Mark Haskell Smith: Marijuana, society’s forbidden fruit

[Jimmy]

In the following book excerpt, Mark Haskell Smith discovers the history of our relationship with the cannabis plant:

Franco walked into the coffeeshop dressed head to toe in yellow and black motorcycle racing leathers. He had asked me to meet him for lunch at the Green House United Coffeeshop on Haarlemmerstraat. It’s one of several coffeeshops owned by Green House and Green House Seeds, where Franco is a partner. I had been sitting under a vibrant gold-colored mural depicting what looked like the ancient Phoenician or Minoan alphabet and watching the ornamental carp swim back and forth in the massive fish tank installed under the glass floor.

It was early still, in between breakfast and lunch, and the only other customers in the coffeeshop were a young British man who was eating hard-boiled eggs with toast in between hits on a massive joint and a well-dressed man in his late forties who sat drinking coffee, working on his laptop, and inhaling from a vapourizer bag. Except for the cannabis being consumed, it could have been any cool café in any city in the world.

I wanted to talk to Franco about Super Lemon Haze. It was the reigning Cannabis Cup champion, having won two years in a row, and one of the most popular strains in the world. I had tried some at the previous year’s Cannabis Cup and I liked it a lot. It has a mild citrus flavour and a clear sativa high. It’s easy to see why it’s such crowd pleaser. I was curious how they developed it.

“Well, it’s a very old-school classic taste with a new twist. The father is based on Super Silver Haze and the mother is Lemon Skunk.â€

Franco leaned forward. He wanted to make sure I heard this right. “Lemon Skunk is a very special plant. Combining the two has been a natural success story. And actually the breeding was very easy. We just made an F1 hybrid from the parents, planted a bunch of them and made a selection. Select, select, select. That’s the key to finding something amazing. It was amazing to me that you can take out a champion from just an F1 hybrid.â€

“F1 hybrid†is a term used in genetics that stands for the first generation of offspring from two distinct species. While it’s not unusual to have a good F1 hybrid if both the parents have good genetics, it is rare to have a world-class F1 hybrid just pop up.

“What gave you the idea of combining the two plants in the first place?â€

Franco began rolling me a pure spliff of Special Sweet Skunk while he talked.

“Creating strains is something that requires three things: Landraces to start with, logistics — very big logistics are required — and it requires good knowledge of the customer base … what people want.â€

“Like any other business.â€

Spliff rolled, he licked the paper and sealed it, then continued.

“Green House the company is in a very special position in this respect. We are one of the very few seed companies that have access to a large customer base through our coffeeshops. We have thousands of people coming over every day from literally all over the world. It’s very easy for us to get feedback and to see what people smoke here, what they like, and why they like it.â€

“So you, what? You run coffeeshop focus groups?â€

Franco nodded. He handed me the joint. The smoke tasted as good as the bud smelled. Absolutely delicious.

I looked at Franco as I exhaled. “What does ‘dank’ mean to you?â€

He took a sip of an espresso and considered it. “Dank is a very American concept so to be defined by a European is already a tough job.â€

“Isn’t there some European version?â€

He thought about this for a moment. “The European version of dank? I guess it would be ‘the underground.’ â€

I wasn’t sure I followed, but Franco started getting into it, talking rapidly with lots of Italian hand gestures. “Listen, dank is a way of life, it’s a way of living, being connected with the plant — a

plant that has been disconnected from the people for a long time because of its illegality, because of its status. A lot of people want to reconnect with this plant because they feel the plant has been taken away from them. And so people unite in one feeling, one community. Some of them do it recreationally; some need it for medicinal reasons. Some for religious purposes because they feel they can talk to God with the plant. There are many different reasons, but the bottom line is that humans have been in relations with this plant for thousands and thousands of years and you cannot just break the relationship by declaring the plant illegal. It doesn’t work like that.â€

So “dank†means you’re a member of a community? “I thought ‘dank’ had more to do with the quality of the plant,†I said.

Franco took a hit off the tobacco and Special Sweet Skunk joint and wagged a finger at me as he exhaled. “ ‘Dank’ goes beyond nature. This plant is proven to unite civilizations. It’s one of the few common natural elements of mankind. It’s a common link throughout history, throughout geography. You can connect humanity with this plant. Asia, Africa, down to the Americas. Everyone has been using this plant for one reason or another throughout our history. Name another plant like that.â€

I wanted to say wheat or rice, but then I wasn’t sure. It’s true that evidence of cannabis and hemp use goes as far back as recorded history, and it’s been used in almost every culture for rope, fabric, medicine, and spiritual practice.

“This plant has been taken away and now people want it back. So being dank, living dank, this is a way that allows you to get back to the plant.â€

Franco stopped and burst out laughing. “Or maybe it allows the plant to get back to you.â€

“Living dank? What does that mean?â€

“In Europe we have a big underground movement that is very dank, for sure, people who have very little in common apart from this plant. It goes through all of Europe, it’s rich people, poor people, cultivated people, sporty people, couch lock people. That’s the funny thing about it. It’s a very powerful connector.â€

“Like a true underground.â€

Franco nodded. “Because the plant has been illegal for so long, everyone who has ever tried it knows or has had the feeling of doing something wrong. But when they try it, they don’t

feel it’s so wrong. It’s natural. It’s a plant. What can be so bad using a plant? This discrepancy you get from knowing you’re illegal but feeling good about what you’re doing, that you’re not

doing anything wrong — this feeling creates a bond between people.â€

I think I know what Franco’s talking about. That bond is the glue that holds the counterculture together. It’s easy to take Franco’s description and stretch it into the realm of lifestyle and politics. The discrepancy between what a government decrees as bad and what a person understands on a deep, intuitive level as good, is not restricted to our current marijuana laws. Modern society oozes with this kind of hypocrisy; it’s reflected in the way we talk about sex, the way we educate our children at school, how our politics are disconnected from the populace, and the list goes on. There is a growing gap between those with the ability to think critically and follow what their intuition tells them is the right thing to do and those people whose morality has been perverted by greed and short-term corporate gain.

Franco knocked back his espresso and stood.

“Time to go back to work.â€

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/04/19/mark-haskell-smith-marijuana-societys-forbidden-fruit/

[Dust]

very cool man, thanks for sharing that, is the book any good?

[Romeu9]

Realy good interview!

Loved the honesty of Franco about how the SLH was made!

Cheers Jimmy and Franco!

Take care