Cannabis News NORML - It's Time for a Change!
  The Louvre of Pot
Posted by FoM on April 20, 2002 at 09:08:01 PT
By Dan Reed, Mercury News 
Source: San Jose Mercury News  

cannabis Marijuana can make you forgetful. Michael Krawitz wants to help you remember.

Krawitz is a kind of curator of dope history. He's the founder of the traveling Cannabis Museum, in San Francisco through today as part of the convention of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. It's important for a museum curator to care deeply about his area of expertise. Krawitz cares deeply.

He inhales, he samples, and while he's at it, he collects artifacts from the long history of cannabis, a museum collection that now runs to about 1,500 pieces.

About the only thing missing from his Cannabis Museum is cannabis. There were, however, some ashes in a nearby ashtray. Perhaps that part of the exhibit accidentally caught fire.

The collection contains an amazing mixture of artifacts -- original doctors' prescriptions for cannabis from the 1920s to treat pain or corns on the feet, pop fiction demonizing the weed, old medicinal containers from when it was used for such maladies as ``sexual exhaustion.''

Much of it has been hard to come by, such as the medicinal containers. ``They're really scarce,'' said Krawitz, 39, whose enthusiasm shows in his high energy and often manic gesturing. ``Not because they didn't make a lot of them, but because no one wants to part with them.''

Krawitz began his love affair with pot after he was in a motorcycle accident in Guam in 1984, when he was in the Air Force.

``No,'' he said, ``I wasn't stoned.''

Sent to Hawaii for rehabilitation, another patient offered him a smoke. ``I got a roach from a Samoan guy,'' he said. ``It was really good stuff.''

It also, he said, eased his pain and helped his recovery. He's been an avid fan ever since.

``That led me to seeking information about the medical use of cannabis,'' he said. Given that he used to work with his father, an auctioneer and antiques expert, he naturally fell into collecting artifacts from the history of marijuana.

Chris Porter got high in 1925, according to an original prescription written for the Easton Pharmacy in Easton, Kan. In 1922, a doctor wrote a prescription ordering his patient to apply a cannabis compound to his corn each night.

It's possible the patient used ``Seabury's Corn Plaster,'' an empty container of which is in Krawitz's collection.

Another bottle boasts its contents as a tonic and recommends, ``One tablet three or four times daily for melancholia, sexual exhaustion, hysteria and nervous disorders.''

Then there are the wild books and posters from a bygone era, suggesting that a puff on a marijuana cigarette will turn the puffer into a maniac. One Dell paperback called ``It Ain't Hay'' claims that ``marijuana and murder make a thrilling story.''

Other items include buttons and posters from campaigns to legalize pot, or at least its medicinal use; arm patches from uniforms for police marijuana eradication forces; detailed botanical drawings; and an employee badge labeled ``War Hemp Industries Inc.,'' from when the ropy weed was used for such things as a ship's rigging.

For now, the museum has only a single image on its Web site: http://www.cannabismuseum.org/

But within the next six months to a year, Krawitz said, he hopes to have many of the collectibles photographed and posted on the Web. He's been gathering his artifacts for about seven years.

``The Internet is going to be the major source of the displays,'' he said.

The next stop for the peripatetic display will be a medical cannabis conference in Portland, Ore., on May 3 and 4.

IF YOU'RE INTERESTED

The memorabilia is on display at the Crown Plaza Union Square Hotel, 480 Sutter Street, San Francisco.

Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Author: Dan Reed, Mercury News
Published: Saturday, April 20, 2002
Copyright: 2002 San Jose Mercury News
Contact: letters@sjmercury.com
Website: http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews

Related Articles & Web Sites:

NORML
http://www.norml.org/

Medical Cannabis Picture Gallery
http://www.conquestdesign.com/uncler/index.html

CannabisNews Articles - NORML
http://cannabisnews.com/thcgi/search.pl?K=norml


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Comment #17 posted by FoM on April 20, 2002 at 14:50:17 PT
p4me
The problem with the link not working is on my end. The victim files seems like a good thing.

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #16 posted by FoM on April 20, 2002 at 14:27:49 PT
Thanks p4me
I couldn't get the external link to work on the article but got it and wanted to make sure you can check it out too.

My poor husband won't forget 4:20. He has been vomitng all day. His Hep C flaired up and a certain medicinal tea helps and why can't we say what works and what doesn't. It is getting sicker by the minute in our country.

http://www.cannabisnow.org

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #15 posted by p4me on April 20, 2002 at 14:19:09 PT
Our friend Richard Cowan....
has got the first of his victim files. FoM if you read this I bet you use a tissue. http://www.thevictimfiles.com/medical.htm

VAAI

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #14 posted by FoM on April 20, 2002 at 14:15:33 PT
p4me
It will take up to a month to get it installed because of scheduling a FCC technican. I won't need to be connected to a phone line. Does that mean I can't have my modem zapped by lightning? I guess I'll get my Direct TV and satellite through the same receiver and dish. My Direct TV dish won't be used once it's connect. They said your computer is always on. That all sounds weird to me but I really can't wait. I can't listen to music or surf the net and email is almost impossible. I hope it solves my slow surfing. I want to do more, learn more and see more but for now I can't.

