The Joke: A History of Cannabis Prohibition in Australia

John Jiggens

Brisbane

:

John Jiggens

,

2020

.
First Edition.

23cm x 15cm. 189 pages, black and white illustrations. Illustrated wrappers.

“Many decades ago in Australia, there was a plant that produced a wonder drug that was used to treat an extraordinary range of diseases. It was called Indian hemp. In its homeland of India, it had been celebrated as a holy plant for millennia, and prayers were offered when the plant was sown or harvested. Prepared as a drink, and taken with suitable ceremony, the plant would bring joy, a release from care, and destroy disease. It was said no good would come to those who trod underfoot its sacred leaf. Then a campaign of vilification began. The newspapers painted it as a vicious, evil plant. They called it the Devil’s Weed with its roots in Hell; it was the killer drug that provoked madness and led to the utmost depths of depravity. They gave it a new, foreign-sounding name: they called it marihuana. From the Reefer Madness campaign of 1938, to Brisbane’s Marihuana weirdos, from the hippy dealers to the criminal takeover to the Drug Joke, from Griffith to Mareeba, The Joke charts the hidden history of cannabis prohibition in Australia.” (publisher’s blurb)

. New Book.