Some of my finest hours have been spent on my back veranda, smoking hemp... (Quotation)
Quotation: "Some of my finest hours have been spent on my back veranda, smoking hemp and observing as far as my eye can see."
Variations: None known.
Sources consulted: (searching on "hemp" and "smoking")
- Papers of Thomas Jefferson Digital Edition
- Thomas Jefferson Retirement Papers
- Ford Edition
- Lipscomb-Bergh Edition (via Google Books)
Status: This statement has not been found in any of the writings of Thomas Jefferson. It appears to be of extremely recent vintage, and does not appear in any secondary print sources available online. Thomas Jefferson did grow hemp, but there is no evidence to suggest that Jefferson was a habitual smoker of hemp, tobacco, or any other substance. Some have pointed to a supposed reference in Jefferson's Farm Book to separating male and female hemp plants as evidence that he was cultivating it for purposes of recreational smoking; no such reference exists in Jefferson's Farm Book or any other document, although George Washington did record such a thing in his own diary: "Began to seperate the Male from the Female hemp at Do.&—rather too late."[1] The editorial note accompanying this comment cites Bernard McMahon's American Gardener's Calendar: "This may arise from their [the male] being coarser, and the stalks larger"[2]
Footnotes
- ↑ Donald Jackson, ed., Diaries of George Washington, (Charlottesville, Va.: University Press of Virginia, 1976-1979), 1:340.
- ↑ McMahon, 457.
Further Sources
- Jefferson, Thomas. Farm Book [manuscript]. Available online from the Massachusetts Historical Society.
Discussion
This is reply to Anna; you are very welcome. I notice this quote has received some media attention lately. It is easiest to debunk a spurious quote when its origin is known. I trace oral traditions and Revolutionary War stories in an attempt to elucidate their origins, and thus determine their validity. Along these lines, some of Parson Weems' Washington stories originated in oral traditions repeated in an Alexandria tavern. I posted a detailed history of a spurious Benjamin Rush quote in the Yahoo Group "Revlist," a spurious quote which originated during the debate over the Owen Bill to establish a Dept. of Public Health and revitalized during the Obamacare debates. (William Myers, independant historian).
I don't think it was even well-known as a smokable plant at the time, at least in America. Real hemp would have been quite harsh to smoke, and would have had a very weak high. I thought this quote was bunk and I'm happy to learn that it, in fact, is.
I believe the origin of this quote was a 2007 "stoner" movie entitled "Totally Baked." There is a black screen with the quote and a voiceover 7 minutes into the movie. The quote was facetious and obviously not authentic, but evidently a few people may not have made this distinction. It is reminiscent of the fictional Jefferson execution told in the movie Swordfish.
Thanks for the lead! I always like to know how these get started. I originally saw that someone had posted this quote on Facebook, and decided to take the step of compiling a "debunk" page because there seemed to be some folks who thought it was authentic.
wrong!
TJ'sDisciple and sandyT and jclass74
You would do well to hear recounts of kids smoking hemp rope during the 1950's in the US.
Perhaps the THC count is low, but if you smoke enough hemp, you'll get the benefits of it.
Lastly, in Amsterdam, I doubt that civic minded squares will be able to overcome the money influence of the drug-tourist economy. Consider the number of jobs that would be lost. Money always wins.
Consider the lethality of tobacco and alcohol. Will they soon be outlawed in the US? No.
The tobacco and alcohol companies own half the companies that produce food for your local grocery store. Good, bad, evil, ... money always wins.
Will marijuana laws in the US be reversed? See the above paragraph.
Alcohol and tobacco will kill you, but nobody in 10,000 years of history, has ever died from the cellular effects of marijuana. That's an incontrovertible fact that even tobacco-funded marijuana research propaganda cannot counter.
Cut military spending, and legalize marijuana, in my dreams.
Industrial hemp is but one strain, and like all other plants Jefferson aquired, he had numerous strains of cannabis growing at Monticello. The word "hemp" was used synonymously for what we call cannabis or marijuana today. Jefferson has written records of storing cannabis in his basement with his other foods and vegetables for preservation. To think that this man, genius that he was, understood all of the properties of the cannabis plant, except its medicinal and recreational properties, is a reflection of a by-now ingrained "reefer madness" mindset, which will dissipate with time and further generations.
Absolutely no member of the vegetable kingdom has ever been more misunderstood than hemp. It is always associated to marijuana. The truth is the THC levels in industrial hemp are so low that no one could get high from smoking it. Furthermore , hemp contains a relatively high proportion of another cannabinoid, CBD, that actually blocks the marijuana high. Therefore, it is an "anti-marijuana". In connection with marijuana, a hot issue hit Amsterdam. The city allures over 3.5 million foreign tourists every year, several of whom are attracted to the java shop culture and assurance of being able to easily and lawfully obtain marijuana. But this will soon change, reports the Los Angeles Times. The Dutch authorities plan to stop drug tourism by forcing coffee stores to become private clubs that only sell to Dutch citizens that present proof of identification. I found this here: Law bans marijuana sale to foreigners from other countries in Dutch coffee shops, newstype.com. Oh well! I just hope that the misconception about hemp will be cleared.
No need in even trying to defend if he was a habitual smoker of it it's a scientific fact While marijuana has a potency range of 3% to 20% by dry weight of THC, industrial hemp is generally defined as having less than 1.0% THC, and the normal range is under 0.5%. These THC levels are so low that no one could get high from smoking it.
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First of all, hemp IS marijuana. Two words for the same thing. Secondly, the plant can have various strains cultivated for both industrial and recreational use. The same plant. For industrial hemp, plants that produce the most fibers can be separated for clothing. It can also be cultivated for separating out the plants that produce the "high". It is widely known as fact that Native Americans grew and used cannibis for recreational, medicinal, and ceremonial purposes. And since the nation's founders encountered the Native Americans and gained their agricultural knowledge, it seems preposterous to think that they only taught the founders how to cultivate corn and squash. The Jefferson quote in question may very well be (and likely is) untrue, but that doesn't change history. The founders don't mention getting drunk and getting wild in their writings either. Are we to assume that they never did? It is also of note to point out that the official line from the folks in charge of keeping James Buchanan's legacy alive is that he was not gay, when it is widely known by historians that he was in fact gay. Trying to make a Presidential legacy look more "virtuous" by leaving out stuff they think people don't want to hear is sad.