14
THE SCIENCE OF MARIJUANA
vent of cotton goods, synthetic fibers, forestry-derived paper, and alternative food grains. Nevertheless, the cultivation of hemp as a fiber crop still continues on a small scale in Europe with the sanction of the European Union; farms in Hampshire in southern England, a traditional center for hemp farming, continue to grow the crop. At the present time, some lobby groups are seeking with almost evangelical fervor to increase the cultivation of hemp on environmental grounds as a valuable biomass crop from which fuels can be derived, or from which building materials and other industrial products can be derived (Robinson, 1996; Herer, 1993, and web sites: The Cannabis Shipping Company, www.cannabis/ shipping.co.uk; Institute for Hemp, www.hemp.org/hemp.html; Hemp Union (UK) Ltd, www.karoo.net/hemp-union/main.htm).
Consumption of Cannabis Preparations for Their Psychoactive Effects Cannabis products have been consumed for thousands of years in different human cultures. It is not surprising that this has taken many different forms, some of the more common are described here. Smoking Smoking is one of the most efficient ways of ingesting cannabis and rapidly experiencing its effects on the brain (see Chapter 3). The favorite of many people in the West is the marijuana cigarette. This consists of a variable quantity of dried marijuana leaf (from which stems and seeds have first carefully been removed), rolled inside a rice paper cylinder either by hand or using a rolling machine. A typical marijuana cigarette would contain between a half to one gram of leaf with or without added tobacco — which assists the otherwise often erratic burning of the marijuana. A modem version consists of a cigar from which the tobacco filling has been removed and replaced with herbal marijuana. Many different slang words describe herbal marijuana, e.g., "Aunt Mary," "Dope," "Grass," "Joint," "Mary Jane," "Reefer," "Spliff," and "Weed." When a