"Meme Queen" Susan Blackmore on Cannabis

UPDATE 10/15: Blackmore is included in the new book Tokin' Women: A 4000-Year Herstory.

I just got clued in (by the erudite Alec Dixon of SC Labs) that VIP Susan Blackmore is even cooler than I knew. A well-known psychologist and author of the bestselling book The Meme Machine, Blackmore now has over 600,000 views for her TedTalk on "Memes and Temes."

Dr. Blackmore appeared at the 2005 Cheltenham Science Festival to discuss whether drugs can teach us anything about ourselves. A version of her talk was published in the Daily Telegraph on May 21 of that year. In it, she says:

"Some people may smoke dope just to relax or have fun, but for me the reason goes deeper. In fact, I can honestly say that without cannabis, most of my scientific research would never have been done and most of my books on psychology and evolution would not have been written. . . . Some evenings, after a long day at my desk, I'll slip into the bath, light a candle and a spliff, and let the ideas flow - that lecture I have to give to 500 people next week, that article I'm writing for New Scientist, those tricky last words of a book I've been working on for months. This is the time when the sentences seem to write themselves. Or I might sit out in my greenhouse on a summer evening among my tomatoes and peach trees, struggling with questions about free will or the nature of the universe, and find that a smoke gives me new ways of thinking about them." [Sounds similar to Carl Sagan's experience.]

"In just about every human society there has ever been, people have used dangerous drugs – but most have developed rituals that bring an element of control or safety to the experience," Blackmore continued. "In more primitive societies, it is shamans and healers who control the use of dangerous drugs, choose appropriate settings in which to take them and teach people how to appreciate the visions and insights that they can bring. In our own society, criminals control all drug sales. This means that users have no way of knowing exactly what they are buying and no-one to teach them how to use these dangerous tools. . .

"It's an old metaphor, but people often liken the task to climbing a mountain. The drugs can take you up in a helicopter to see what's there, but you can't stay. In the end, you have to climb the mountain yourself – the hard way. Even so, by giving you that first glimpse, the drugs may provide the inspiration to keep climbing."

Blackmore has recently published Consciousness: A Very Short Introduction and is a patron of the UK Drug Policy Reform organization Transform. See a collection of her writing in support of drug legalization.

Naturally, I had to make a meme for Blackmore.

RIP Tokin Woman Maya Angelou

Artwork: BreezyKiefAir http://kiefair.com/
Photo: G. Paul Bishop

Read about Maya Angelou and marijuana

Russian Hemp Honored in Statues and Stories (Yet, Still Repressed)

I've been informed that in between sheaves of wheat depicted on the Peoples Friendship Fountain in Moscow are sunflowers and cannabis leaves (shown). (Read more in Russian). The fountain was built between 1951 and '54 and features 16 golden women representing Republics of the Soviet Union, as well as the three plants chosen to represent Russia's agricultural bounty.

Nonetheless, when activists chose the fountain as a meeting place for a pro-pot rally in May 2008, they found the site barricaded and one peaceful protestor was beaten by police.

Russian hemp is historically important, according to Jack Herer's The Emperor Wears No Clothes, in which he theorizes that the War of 1812 was fought because Napoleon was trying to blockade the country's hemp crop before it reached Britian's navy.

Russian writer Leon Tolstoy mentions a "high-growing, fragrant hemp-patch" in Anna Karenina (1873), and Ivan Turgenev (1818-1883) writes of hemp fields, seeds and oils in his stories. Hashish makes a surprising appearance in a dinner party conversation in playwright Anton Chekhov's “A Woman's Kingdom” (1895).

Hemp is still being grown in Russia but a Siberian experiment to grow "drug free" hemp has failed. Meanwhile, Canadian hempseed food producer Naturally Splendid has just signed a distribution agreement with Sonray Sales to distribute their products in the US. Sonray also has customers in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Russia and Switzerland.

And yes, in case you're wondering, there's a statute for Ukraine at the fountain. I'm guessing the Ukranians aren't exactly feeling the friendship right now. It's a shame we're always waging wars on people, and plants.

Cole Porter, Bruce Villanch, Elsa Maxwell, Betty Grable and Marijuana

"Come and see my collection of Turkish hookahs."

