-laced suits getting groovy to gather government intelligence on narcotics in history.
Henry KronkPublished 8 years ago in PotentTripping Through the Beatnik Generation
Straight from my uncle's journal is a summary of his thoughts while tripping through the Beatnik Generation. From his perspective the roots of Pop Culture can be traced back to the post WWII Beatnik Movement. He passed in 1994, and left me a treasure trove of journals vividly recounting the moments he shared with some of the greatest influences of the Beatnik Generation.
Johnny HashPublished 8 years ago in PotentHistory of the Occult, Marijuana and Other Drugs
Inward expansion of human consciousness is never stronger than in times of outward rationalism when the artists, the romantics and the adventurers of society rebel against complacency, against mine grinding boredom, against the current possibilities that stifle imagination. Such a crisis in the human psyche gained momentum during the 19th century against a background of crusading Darwinism and dour, brutal industrialism. It would inspire a revival of the occult mentality. Most were swept along by the carnival of burgeoning western hegemony, whether they wanted to be or not, but others, psychologically the same group of outsiders' as in earlier times, wanted to look beneath the surface in search of a more positive destiny for mankind, a spiritual rather than a scientific awakening. They eschewed the passive stance of orthodox religion (which paradoxically became anything but passive in the hands of Victorian imperialists practicing muscular Christianity on the peoples of foreign lands), and some, often the most talented and inspired, embarked on the journey into inner space using psychoactive drugs such as hash and marijuana as the signposts, the spirit guides to point the way.