RESOURCES
Pot Night - The Book, Channel 4 Television, 1995
Relevant organisations
ACT: ALLIANCE FOR CANNABIS THERAPEUTICS
PO Box CR14
Leeds LS7 4XF
Fax: (0113) 237 1000
Organisation of patients campaigning to have medical cannabis available on prescription and for the distribution of information on the medical benefits of marijuana. Send 4 first-class stamps for information.
HOME OFFICE DRUGS DIVISION
50 Queen Anne's Gate
London SW1H 9AT
Tel: (0171) 273 3002
Government drugs department for information and policy.
INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF DRUG DEPENDENCE (ISDD)
Waterbridge House
32-36 Loman Street
London SE1 0EE
Tel: (0171) 928 1211
Fax: (0171) 928 1771
National information and research centre on the misuse of drugs and drug dependence. Produces the bi-monthly journal Druglink.
LEGALISE CANNABIS CAMPAIGN SCOTLAND
PO Box 12758
Edinburgh EH8 9YP
Tel: (0131) 667 6488
Membership organisation encouraging the campaign for changes in the law surrounding cannabis.
LIFELINE
101-103 Oldham Street
Manchester M4 1LW
Tel: (0161) 839 2054
Tel: (01800) 716701 (helpline)
Organisation committed to telling the truth about drugs. Publishes educational material. Freephone helpline for parents, staffed exclusively by other parents.
POSITIVE PREVENTION PLUS
3 Radnor Way
Slough
Berkshire SL3 7LA
Tel: (01753) 542296
A registered charitable trust specialising in drug prevention.
RELEASE
388 Old Street
London EC1V 1LT
Tel: (0171) 603 8654 (24-hour helpline)
National drugs and legal advice service with 24-hour helpline for legal, welfare, health and drugs advice. Publish educational materials.
Further reading
GENERAL
The Bush Telegraph: quarterly magazine devoted entirely to cannabis. Subscriptions available through: Box BT, 21 Cave Street, Oxford OX4 1BA.
Cannabis: The Wootton Report by Advisory Committee on Drug Dependence, HMSO, 1968.
Everything You Wanted to Know about Cannabis (but were afraid to ask your kids), Lifeline Publications, 1993.
Hemp: Lifeline to the future by C. Conrad, Creative Xpressions Publishing, 1993.
Marijuana reconsidered by L. Grinspoon, Harvard University Press, 1977.
Plain Rapper I & II by Pete Loveday, AK Press, 1993.
Why People Grow Drugs by M. Smith, Panos Press, 1992.
BOTANICAL ASPECTS OF CANNABIS
Evolution of Crop Plants by N.W. Simmonds, Longmans, 1976.
Marijuana Growers Guide (delux edition) by M. Frank and E. Rosenthal, Red Eye Press (US), 1990.
Tropical Crops: Dicotyledons 1 by J.W. Pursglove, Longmans, 1968.
HISTORICAL ASPECTS OF CANNABIS
Hemp and the Marijuana Conspiracy: The Emperor Wears No Clothes by J. Herer, HEMP/Queen of Clubs Publishing, 1993.
Marijuana and the Bible, Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church, 1990.
Marijuana: Medical papers 1839-1972 by T. Mikuriya, Medi-Comp Press, 1973.
Marijuana: Report on the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission 1893-4, edited by J. Kaplan, Thomas Jefferson Press (US), 1969.
MEDICAL ASPECTS OF CANNABIS
'Cannabis: The brain's other supplier' by R. Mestel, New Scientist, vol. 139, 1993, pp. 21-23.
Cannabinoid Receptors by R.G. Pertwee, Academic Press, 1995.
'The evidence for the existence of cannabinoid receptors' by R.G. Pertwee, General Pharmacology, vol. 24, 1993, pp. 811-24.
'Health aspects of cannabis' by L.E. Hollister, Pharmacology Reviews, vol. 38, 1986, pp. 1-20.
Marijuana: The forbidden medicine by L. Grinspoon and J. Bakalar, Yale University Press, 1993.
Marijuana: Chemistry, pharmacology, metabolism and clinical effects by R. Mechoulam, Academic Press, 1993.
DUTCH POLICY
Cannabis in Amsterdam by A. Jansen, D. Coutinho Ltd, 1991.
The Drug Abuse Situation in the Netherlands, Ministry of Welfare, Health & Cultural Affairs and Ministry of Justice (The Netherlands), 1992.
Mellow Pages: A smoker's guide to the Netherlands by Kip, Mellow Pages, 1993.
LEGALISATION: FOR
Cannabis: The case for change, Release Publications, 1995.
LEGALISATION: AGAINST
Cannabis: Physiopathology, epidemiology, detection, Second International Symposium of the National Academy of Medicine, Paris, April 1992.
Drug prevention - Just say now by Peter Stoker, David Fulton Ltd, 1992.
