Tennessee Cannabiz

Middle East & Africa Cannabis History Tennessee Cannabiz History Series : Part 3 Part 3: Middle East & Africa — Cannabis, Incense, and Trade Routes Hashish, Healing, and the Caravan Connection --- 🌍 Cannabis on the Caravan Routes By the first millennium CE, cannabis had traveled from India into the Middle East and North Africa. Merchants, pilgrims, and soldiers carried seeds, resin, and oils along caravan routes that crisscrossed deserts and mountains. In cities like Baghdad, Cairo, and Marrakech, cannabis was integrated into daily life — as medicine, ritual incense, and trade commodity. Hemp fibers supplied rope, sails, and clothing. Charas and hashish became products of both craft and commerce. “A wise general uses resources along the route before the battle begins.” — Sun Tzu (applied to cannabis trade networks) --- 💊 Medicine, Ritual, and Cultural Use Islamic physicians, like those in Baghdad’s House of Wisdom (8th–13th century), wrote about cannabis for: Pain relief ...

Hemp Cleans Up Chernobyl From Chernobyl to Cleanup: Hemp & Radiation Part of the Dirty Work: Hemp Cleans the Earth series When the Chernobyl nuclear reactor melted down in 1986, it left a scar across Europe that’s still visible today. Entire towns were abandoned, and radioactive isotopes sank deep into the soil and water. For decades, cleanup seemed impossible. But in the 1990s, scientists turned to an unexpected ally: hemp . Hemp in the Exclusion Zone Hemp was one of the first plants tested in the contaminated soil around Chernobyl. Why? Because hemp is a hyperaccumulator — it absorbs and stores heavy metals and toxins, including radioactive elements like cesium and strontium, in its stalks and leaves. Instead of trying to scrape away or chemically bind the radiation, hemp could simply grow, absorb, and be harvested. A Living Filter Each crop cycle, hemp draws contaminants upward, leaving the soil cleaner over time. While it doesn’t make th...

From Medicine to Monster: Episode 3 – The War on Drugs & Nixon’s Legacy Nixon's War on Drugs - "Just Say No" By the late 1960s, marijuana had left the jazz clubs and medicinal cabinets and entered the streets, colleges, and counterculture movements. And that got the attention of President Richard Nixon, who had bigger plans than just running the country—he wanted a public enemy, and marijuana fit the bill. In 1970, Nixon signed the Controlled Substances Act, placing cannabis in Schedule I alongside heroin and LSD. Schedule I meant: no accepted medical use, high potential for abuse, total federal ban. The irony? Nixon’s own Shafer Commission (1972) had recommended decriminalizing marijuana for personal use—but he ignored it. Politics > science. Nixon didn’t hide the motivation. One of his aides, John Ehrlichman, later admitted that the “War on Drugs” targeted antiwar activists and Black communities, not public health. Marijuana became a weapon for social control, a ...