Although Canada banned cannabis in 1923, it didn’t really appear on anyone’s radar until the late 1930s. This Daily Colonist editorial, from Victoria, BC, reveals the ‘reefer madness’ that was taking hold. Ottawa has decreed, at long last, that the cultivation of marijuana can only be carried on with a licence from the Department of Health… TheRead more
In July 1938, influential medical journalist and JAMA editor Dr. Morris Fishbein devoted two issues of his syndicated column, The Family Doctor, to cannabis. The articles contain a fascinating mix of insights (“no two human beings are affected in exactly the same way”; “not believed to be habit forming in the same manner that opium andRead more
Ottawa RCMP had their first encounter with “Indian hemp” in 1932 when they seized a “large quantity” of the “deadly drug.” They boasted that they had “nipped in the bud the scheme of a syndicate to peddle the stuff.” Large Quantity Of Indian Hemp Seized by Police R.C.M.P. Detectives Arrest Two Men Charged With PossessionRead more
While Ottawa police are raiding dispensaries, it’s worth noting that the city’s demand for cannabis dates back to the early 1930s… A rare court case at the time revealed that there was a “great demand for weed”, and that “more people were smoking the hemp every day.” One local woman implored her friend to bringRead more
