Cannabis

(Hardback)

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Description

Cannabis, one of humanity's first domesticated plants, has been utilizedfor spiritual, therapeutic, recreational and even punitive reasons for thousandsof years. Humans have excellent practical knowledge of the uses of cannabis,yet limited understanding of its sociocultural consequences, past or present,due to its widespread prohibition.In Cannabis Chris Duvall explores the cultural history and geography ofhumanity's most widely distributed crop, which supplies both hemp andmarijuana. This book focuses on the plant's currently most valuable product,the psychoactive drug marijuana, and at the same time provides a globalview of the plant, with coverage of little-studied regions including Africaand Australia.

Reviews

A helpful and insightful analysis about the plant . . . Duvall makes the case that Cannabis is a powerful plant and one that needs to be better understood. He clarifies the confusion over its various names and roles while lending needed ballast to the current conversation. The book brings light to what Duvall calls the shades of meaning in the human-Cannabis relationship which has unfolded through vast sweeps of space and time. * Publishers Weekly *
A useful and delightful addition to the worlds library on cannabis. Given that cannabis legalization has emerged as a civil rights issue in our time, I highly recommend it to anyone concerned about the social and political debates concerning this drug today. * AAG Review of Books *
Clearly written, comprehensive, and rigorously researched, Chris Duvalls Cannabis is a superb, easily digestable crash course on the history of the remarkably diverse humanCannabis relationship. As one of the few true scholarly histories of the cannabis plant produced in the last decade, Cannabis clarifies or refutes many of the widely accepted claims about the plants origins, dispersal, and history found in a wealth of semi-scholarly works . . . brief and highly readable . . . Duvalls book moves at a brisk and steady pace, riddled with vibrant illustrations and peppered with historical anecdotes integrated so seamlessly that they bely what was surely an excruciating research process . . . Cannabis is perhaps the most important scholarly work on the plant to date. * Hempirical Evidence *

Author Bio

Chris Duvall is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography, University of New Mexico.