Marijuana Mysteries: Amazing Unknown Weed Facts

interesting facts about weed

Perhaps no single substance has sparked as much outrage, lore, or legend as the humble weed bud. From illegal drug to medicine to industrial commodity, the cannabis plant’s history is masked in much mystery and intrigue.

The quasi-legal status of marijuana has led to as much convoluted history as it has interesting facts about weed. Sometimes, truth is stranger than fiction. Read on to find out some crazy facts about the most controversial plant in the world.

Criminalization of MJ Was A Veil for Racism

The first legislation regarding the prohibition of marijuana can be largely attributed to rocky mountain and Mexican border states. At the time, states such as Colorado, Texas, and the like were seeking a large influx of migrant workers seeking better opportunity.

Virulent racism against Mexican workers led to the rise in hysteria over cannabis. Marijuana was carried over from Mexico by these migrants, and was the perfect scapegoat for racial prejudice. According to lawmakers, cannabis led to criminality and insanity.

One proponent of regulation in Montana stated, “”Give one of these Mexican beet field workers a couple of puffs on a marijuana cigarette and he thinks he is in the bullring at Barcelona.”

Another from Texas stated on the senate floor, “All Mexicans are crazy, and this stuff (referring to marijuana) is what makes them crazy.”

Marijuana Gives You Occult Powers?

Reefer Madness in the 30s and 40s gave rise to many claims of insanity and even forbidden magic. In court cases, the insanity plea was often a successful way for lawyers to argue the innocence of their clients.

A pharmacologist in New Jersey actually testified in a 1938 trial that his own personal tests with smoking marijuana gave him the ability to transform himself into a bat. As a witness for the defense, he claimed, “After two puffs on a marijuana cigarette, I was turned into a bat.”

Further, he claimed his batty transfiguration lasted for 15 minutes, during which time he flew around the room and landed at the bottom of a two hundred foot inkwell. The following day, salacious headlines read “Killer Drug Turns Doctor to Bat!”

Another court case saw the defendant herself claiming to be taken over by some wild marijuana magic. She claimed, much like the man from New Jersey, that just two puffs of a marijuana cigarette that, “My incisor teeth grew six inches long and dripped with blood.”

The craziest part? The defense of all of these “marijuana insanity” pleas were a success. Jurors actually believed it.

Bardic Inspiration

You may owe your education on Shakespearean romance to the marijuana plant, according to research done in 2001. A prolific playwright, it turns out that Shakespeare may have also been an avid cultivator and toker as well.

Shakespeare did indeed mention a “noted weed” in one of his sonnets, and chemical forensics have since found cannabis residue on pipe fragments found in his own garden. Some evidence has pointed to the fact that he may have grown and smoked his own bud, though petitions to unearth his remains for further investigation have been fruitless.

Can we credit some of the most influential literature in history to the inspiration of a good high? It may very well remain a mystery for the ages.

Hemp Could Save the World

Hemp fiber can be used for everything from paper, clothing, canvas, and fuel. It’s even a near-perfect superfood. What’s more, McGill University of Canada claims that 1.5-3.5 acres of industrial hemp could actually save the world.

The McGill study estimates that much hemp alone would completely solve our oil needs and put us on the path to green energy, for good. Cannabis, unlike tobacco, improves the soil. Many other countries in the world use it for food, feed, and fuel.

Legalization worldwide could turn the tide for economics and the environment. Experts theorize a shift to hemp resources would cut back on greenhouse gasses and deforestation, and create hundreds of thousands of jobs.

It turns out, getting high might be the least useful aspect for plants in the cannabis family.

Interesting Facts About Weed, And More

It’s true that we may never understand the true reason weed has been so mired in controversy and mystery. What we do know, now, is that the future of marijuana is wide open for many almost miraculous uses that the people of history never could have imagined.

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