The Original

There is no lack of interest in purchasing cannabis products, since this became

legal October, 17 here in Canada. But I am concerned that a large number of new 

users might be experimenting with it without contextual information, about the 

cultural significance of pot in the civilizations which first used it, or any real sense 

of the dangers because we associate it with the elderly and the terminally ill, and thus 

with personal - rather than social - use.

Wikipedia is explicit here: hashish, or the resin product of cannabis, was first and 

foremost an edible.  People in Europe only started smoking it with tobacco, hence

after the Spanish had brought tobacco back from the Americas. In its native Morocco, 

using hashish was always a group activity.

There was a phase in 19th century Europe when it has was used medically, but all said 

and done, it was useless. The only positive effect was on mood - psychological well-being 

- and today we recognize that the danger of addiction  lies in the possibility for causing a schizophrenic episode in a lone user. So pot is a social drug.

Indeed in India, where cannabis itself was first inhaled, it was thrown on hot embers

or in a communal steam bath. It was a religious experience, as we understand religion 

to be what binds people together around important life questions and not a solitary

pleasure. It is there that people came to use water pipes to inhale it.

Our oh so individualistic culture has thus decriminalized use, for the individual user. And 

many are debating at what age, and in what spaces smoking should be permitted. 

If you smoke, everyone around you will be affected; it is the nature of the beast. As for 

the giggles, and munchies, they are real. But we are here in a very different situation

from original uses.