When I was told that there’s a Jewish grower named Adam in Nelson, British Columbia who went from legacy to legal and became legendary for the quality of his flower and his Menschlikeit character, it sounded like someone I had invented—a Canadian version of Jack Herer—as part of a sales pitch for Cannabis Jew Magazine.
We hope these Canna-Jewish reflections help provide context for the extraordinary contributions of Jews to cannabis culture, reseach and advocacy (and help explain Why Jews Love Weed).
In the spirit of our tradition, CJM offers this canna-Jewish reading of the Exodus that recovers the role played by kaneh bosem (Eng. cannabis) in the events leading up to our liberation through deduction, speculation and the light of Jewish herstory.
I also heard from cannabis Jews and allies in the United States who wrote to tell me that the article resonated with them because they, too, are suffering from similar types of racist hate in the American cannabis and psychedelic communities.
The sense of Tikkun Olam, of making the world a better place was prevalent thorughout the industry. Israel Cannabis had the effect of introducing the nation to millions⏤from investors to recreational users⏤in a new light.
The close relation between kaneh bosem and Jewish history has inspired a new generation of Jews to turn to herbal remedies in order to feel some pride and cope with anxiety at a time when most people in the world want us to die or disappear.
Part of the reason why it’s hard to take seriously this notion of a “restored self” as a medical benefit of cannabinoid therapy is because we tend to think about PTSD as a pathology of memory or repression that can be cured with the right therapist or strain of weed.
It has given me no small amount of pleasure to learn that Israeli researchers are finding that with regard to understanding the medical benefits of cannabis, the biomedical model—based on mind-body dualism—just doesn't work.
As I was reading about this system that perpetually collects and analyzes environmental data in the grow room to correct for any problems before they occur, I kept thinking about a grower I know who spends most of his time collecting that data himself, and rarely leaves work.
In the tradition of Dr. Franz Fanon and his classic work Black Skin, White Masks (1952), we can think about being-Ashkenazi in terms of the psychic scars suffered from being racialized and living in the world as a remnant.
