Cannabis: A History

The late Martin Booth's book is a very comprehensive and sympathetic history of cannabis. He gives the history of both the drug and of hemp. The style is readable and engaging. The tone is very even and probably would not offend more conservative readers, but Booth makes it clear that he thinks current laws are a mistake.

The book goes right back into prehistory to find hemp used for fibre. The earliest use seems to have been in China, perhaps as much as 7000 years ago. Hemp was important in many countries, west and east.

Booth writes about in to cannabis literature in some depth, beginning with Fitz Hugh Ludlow, who wrote the Hashish Eater. He also includes Baudelaire, Crowley and many other writers, including Madame Blavatsky, the founder of the Theosophy, who used hashish to obtain visions. There is an interesting chapter about the use of cannabis as a medicine in various tinctures and remedies, openly sold in pharmacies in the past.

The development of drug laws is explained. It is ironic that the British was as deeply implicated in the sale of charas in India, as it was in the Opium trade in China. Booth details the history of prohibition in the US (which now affects us all). The character and motivations of the infamous Anslinger is exposed. He also deals with the 'speakeasy' culture, be-bop, the Beat poets and the sixties, as well as Rastafarianism.

Where does Booth stand? His concluding page gives a good indication:

...we seem unable to that one drug and plant beyond all the others is essentially benign and offers so much... we must learn to admit it into our lives and society, where it has had a presence for generations.

Booth is a well respected writer, who, amongst many other books, wrote an the informative Opium: History and A Magick Life: a Biography of Aleister Crowley which might interest Drugs Forum readers.

My one complaint is that Booth does give footnotes (this is his style), although he does provide references at the end.