| Cannabis History |
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| 1.1. Preface This book is not about the enjoyment of smoking or eating cannabis and hash. We can conclude that the home grower knows how to estimate the value of his or her own product, can't we? We'll just leave those stories about the nice feeling for what they are. We spend no time on the effects of cannabis products. Everyone knows what a good 'high' feels like, what you have to do, and what you sometimes have to allow to happen. This first chapter deals with the history of cannabis in the Netherlands. This way, you get a little insight into how the plant has come about in the Netherlands, and what purposes the cultivation of cannabis has served in the last centuries. 1.2. The journey China is known principally for its tea and opium, the great number of its people, and the huge amount of Chinese restaurants, also hemp originates from China. The Chinese were already cultivating cannabis 4500 years BC. They were able to spin yarn for clothing, and make fishing nets and rope with it. The first medicinal applications were described two thousand years later. It was used for rheumatism, gout, malaria, and a number of other disorders. From China, hemp travelled to Arabia, and appeared in the writings of the Greek philosopher Herodote. He describes ritual use of burning hemp by the Syrian Skytes. Hemp grows everywhere. It came to Europe via India and the Roman Empire. In the Middle Ages, hemp's intoxicating effect was described by Boccaccio and Rabelais, among others. Later, it was used by Victor Hugo, Honor頤e Balzac, and Alexandre Dumas in the Latin Quarter in Paris. Scholars do not agree as to whether the Spaniards were the original importers of cannabis to America. It is certainly true that Colombus' ships were outfitted with hemp rope, and sails made from hemp cloth. The plant spread quickly in America, and at the beginning of the seventeenth century, large-scale hemp plantations proceeded in order to supply the needs of the ship - and clothing industries. 1.3. History of Cannabis in the Netherlands. It wasn't any different in the Netherlands. It's not exaggerated to suggest that a considerable portion of the wealth of the Golden Age came from the cultivation of hemp. Some 11,000 ships sailed at that time, rigged with rope and sails made of hemp. Hemp was the leading agricultural product in the Netherlands, the stalk was primarily valued. The stalk, only from the male plant, was processed into hemp fiber. The female plants were used for other purposes. These were harvested later, and then threshed. The seed was used as bird feed, or was processed into oil, green soap, and raw material for paint. For the latter application, a thick pulp remained which served as animal food. After the Golden Age, less and less hemp was cultivated in the Netherlands. Competition arose from cheaper Russian hemp, along with other fibrous materials such as coconut and sisal. The steam engine made its entry, so less rope and sails were needed in the shipping industry. Just as in other countries, the medicinal effects of the plant did not go unnoticed by its growers. Rumours had it that witches used hemp in their witches' salves. The effects of hemp had already been described in "The Herb Book" by Rembert Dodoens in the sixteenth century. Using cannabis products for pleasure really didn't come about in the Netherlands until after the Second World War. After jazz, and later the hippie influences, cannabis smoking blew over from America. In 1962, Simon Vinkenoog a Dutch liberated poet, wrote: 'In ten years, this will be as common as drinking whiskey or beer, or just as normal as an ordinary cigarette. And it doesn't give you lung cancer. In the first decades, people smoked imported hash other than 'Nederweed'. Still, growing at home was so energetically pursued, that, thirty years later, Dutch weed ranks as the best in the world. There has been improvement, cross breeding, and cloning, fighting the currents, at first. Until the mid-Seventies, growing, possessing, and use of soft drugs was still punishable. Not until after the mid-Seventies tolerated points of sale originated - the coffeeshops. And now it seems there's no stopping it. More and more of people use soft drugs, and more and more people try to hold down the costs of soft drug use by going to work for themselves. Sometimes, purely for their own use, sometimes to earn a few cents, sometimes to get rich. This book has been written for the growing group of people who want to apply themselves to home cultivation. Now, this is the place to give a few warnings. In the first place, it may be generally presumed that smoking is not considered the best thing for your health. In the second place, even though the Dutch government has become more open-hearted in its tolerance of the growth, possession, and use of cannabis, the substance still stands on List 2 of the law on narcotics. 2.1. Preface To achieve good results, a home grower must know about plant physiology. Plant physiology is the part of biology which is concerned with the way plants grow and flower. In this chapter, the priciples of plant physiology are discussed. With the growth and flowering of plants, it involves a select combination of light, air, and water. For light, it's about sunlight for outside growing, a combination of sunlight and artificial light for greenhouses, and just artificial light for inside growing. For air, the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) is of principal importance. Water performs various functions. Plants need water (H2O) for the growth process, but also to transport other important materials. 2.2. Cannabis History - Principles of growth Plants change CO2 and H2O into glucose under the influence of light. Glucose is the chemical building block for the structure and sturdiness of the plant. From glucose, the plant makes cellulose, the material which gives plants their fibrous structure. (Glucose is, in fact, stored light energy). The chemical process in which carbon dioxide and water are converted into glucose is called photosynthesis (from the Greek 'photos' = light, and 'synthesis' = to compose). Chlorophyll, which also gives plants their green color, is indispensible for this process. If all the conditions are right, the following chemical reaction occurs: 6CO2 + 12H2O = C6H12O6 (glucose) + 6O2 (oxygen) + 6H2O We can deduce a number of things from this formula. To get one part glucose, we need six parts CO2 and 12 parts H2O. It would seem that less water is necessary. When we look at the chemical formula, six parts water are also produced next to the 6 parts oxygen, and 1 part glucose. However, research has shown that in the chemical process, 12 parts water are needed. The 'excess' water is used in the intermediate steps. The water does not re-appear until the end of the process. CO2 is a gas in the atmosphere. There must always be sufficient carbon dioxide available, otherwise, plant growth will reduce. Everyone knows that plants need water From CO2 and H2O, not only glucose, but also oxygen is made under the influence of light, by the plants with the help of chlorophyll. For plants, Oxygen is a by-product of growth. For people and most animals, it's the primary condition of life. This is a good combination. In fact, in their metabolism, animals do the converse of what plants do. They convert glucose and oxygen into carbon dioxide and water to be able to move, and to allow the heart and lungs to work, etc. CO2, a gas which is exhaled by people, can again be used by plants for photosynthesis. It can be thought of as a cycle. The glucose made by plants is an energy source for the plant. Some processes, such as the intake of water, require energy. Next to that, glucose forms the building material for all kinds of other processes with which the plant lets all its specific properties show. It would go to far beyond the pupose of this book to look into all those chemical processes. For the reader of this book, it's about getting good results growing cannabis at home A plant cannot grow without light, air (which contains CO2), water, and various nutrients. The chemical process in which CO2 and H2O are converted into glucose and oxygen under the influence of light is called photosynthesis. When we look at this process a little closer, it actually involves two different chemical reactions. The first is called photolysis. In photolysis, water is broken down into oxygen (O), and hydrogen (H). Both light and chlorophyll are necessary for photolysis. This is called the light response. The second chemical reaction is called the dark response As the term suggests, no light is necessary for the dark response. With dark response, carbon dioxide is converted into glucose, with the help of the hydrogen produced during the light response. The distinction between the light and dark reaction is of interest to the cannabis home grower in order to gain insight into the manner in which the plants must be illuminated (and sometimes kept in darkness). The plants grow optimally only when a good balance is found between the light and dark reactions. |
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