3. JAMES MADISON
Represents: Liberty and law in America, Cannabis hemp helping to form America
Madison, the “father of the Constitution” and the fourth U.S. president, also raised hemp and may possibly have smoked pot for history-making inspiration (keep reading). Needless to say, Madison would be appalled at the betrayal of the law of the land he composed, in the name of the War on Drugs, and specifically the ongoing federal war on weed—even as state after state legalizes its use, growth and sale.
Per Weed News, Madison’s oft-quoted comment, that, “hemp gave him the insight to create a new democratic nation,” may not necessarily have been a reference to smoking the flowers to come up with ideas, but could be more reasonably interpreted as Madison referring to hemp’s varied industrial applications being so instrumental in colonial development and that those benefits of cannabis could serve a unified nation as well.
But regardless of his intent, whether or not he was actually smoking pot or just using it for the paper where he jotted down his writings, Madison’s remark that hemp was instrumental in conceiving democratic America has to rank right up there with the Bible, quoting God in Genesis, “I give you (humanity) every seed-bearing plant,” in terms of monumental marijuana quotes!
With hemp now covering the American landscape in the 1800s, it was time for its fun flower to share her magic, too…