So states a female character in Cole Porter's play "Du Barry Was a Lady," now on stage in San Francisco in a delightful adaptation starring Bruce Vilanch.

Packed with Porter's witty lyrics and beautiful melodies, the play was first produced on Broadway in 1939 starring Bert Lahr, Ethel Merman, and WWII pin-up girl Betty Grable as the character who uttered the hookah line. Lucille Ball starred with Red Skelton, Gene Kelly and Zero Mostel in the 1943 movie version.

Vilanch—who's written comedy bits for Bette Midler, Whoopi Goldberg, Robin Williams, Billy Crystal, Roseanne Barr and Lily Tomlin, among many others—is something of a modern wit and bon vivant in the tradition of Porter and Coward. "He's given more great lines to celebrities than a Hollywood coke dealer," quipped Nathan Lane in Get Bruce, a 1999 documentary on Vilanch now playing on Netflix.

Graduating from Ohio State with degrees in theatre and journalism during the turbulent 60s, Vilanch was brought out to Hollywood by studio executives looking to shape the new direction of film during the Easy Rider daze. "Everyone was wearing beads and paisley shirts," Vilanch recalls in the documentary, adding, "We were all sitting in a room together smoking dope and talking about the movies and I thought, 'This is a business I really want to be in.'"

Cole Porter and Elsa Maxwell

Likewise, Porter and his set were no strangers to various delights. Starting in 1923, Cole and his wife Linda rented palazzos in Venice, including the Palazzo Rezzonico once inhabited by Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. 

Joining them there was the famed hostess Elsa Maxwell, who invented the scavenger hunt and other enticements that brought the rich and famous together. With Maxwell spreading the word, prominent figures like Tallulah Bankhead, Noel Coward and Fanny Brice came to Venice's Lido shoreline to enjoy its daytime amenities and nightly parties.

"Hard drinking was commonplace at these festivities, as was the use of drugs of all kinds, including opium, cocaine, and hashish," wrote Porter's biographer Charles Schwartz, who added, "A greater sensualist than most of his friends...Cole never hesitated trying drugs or practically anything else for kicks while socializing." Indeed, Porter's song, "I Get a Kick Out of You" has the lyric "I get no kick from cocaine" (sometimes sung as "champagne").

The Palazzo Rezzonico in Venice

The party was over in 1927 when police raided the Palazzo and found several local young men, including the son of the police chief, parading about in Linda Porter's dresses. Later, the principality of Monaco employed Maxwell's services to put it on the map as a tourist destination as she had done for the Lido. "Her imprimatur of social acceptability carried so much weight that the Waldorf Astoria gave her a suite rent-free when it opened in New York in 1931 at the height of the depression, hoping to attract rich clients because of her." (Schwartz)

While living in Los Angeles in 1944, Porter dated Bob Bray, a Marine from Montana who was friendly with Porter's longtime amour, choreographer Nelson Barclift. Porter's biographer William McBrien wrote that Bray and Barclift "were always high on marijuana" and that both came often to Porter's Brentwood home for lunch. According to McBrien, Porter's song "You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To" was written for Barclift.

In 1956, Porter contributed music and lyrics to "High Society," the musical version of "The Philadelphia Story" that opened with VIP Louis Armstrong and starred his pot-smoking buddy Bing Crosby.

Betty Grable in Three for the Show (1955)

As for Grable, her last musical was Three for the Show (1955) about a woman who must choose between two husbands, played by Jack Lemmon and Gower Champion. It featured a production number starting with Grable dressed in an Arabic costume smoking a hookah and dreaming of having a harem of husbands.  

For Nymph Errant, a 1933 musical about a young English lady intent upon losing her virginity that received its US premiere in 1982, Porter penned "Experiment," sung by Man We Love Kevin Kline as Porter in De-Lovely:

Before you leave these portals 

To meet less fortunate mortals 

There's just one final message 

I would give to you 

You all have learned reliance 

On the sacred teachings of science 

So I hope, through life you never will decline 

In spite of philistine Defiance 

To do what all good scientists do 

Experiment 

Make it your motto day and night 

Experiment 

And it will lead you to the light 

The apple on the top of the tree 

Is never too high to achieve 

So take an example from Eve 

Experiment 

Be curious 

Though interfering friends may frown, 

Get furious 

At each attempt to hold you down 

If this advice you'll only employ 

The future can offer you infinite joy 

And merriment 

Experiment 

And you'll see

Seshat – Goddess of Knowledge and Cannabis

UPDATE 10/15: Seshat is included in the new book Tokin' Women: A 4000-Year Herstory.

