{"id":34966,"date":"2019-07-05T06:00:25","date_gmt":"2019-07-05T11:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs2.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/?p=34966"},"modified":"2019-06-14T14:50:27","modified_gmt":"2019-06-14T19:50:27","slug":"cannabis-the-illegalization-of-weed-in-america-by-box-brown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/cannabis-the-illegalization-of-weed-in-america-by-box-brown\/","title":{"rendered":"Cannabis : The Illegalization of Weed in America by Box Brown"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I recently saw a local news story in which Illinois state senator Toi Hutchinson said that the legalization of cannabis in her state came as a result of the differing sides “hashing it out” to come to agreement. I don’t know whether or not the pun was intended, but as a librarian interested in languages, I appreciated it.<\/p>\n

Soon after, I spotted the graphic novel Cannabis: The Illegalization of Weed in America <\/strong><\/em><\/a>on display at the library and figured\u00a0it would be a good way to better educate myself on the topic\u00a0right at\u00a0our doorstep. I was not disappointed. This graphic novel has four pages of sources cited at the end! It is equal parts interesting and informative.<\/p>\n

It starts with what is known about early humans’ use of cannabis sativa from biology and mythology. It outlines how the plant has been cultivated for its various uses across the world (think: textiles &\u00a0oils too).\u00a0It traces the etymology of the many different words we use for it: hash, Mary Jane, reefer, weed, to name just a few. I learned that the word marijuana is believed to be\u00a0derived from slang usage in Mexico near Catholic missionaries, where the priests condemned its use. Locals would tell the priest they were just spending time with Maria Juana!<\/p>\n

The graphic novel delves into the “Reefer Madness” era during which\u00a0commissioner of the U.S. Treasury Department’s Federal Bureau of Narcotics Harry Anslinger worked to criminalize its use by making false, racist claims about its use and users. It discusses how cannabis has been regulated through legislation and\u00a0how its\u00a0reputation has been manipulated.\u00a0The graphic novel\u00a0concludes with present-day uses and a bibliography listing sixty sources readers can seek out for further learning on the subject.<\/p>\n

I highly recommend this book and I look forward to reading Box Brown’s other titles, including Is This Guy for Real? The Unbelievable Andy Kaufman<\/a><\/strong><\/em> and Tetris: The Games People Play<\/a><\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

You can also learn more on this topic\u00a0from\u00a0Illinois Policy<\/a>, an\u00a0independent organization that seeks to educate and engage Illinois citizens.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I recently saw a local news story in which Illinois state senator Toi Hutchinson said that the legalization of cannabis in her state came as a result of the differing sides “hashing it out” to come to agreement. I don’t know whether or not the pun was intended, but as[Read more]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,13,1],"tags":[4998,5008,4997,5006,69,5007,5001,4995,5003,5002,986,3528,5000,5009,2310,5004,4999,4996,5005],"class_list":["post-34966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-news-you-can-use","category-reference","tag-biology","tag-box-brown","tag-cannabis-legalization","tag-federal-bureau-of-narcotics","tag-graphic-novels","tag-harry-anslinger","tag-hash","tag-illinois","tag-marijuana","tag-mary-jane","tag-mexico","tag-mythology","tag-oils","tag-public-policy","tag-racism","tag-reefer","tag-textiles","tag-toi-hutchinson","tag-weed"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd0CXx-95Y","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34966"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34966\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34993,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34966\/revisions\/34993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}