Source: theleafonline.com
With marijuana legalization now a reality for California and seven other states and the holiday gift-giving season just ahead, a valuable new cannabis book is out, The Newbie’s Guide to Cannabis and the Industry by Chris Conrad and Jeremy Daw.
It has 240 hardback pages packed with crisp instructions on how-to use, grow and prepare cannabis with color pics of the plant, dabbing, juicing, vaporizing, curing, as well as the “Reefer Madness” history with pics of protesters being dragged away in handcuffs.
Conrad will give a talk and sign books at Book Passage in the Ferry Building in San Francisco on Tuesday, November 15 at 6 PM.
Cover to cover cannabis
The authors have gone beyond what Newbie’s need to know — a comprehensive exploration of the cannabis plant and the many facets of the industry, laws, public safety, economy and business opportunities surrounding them.
Because there’s so much ground to cover, everything is brief and basic, geared toward those who want to get involved “from curiosity to entry level to experienced to excelsior.” Patients, casual consumers, chronoisseurs — all will find this book an important resource for multiple purposes and a refreshingly easy read of complex material.
Introducing the elements of the plant — seed to stalk, roots to resin, terpenes to trichomes — the authors ask, ‘Where does hemp fit into the equation?’ Chris Conrad created and popularized the more precise term “cannabis hemp” in the ’80s to educate about the multiple purposes of a single plant known as cannabis. Cannabis hemp caught on and is used to this day.
The Newbie’s Guide captures relevant history for its readers
Pioneering medical research of the 19th century reached Queen Victoria who used cannabis for her menstrual cramps. Pharmacy boards were steered to take over medicine, displace and ban plant therapies behind the 1914 Harrison Act. Jim Crow laws targeted minorities. Petrochemicals eliminated competing raw materials.
Chris Conrad, co-author of The Newbie’s Guide to Cannabis, formed the Business Alliance for Commerce in Hemp in 1988 to advocate for a regulated marketplace and was the first president of the Hemp Industries Assn.
Simultaneously, the 1916 US Dept of Agriculture Report called for a national hemp farming campaign to save family farms and the forests. Their research showed four times greater efficiency in using hemp for paper rather than trees.
Progress was undermined when the defeat of Alcohol Prohibition in 1933 shifted to Marijuana Prohibition in 1937 with the Marijuana Tax Act, followed by decades of a “Reefer Madness” media campaign and the long marijuana war at home.
Ever fickle Uncle Sam changed the tune to ‘Hemp for Victory’ during WWII and issued permits to farmers to grow industrial hemp for the war effort. But after the war, “the word hemp was systematically erased from the global memory and the word ‘marijuana’ was inserted to take its place.”
In 1968, the Nixon presidential platform launched the War on Drugs. In 1970 Congress “temporarily” placed marijuana in Controlled Substances Act Schedule One, the most dangerous drug category. Temporary became permanent.
Meanwhile, cannabis was discovered and widely used by minorities, jazz musicians, Beat hipsters, ’60s hippies and anti-war college students. The authors point out that, “When Bob Dylan turned on the Beatles, a whole new era of cannabis use began.”
The book explores many topics of personal, social and professional interest
Here are just a few more examples of the many topics the authors explore with their readers:
• How to move from the counter-culture to over the counter.
• The experience of getting high with edibles warnings.
• An overview of effects, including “neuroprotective effects following brain injuries” in the field of sports medicine, i.e., CTE/chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
• Tinctures, topicals, liniments, ointments and sprays.
• CBD, therapeutic, non-psychoactive; they suggest 4:1 THC:CBD for newbies.
• Driving and impairment
• Ceasefire in the ‘war on knowledge’ and the federal chokehold on cannabis research.
With legal rights come social responsibilities
Newbie’s Guide presents a clear emphasis on being a ‘good Ambassador’, knowing and respecting your neighbors, to increase your liklihood of success.
A fascinating example was Harborside’s plan to partner with law enforcement. They hired security along with staff and offered to help police by patrolling the neighborhood for a radius of four blocks in every direction from their dispensary. Residents reported feeling safer. This ultimately led to the City of Oakland filing a lawsuit against the federal Dept of Justice supporting Harborside, noting “the loss to public safety if they lost Harborside.”
There are extensive sections on medical marijuana, terpene pairings, inspections and lab testing, ancillary services, climate control, mutation selection, heritage genetics, propagation, breeding, home vaporizers, cannabis concentrates, water and ice hash, supercritical CO2, solvent extracts, cannabinoid balance.
In the back is a Glossary of Terms, Appendices and Recommended Resources. Order from Whitman.com under Health & Wellness. $19.95. Hardback.
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