Seshat (also spelled Safkhet, Sesat, Seshet, Sesheta, and Seshata) was the ancient Egyptian goddess of mathematics, creative thought, knowledge, books and writing (her name means "she who is the scribe"). Sister to Bast and daughter/sister/wife to Thoth or the moon god Djehuti, the Egyptians believed that she invented writing, while Thoth or Djehuti taught writing to mankind.

Often depicted in coronation ceremonies wearing a leopard-skin garment, Seshat's emblem is a seven-pointed hemp leaf in her headdress. Pharaoh Tuthmosis III (1479-1425 BCE) called her Sefket-Abwy (She of Seven Points). See more pictoral evidence.

In this relief (below), she wore her Seven Pointed Leaf to perform the equivalent of laying the cornerstone of the Great Pyramids – "stretching the cord" to mark the direction of true north, calculated by the stars, with a rope made from hemp. It is perhaps hemp's psychoactive effect that is acknowledged in the saying that, "Seshat opens the door of heaven for you."

Ancient Egypt is considered to be an advanced civilization in medicine and many other realms. As far back as 2350 BCE, the stone tablets known as the Pyramid Texts used the hieroglyphic symbol smsm.t—or “shemshemet”—referencing “a plant from which ropes are made,” thought by Archeologist W.R. Dawson to be hemp. The Ebery Papyrus from 1550 BCE, and likely copied from earlier manuscripts, mentions introducing shemshemet ground in honey into the uterus, possibly as an obstetric aid. "It has parallels to therapeutic applications of cannabis as a vaginal suppository in the 19th century to treat gynecological disorders and migraine," writes Ethan Russo in a 2007 paper. 

Seshat and the Pharaoh "Stretch the Cord"

Seshat was associated with Isis in the Late period, and was scribe to Hatshepsut, the female Pharoh of the 18th dynasty (c. 1479-1458 BCE). The Greeks demoted the Goddess to a muse, and in Phaedrus, Plato gives over to Thoth the invention of arithmetic and letters.

Seshat's name has been given to the Global History Databank at the Evolution Institute and Sesheta.net is the name of the African Women's Autobiography project.

Dolores Fonzi Speaks Out; Paula Nelson Gets Arrested

Argentinian actress Dolores Fonzi, the wife of prominent Mexican actor Gael García Bernal and mother of two young children, has appeared on the cover of the Spanish-language cannabis enthusiast magazine THC (pictured) and told El Mundo that she has smoked marijuana for 20 years.

The thirty-five year old actress said that smoking pot opened her up, and now relaxes her, like a glass of wine. After doing her daily chores with her children: taking them to the garden, feeding them, bathing them, "I have a smoke, and it's how I take a break from everyday obligations. I use it to read, watch a movie or sleep."

Fonzi, who lives in Mexico, said she does not hide her marijuana smoking from her children, and if they ask her about it, she will be honest about her experience with it. "Neither stimulate nor suppress," she said. "They will make their own way."

Bernal played Che Guevera in The Motorcycle Diaries (2004) and has come out in favor of marijuana legalization. UPDATE 1/16: He just won a Golden Globe for portraying NY Symphony conductor Rodrigo, who "publicly endorses hallucinogens" and scores pot in the park in the Amazon Prime Series "Mozart in the Jungle," based on the book "Mozart in the Jungle: Sex, Drugs and Classical Music" by Tokin' Woman Blair Tindall. Two female members of the orchestra bond over a pipe in the series, where the drummer (natch) is the peddler.

Here in the US, Willie Nelson's daughter Paula was arrested for pot possession on 4/20 after her tour bus was pulled over for speeding and she reportedly consented to a search. According to KVUE.TV, The Paula Nelson Band had just spent two weeks performing in Colorado and was headed back home through Texas when the incident happened.

