Marijuana, The Hemp Flower – Daniel Vidart (English Version)

Marijuana, the hemp flower, is a book with unusual characteristics. Its author conducted research in Uruguay, on the islands of the delta of Río Paraná and in the Chilean coastal mountain range. The resulting work presents traits of originality, generally absent in descriptive or radical studies. It was written to illustrate the legal situation shaped by the Acts that regulates the consumption of marijuana in Uruguay. However, the materials offered transcend this topic by means of a sociological and philosophical treatment of the presence of power in the history of the prohibition of psychotropic substances. The book traces a review of the times of the free consumption of marijuana in its ritual, therapeutic, gastronomic, utilitarian and recreational uses. It also gives an account of the temporary prohibitions suffered by the hemp flower in the past until the 30s of the 20th century, when a powerful industrial and commercial movement aimed at the suppression of hemp under the pretext of combating a substance that generated «murderers and rapists». Then, he analyzes the scientific studies carried out in India, the Panama Canal, Canada, New York, the United States, and France, the conclusions of which invalidate the «evidence» justifying a criminal legislation that, from the U.S.A., was spread to almost the whole world. Finally, he reviews the users’ movements and the figures that are opening up in the legislation as national or federal states open the way to the therapeutic and pleasurable use of cannabis. The book is the work of an anthropologist who shares the qualities of a historian, a humanist and a seasoned writer. His contribution to a topic of our time is accomplished in a persuasive, documented and innovative way.