High in America: The true story behind NORML and the politics of marijuana by Patrick Anderson, Viking (US), 1981.
'Marijuana causes both dependence and addiction' by Dr Mark Gold inMarijuana, Plenum (US), 1989.
'Marijuana users six times more likely to develop schizophrenia' by S. Andreasson et al., Lancet, vol.2, 1987, pp. 1483-5.
Films
REEFER MADNESS (1936)
Directed by Loius Gasnier
Starring David O'Brien, Dorothy Short, Carleton Young
Classic American propoganda film.
I LOVE YOU, ALICE B. TOKLAS (1968)
Directed by Hy Averback
Starring Peter Sellers, Jo Van Fleet, Joyce Van Patten
Satirical farce combining marijuana brownies, Gertrude Stein and Jewish mothers.
EASY RIDER (1969)
Directed by Dennis Hopper
Starring Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson
Cult oddball melodrama - the road movie (and highly relevant soundtrack).
MIDNIGHT COWBOY (1969)
Directed by John Schlesinger
Starring Jon Voight, Dustin Hoffman, Brenda Vaccaro
Naive Texan hustler, Voight, bogarts his way to psychedelic heaven/hell in lengthy New York bohemian party scene.
THE HARDER THEY COME (1973)
Directed by Perry Henzell
Starring Jimmy Cliff, Carl Bradshaw, Bobby Charlton
Ambitious country boy Cliff breaks into corrupt Kingston reggae scene, has hit record and becomes ganja-dealing outlaw. Authentic portrayal of shanty town life includes the largest spliffs ever seen in the history of cinema.
MIDNIGHT EXPRESS (1978)
Directed by Alan Parker
Starring Brad Davis, John Hurt
Intense story of an American student caught smuggling hash out of Turkey.
CHEECH & CHONG SERIES
All four films star Cheech Marin and Thomas Chong.
UP IN SMOKE (1978)
Directed by Lou Adler
In their first pothead comedy, Cheech & Chong go in search of grass.
CHEECH & CHONG'S NEXT MOVIE (1980)
Directed by Thomas Chong
Cheech & Chong have various rude adventures.
STILL SMOKIN' (1983)
Directed by Thomas Chong
Cheech & Chong attend a bizarre film festival (devoted to Burt Reynolds and Dolly Parton) in Amsterdam.
THE CORSICAN BROTHERS (1984)
Directed by Thomas Chong
Cheech & Chong run amuck during the French Revolution
WITHNAIL & I (1987)
Directed by Bruce Robinson
Starring Richard E. Grant, Paul McGann
a deliberately seedy comedy about two out-of-work actors.
DAZED AND CONFUSED (1994)
Directed by Richard Linklater
Starring Jason London, Joey Lauren-Adams, Milla Jovovich, Shawn Andrews
Last days of high school on mid-70s mid-America. Daft clothes and daft drug intake.
Mass-Observation research
Members of the Mass-Observation (M-O) Panel have recently presented their views on 'Drugs, society and the law'. Dr Geoff Lowe of the University of Hull's Psychology Department, in conjunction with the M-O Archive at Sussex University, will be analysing respondents views and experiences on the issues surrounding the decriminilisationof drugs. A special 'directive' was prepared for panel members' responses. If you would like to help with this research, please send a stamped, self-addressed envelope to Dr G Lowe, University of Hull, Hull HU6 7RX, to obtain a copy of the directive.
Music
"If you don't think drugs have done good things for us, do me a favour, go home tonight, take all your albums, tapes and CDs and burn 'em. Cos you know what . . . the musicians who made that great music that has enhanced your lives throughout the years [were] real . . . high on drugs." Bill Hicks.
Well, maybe not all of them, but just a quick flick through the average music collection will reveal a considerable number of marijuana references, from the blatant (Cypree Hill's Hits from the Bong) to the obscure (The Association's 'Along Comes Mary'), ranging from classic English 60s psychedelic whimsy through almost any reggae album from the 1970s, to current ambient chill-out favourites.
For music with more than a passing reference:
Have a Marijuana - David Peel and the Lower East Side (LP Elektra 1968, CD reissue Line Records, Germany).
A frankly awful mixture of inept playing, shouting, feeble satire, crass comtemporary political sloganeering and bad poetry largely concerning the use of marijuana - inadvertently providing the best argument yet heard for its continuing illegal status.
Reefer Songs - Various artists.
Viper Mad Blues - Various artists.
Both US import compilations available on JASS CD, 7 and 630 respectively and obtainable from either Blackmail (0181-569 7820) or Direct Distribution (0171-281 3465).
Proving that appreciation of the recreational value of marijuana was not a blinding flash that occurred sometime around 1965, these excellent compilations feature such euphemistic highpoints as 'Lotus Blossom' by Julia Lee and her Boyfriends from 1947 along with the less subtle 'Smoking Reefers' by Larry Adler from 1938.