"We were driving back from Colorado, where of course it's now recreationally legal, and because of my lineage I get a lot of gifts while we're there," said Nelson. Those gifts were in the van when she was pulled over for speeding in Menard, which is two hours west of Austin. The officer found less than two ounces of weed and some edible treats containing pot.

When accused of staging the bust as a publicity stunt, Nelson replied that if so she would have had her hair done for her mug shot (which is just what I was thinking). Nelson's CD sales have reportedly doubled since the news broke. Under Texas law, she faces up to 180 days in jail and a two thousand dollar fine.

Expressing surprise at the amount of hate speech aimed at the police that was posted on her Facebook page in response to the news of her bust, Nelson told KVUE, "It wasn't their fault. They were doing their jobs and they were upholding a law that shouldn't be a law."

Barbara Ehrenreich: Living with a Wild God and a Rational Mind

UPDATE 9/22: Ehrenreich has died at the age of 81, just after California's Legislature voted to ban workplace discrimination based on urine testing.

Author and NORML board member Barbara Ehrenreich has come out with another brilliant, stunning book, this one titled Living with a Wild God. The famous scientist, atheist and feminist has, at the age of 72, come clean about some mystical experiences she had in her adolescence, following a rigorous study of religion and philosophy.

Finding her way to Buddhism and reading the Upanishads, Ehrenreich grasped the concept of "the truly blessed is he who understands the spirit of the words: 'I am not even sure that I know nothing'...there was no 'I' to stalk the 'not I' with, only infinite substance, the Brahman, from whom we were temporarily separated by the thinnest veil of illusion." Soon the veil dropped in a series of spontaneous events first described in a chapter titled, "The Trees Step Out of the Forest."

"The world flamed into life...Something poured into me and I poured out into it,"she wrote. "Something peeled off the visible world, taking with it all meaning, inference, association, labels, and words. I was looking at a tree, and if anyone had asked, that is what I would have said I was doing, but the word 'tree' was gone, along with all the notions of tree-ness that had accumulated in the last dozen years since I had acquired language....

"The interesting thing, some might say alarming, was that when you take away all human attributions—the words, the names of species, the wisps of remembered tree-related poetry, the fables of photosynthesis and capillary action—that when you take all this away, there is still something left." 

Ehrenreich wrote about ecstatic rites in her fascinating book Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy, but this is the first time she's written about her personal experiences with ecstasy. She did a terrific interview with Terry Gross of Fresh Air, and when asked by the New York Times magazine "Imagine a 14-year-old you living in the present day having visions like that. What do you think would happen to her?" her reply was "Oh, I think she’d be given a lot of drugs today." 

 

For her book Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, Ehrenreich took a series of minimum-wage jobs, and wrote about the experience of facing pre-employment drug testing knowing that she had marijuana in her system. “It rankles—at some deep personal, physical level to know that the many engaging qualities I believe I have to offer—friendliness, reliability, willingness to learn—can all be trumped by my pee.” In 2000, Ehrenreich spoke at a forum on drug testing in San Francisco.

She went deeper into the economic injustice of the situation, writing, “There seems to be a vicious cycle at work here, making ours not just an economy but a culture of extreme inequality. Corporate decision makers, and even some two-bit entrepreneurs like my boss at The Maids, occupy an economic position miles above that of the underpaid people whose labor they depend on. For reasons that have more to do with class — and often racial — prejudice than with actual experience, they tend to fear and distrust the category of people from which they recruit their workers. Hence the perceived need for repressive management and intrusive measures like drug and personality testing. But these things cost money — $20,000 or more a year for a manager, $100 a pop for a drug test, and so on — and the high cost of repression results in ever more pressure to hold wages down. 

"The larger society seems to be caught up in a similar cycle: cutting public services for the poor, which are sometimes referred to collectively as the 'social wage,' while investing ever more heavily in prisons and cops. And in the larger society, too, the cost of repression becomes another factor weighing against the expansion or restoration of needed services. It is a tragic cycle, condemning us to ever deeper inequality, and in the long run, almost no one benefits but the agents of repression themselves.” Boom.