In what must have reminded the Brits of Billy Bob Thornton's portrayal of the US President in "Love, Actually," Donald Trump made his second state visit to the UK, where he embarrassingly read a speech that praised British authors Shakespeare, Dickens, Tolkien, Lewis, Orwell, and Kipling. "Incredible people," he ad-libbed after reading the list.
At least three of those authors have possible cannabis connections, as do King Charles and Princess Kate.
Clay pipe fragments excavated from Shakespeare's Stratford-upon-Avon home were found in 2001 to contain small amounts of cocaine and myristic acid - a hallucinogenic derived from plants, including nutmeg. In Sonnet #76, he wrote that a "noted weed" inspired his creativity. His father dealt in contraband sheep's wool.
Rudyard Kipling was given "a stiff dose of chlorodyne" to treat a bout of dysentary in 1884 at the age of 18. This mixture of opium, tincture of cannabis, and chloroform "hit him with the force of a revelation. In modern parlance, it 'blew his mind,'" writes a biographer. A character in Kipling's novel Kim, says, "News is not meant to be thrown about like dung-cakes, but used sparingly - like bhang."
George Owell tried "kiff" in Morocco in 1938, with little effect, he wrote in his diary. Presciently, 1984 was the year Nancy Reagan Just Said No (although Kitty Kelly says she may not have).
That same year (1998), then-Prince Charles surprised a Multiple Sclerosis sufferer by suggesting she try medical marijuana. According to Karen Drake, 36, "He said he had heard it was the best thing for relief from MS." In 2000, he visited Trench Town, Jamaica, and donned a red, yellow and green Rastafarian knit hat with false dreadlocks presented to him by Tokin' Woman Rita Marley. In 2005, Charles and Camilla visited the San Francisco area, spending a Saturday morning at the farmers' market in Point Reyes Station in Marin County, followed by lunch in hippie haven Bolinas with local farmers.
Princess Kate Middleton's great great great great grandmother Harriet Martineau, considered the first female sociologist, traveled to the Middle East where she enjoyed the chibouque and witnessed Arab women in a harem blowing smoke from one into the faces of the Jewesses, since they were obliged by their religion not to smoke on the Sabbath. A cross-cultural experience of the type we could use more of today.
My most-read blog post here is a plea to allow the Princess to use cannabis during pregnancy to treat her hyperemesis gravidarum, causing severe morning sickness. Kate has just battled cancer, and one hopes that if she required cannabis to treat nausea during her treatments, she was able to use it. Trump called her "radiant" and gallantly tried to help scoot her chair under the banquet table. But he's no gentleman: their meeting happened on the anniversary of Trump defending the paparazzo who photographed her sunbathing topless. Kirk, on the other hand, did write to his opponent Van Jones suggesting they have a gentlemanly debate just before he was killed.
I hadn't realized until I started this post that in "Love, Actually," the US President inappropriately kisses a young woman on the UK Prime Minister's staff. Today, protesters projected images of Trump with Jeffrey Epstein onto the walls of Windsor castle for the President's visit, which happened a week after the UK's ambassador to the US was fired when it was discovered he contributed to Epstein's birthday book.
No comments:
Post a Comment