8 votes

Chinese dreams on Native American land: A tale of cannabis boom and bust

2 comments

  1. ImmobileVoyager
    (edited )
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    For the record : there exists a plant species known in plain English as hemp and in the phylogenetic nomenclature by the binomial designation cannabis sativa. In Latin, cannabis means hemp, and...

    Like marijuana, hemp comes from the cannabis plant, but it contains almost no THC

    For the record : there exists a plant species known in plain English as hemp and in the phylogenetic nomenclature by the binomial designation cannabis sativa. In Latin, cannabis means hemp, and sativa means cultivated, like in pisus sativus (pea) or avena sativa (oat). Like all cultivated plants, hemp comes in varieties, properly known as cultivars, in which desired traits are enhenced by selective breeding. In some of those cultivars, the desirable trait is the psychoactive properties, while in others it's the fibrous qualities.

    The psychoactive varieties, and derived consumer products such as dried flowers or cured resin, are known by a host of argotic names such as marijuana, pot etc. With its becoming entangled in a web of technicalities in the laws of the more or less united States of northern America, and therefore much discussed by semi-educated copywriters, a confusing habit has formed to use the Latin word cannabis alone to designate whatever is more or less linked to Δ⁹-tetrahydrocannabinol.

    It's a bit like if we insisted on saying hordeum for the beverage obtained by the fermentation of grains (mostly known as beer).

    I cited the line above because it still flabbergasts me that copywriters be allowed to dissert at length on complex agricultural topics while ignoring sixth-grade basic plant biology.

    And of course, before Nylon™ was marketed in 1936, hemp was an all-important industrial crop, without which no ship could sail.

    3 votes
  2. DMBuce
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    The article is a bit meandering, in a good way. I thought it was an interesting look at, among other things, some of the challenges that Chinese immigrants can face in the U.S.

    The article is a bit meandering, in a good way. I thought it was an interesting look at, among other things, some of the challenges that Chinese immigrants can face in the U.S.

    2 votes