Jake Dimmock, co-owner of the Northwest Patient Resource Center medical marijuana dispensary, works with flowering plants in a grow room in Seattle last November. (THE ASSOCIATED PRESS)
In colonial America, marijuana, or hemp, was a favored cash crop extensively promoted and cultivated by two other “rock star” presidents, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Washington urged: “Make the most you can of (marijuana) and sow it everywhere,” while Jefferson considered the plant to be “of first necessity to the wealth and protection of the country.” In truth, these Founding Fathers were more concerned with the value of hemp in production of such important products as cloth and rope than as an intoxicant, but the medicinal and recreational use of cannabis is also well documented throughout history....
