Cannabis Time Capsule, 1901: "Ganjah" upsetting banana and sugar plantations

This week's medical marijuana dispensary review took us to Trenchtown, named for the famed Jamaican ghetto where Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and many other amazing musician to ever come from that country were born and raised. Most of us have the ganja-toking image of Jamaica thanks to them, actually. But...

By William Breathes

December 20, 2013

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This week's medical marijuana dispensary review took us to Trenchtown, named for the famed Jamaican ghetto where Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and many other amazing musician to ever come from that country were born and raised. Most of us have the ganja-toking image of Jamaica thanks to them, actually.

But that doesn't mean Jamaica wasn't known for it's "ganjah" use well before then. As the 1901 article out of Ouray, Colorado below shows, its use was already highly popular among the East Indian imported labor.

Typical for the time, the article, from the long-defunct Plaindealer, hypes a much-exaggerated account of getting stoned, though it does touch on some interesting historical points. Notably, it blames the Indian Rebellion of 1847 primarily on cannabis making the Sepoy Indians crazy. Really.

The war is usually described today as India's First War of Independence, as the reality was citizens there were sick of being under British rule.

More from our Colorado Cannabis Time Capsule archive: "1892: Curing corns with cannabis" and "1877: Amateur Philly pharmacist gives away "hasheesh" treatments."

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