Well, here's a little history lesson on the stuff for you, courtesy of local pot activist Mark Pedersen and plant geneticist Dr. Dave West.
The pair were traveling through eastern Nebraska earlier this year on a trip sponsored by the medical marijuana advocacy group Patients Out of Time when they stumbled upon a massive patch of feral hemp (a.k.a. ditch weed).
Though lengthy, the ensuing lecture is both educational ("It's very important to wild bird population. Hemp is premier bird seed. The birds love it.") and hilarious (""It's incredibly fragrant" "This one is purple!")
Watch, learn, and laugh.
From the 2009 Best Of St. Louis issue:
Best Pothead
Mark Pedersen
While you're sitting on the couch stoned, munching Cheez Doodles and watching Harold and Kumar, Mark Pedersen is traveling the nation, seeking out the life stories of people who smoke chronic to treat their chronic illnesses. The St. Louisan is the founder of the Cannabis Patient Network, a website that broadcasts interviews with users of medical marijuana and offers painfully sobering accounts of pot's efficacy as a clinical drug. Pedersen himself tokes to deal with fibromyalgia, a disease that causes nasty symptoms such as migraines and muscle aches. He's also active in marijuana-law reform efforts locally -- he helped NORML organize its rally downtown this past May -- and nationally, as a correspondent for the group Patients Out of Time. For his efforts he was named a "Freedom Fighter of the Month" by High Times magazine earlier this year. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