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #13 posted by p4me on April 20, 2002 at 14:07:22 PT
computer chatter
FoM you just will not believe how much better your internet experience will improve with satellite. I just hooked up my DSL and I live in a different world. I have the browser called Opera and it my default browser right now. It used to crash and so did Internet Explorer. The reason I mention it is because you can hit the F11 key and go full screen and Cnews looks great on fullscreen. Plus Cnews is now my home page so all the comments are just a home click away.

One reason I never muched used Word is because of crashing. I think I will use it more so I can do a better job of storing links and stock responses. I hope to write plenty of these dorks that pretend to be covering news. It used to be such a long process to do anything. It doesn't take as long to make a connection to a server and once the connection time is eliminate, downloading is all the more incredible. There is some stuff at pot-tv that I want to check out. I would never have spent the time to download video to browse for content. Now, that is completely different.

Your life and the life of these propagandist is about to change because of internet technology.

I enjoyed Richard Cowan's song EJ. He has his alternate words to that song "Because I Got High." I imagine this MP3 will be there beside that at MJnews.com at some point. As a matter of fact I think I will check for any recent comments by RC.

Whatever. Don't smoke. VAAI

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #12 posted by FoM on April 20, 2002 at 12:56:42 PT
E_Johnson
I just tried the link. The download was going to take a while. What is it about? I will be listening to plenty when my satellite gets here and hooked up. I can't wait!

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #11 posted by FoM on April 20, 2002 at 12:54:07 PT
Excerpt from Article
I was looking for news and this article came up. I copied this one paragraph of interest I found and put a link to the article.

CBS's 'Two Against Time': Enough to Make A Viewer Weep

Julie Portman, the near-saintly mommy played by Thomas, is raising her saucy daughter, Emma (Ellen Muth), and sappy son, Michael (Troy Hall), on her own, having recently dumped her shifty husband, Robert (Peter Friedman). Emma is a pouty little pudge-pot who graduates from self-obsession to self-pity when a lump on her arm turns out to be malignant. She discovers the lump after a donnybrook with Mom, who's ransacked Emma's room looking for marijuana and -- surprise, surprise -- found it.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A18767-2002Apr20.html

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #10 posted by E_Johnson on April 20, 2002 at 12:45:08 PT
Does anyone like my song?
http://www.vasilisa.com/420Tribute.mp3



[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #9 posted by FoM on April 20, 2002 at 12:07:02 PT
Hey Gary!!!!
Happy 4:20 to you! I got an e-mail from el-toonces this morning and it sounds like the conference is great. Have a safe trip home and then after you're rested tell us all about it!

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #8 posted by Gary Storck on April 20, 2002 at 11:49:22 PT
Saw it live!
Hey, I was talking to Mike Krawitz this AM at the NORML Conference and he showed me the article. Front page of Section B with a color picture and continuing onto another page.

The Conference has been great. Just saw Tony Serra give a impassioned speech in defense of liberty. He talked of our "sweet bouquet ogf freedoms" and went on to lament the gutting of the 4th Amendment, Loss of Jury Rights, Widespread use of snitches, etc., and each time he would smash a bouquet of flowers on the podium for emphasis. It was great. But then he went on to say there is a new flower growin, medical marijuana, and said we must nourish it, etc.

Been a great conference. Met observer, el_toonces, Richard Lake, and many many more. Sad to see it winding down!

From a Kinko's in SF,

Gary

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #7 posted by FoM on April 20, 2002 at 11:48:36 PT
Thanks EJ
I fixed it. I spelled it wrong.

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #6 posted by E_Johnson on April 20, 2002 at 11:42:50 PT
What REALLY makes people forgetful?
Forgetting our history -- who is responsible for that?

In Russia they had Stalin using what was at the time highly advanced photographic technology to eliminate the presence of the Bolsheviks he murdered during the purges from the history of the Revolution.

In America we have Al Gore claiming that he only smoked weed a few times during an eight year period from 1968-76, while his former next door neighbor and marijuana supplier says it was more like a few times per day for the whole eight years from 1968-76.

And Bush, let's not even go there. Having heard about his style of partying, maybe he really doesn't remember.



[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #5 posted by E_Johnson on April 20, 2002 at 11:37:04 PT
OOps spelling
It's the Louvre not Louve.

It's a cool place, I've been there. It's where they have the Mona Lisa.

Happy 4/20!



[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #4 posted by FoM on April 20, 2002 at 09:55:32 PT
Patrick
No I don't know which one turns us into a bat but when I look at those bottles I think of old western movies when the town would get all excited because THE MEDICINE MAN is here! LOL!

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #3 posted by Patrick on April 20, 2002 at 09:42:25 PT
Wow FoM
Thanks. Cool. Do you know which one of the bottles/recipes will turn us into a bat?

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #2 posted by FoM on April 20, 2002 at 09:37:39 PT
Patrick Check Out These Pictures
Medical Cannabis Picture Gallery
http://www.conquestdesign.com/uncler/index.html


[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #1 posted by Patrick on April 20, 2002 at 09:35:13 PT
No medicinal use?
Yeah right.

Like it is a fake kids.

http://www.cannabismuseum.org/

Not.

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