What used to be a once a month treat for the odd serious smoker is now another
item to be added to the weekly shopping list. Unlike any other drug, indulgers
tend to collect facts and information about weed like they were collecting
stamps or train spotting. Everyone's an expert. How many people who still take
ecstacy actually know how it's synthesised, what ingredients are used and what
the historical context of the drug is ?  But smokers know their weed. What
plant it came from, what the THC level is, what effect it will have on you.

"PEOPLE can't trust E's no more," says Paul who grows and smokes his own. "At
thirteen pound a tenth I don't see it as a bag of weed, I see it as a #13 E
that's gonna last me ten hours when I hammer the whole bag. You can't tan
black or hash like that 'cause you'd just completely mong out. But six, seven
spliffs of good weed I can reach the same level as if I'd popped a pill. It
lasts longer 'cause weed is pure, natural like, you get no nasty comedown the
next day."

Unlike any other drug, marijuana is becoming an integral part of everyday
living for not just the privileged few, the cultural makers and shakers, but
whole cross sections of society from bricklayers to doctors, secretaries to
soldiers. Scratch beneath the surface, dig a little deeper and there's a
whole secret society of tokers and smokers, people who skin up to chill out
yet fall well outside the stereotype of the recreational drug user. Although
buying, growing and supplying weed is still against the law, an activity
punishable by a maximum of 14 years imprisonment, more people smoke it than
go to church or attend football matches.

And it's unique in that it's a drug that's managed to shake off much of the
stigma of being illegal as both smokers and non-smokers become aware of the
medicinal benefits of ganja. It's now well documented how in the past the
pharmaceutical uses for marijuana ranged from acting as an appetite stimulant
for anorexics to reducing labour pains during child birth. It was available
on prescription for cancer patients to reduce the toxic shock of chemotherapy
and as an aid to relaxing muscle spasms for multiple sclerosis sufferers.

America's dope smoking bible High Times not only swaps excellent recipes for
dope cookies and milkshakes, but is stuffed with fascinating facts about the
hemp plant which provided the wick for Florence Nightingale's lamp, the
material for the first Stars & Stripes flag and the parachute rope for George
Bush when he had to eject from his plane during the Second World War.

Putting the influence of skunk and all its manifestations into a contemporary,
cultural context, it's possible to detect a profound effect on dance music as
consumption has risen both in and out of the studio, behind the decks and on
the dancefloor. Contrary to popular myth, smoking doesn't just leave you a
giggling wreck slumped helplessly in a corner, it can be used constructively
and creatively, its hallucinogenic properties sharpening the senses. There's
even a record label called Skunk, dubby British house run by one Simon from
Big Life Records. Major label Island Records, too, have started a new house/
techno offshoot, called simply Blunted Vinyl.

Rastas, although manifestly whacked out on spliffs, have still been able to
get their heads round creating some of the most beautiful, spiritual music to
have come out of the synthetic environment in the studio. Musically, marijuana
has always been as vital an ingredient in the deconstruction of dub reggae as
the echo chamber and reverb, and where it was once exclusively the property of
dub warriors who inbued it with a religious significance, now everybody appears
to be sampling its creative benefits.

[To be continued...]