DON'T BE LEFT HIGH AND DRY ON 4/20: 10 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT MARIJUANA

Today is April 20, known to marijuana users as "4/20," a
counterculture holiday recognizing America's most commonly used
illegal drug. The number "420" is code for marijuana, and was most
likely invented in the 1970s at San Rafael High School in Marin
County, Calif., where a group of students known as the Waldos met at
4:20 p.m. to light up. A dime bag's worth of other marijuana facts:

1. In 19th century Nepal, the marijuana harvest was performed by men
who ran naked through fields of flowering plants and then had the
sticky resin scraped off their bodies and formed into bricks of hashish.

2. Marijuana is known for its mellowing effect, but it has fueled many
warriors in history. The word "assassin" is believed to come from the
hashish taken a millennium ago by Arab killers (called "hashshashin"
or "hashish eaters"), though some historians doubt they were under the
influence while on their missions.

3. Louisa May Alcott, author of "Little Women," wrote a short story
called "Perilous Play" about marijuana. In it, a character declares,
"If someone does not propose a new and interesting amusement, I shall
die of ennui!" Another character produces a box of hashish-laced
bonbons, and hedonism ensues.

4. Around 1900, the U.S. government briefly grew marijuana along a
stretch of the Potomac River to study the plant's medicinal value.
Today, a more potent plant has risen on that site: the Pentagon.

5. A white Chicago jazz musician named Milton "Mezz" Mezzrow moved to
Harlem in 1929, declared himself a "voluntary Negro," and began
selling marijuana. Known as "The Man Who Hipped the World" and "The
Link Between the Races," Mezzrow sold fat joints called mezzrolls.
Soon a new piece of Harlem slang emerged: Something genuine was
described as "mezz."

6. Marijuana interferes with short-term memory so that users forget
what they just said or did. Not only that, marijuana interferes with
short-term memory so that users forget what they just said or did.

7. Before Congress voted to ban marijuana in 1937, the birdseed
industry got the bill amended to exempt marijuana seeds (known as hemp
seeds) as long as they were sterilized and could not be used to grow
plants. An industry spokesman denied that the seeds made birds high,
but an ardent marijuana foe, Dr. Victor Robinson, had previously
written that the seeds had caused birds to "dream of a happy birdland
where there are no gilded cages, and where the men are gunless and the
women hatless."

8. Billy Carter, the late brother of former President Jimmy Carter,
believed the illegality of marijuana was part of its attraction.
"Marijuana is like Coors beer," he said. "If you could buy the damn
stuff at a Georgia filling station, you'd decide you wouldn't want
it."

9. One of the least typical supporters of the decriminalization of
marijuana was conservative icon William F. Buckley, who died in
February. Buckley once sailed his yacht into international waters so
that he could smoke pot without breaking U.S. laws.

10. Bill Clinton said famously that he smoked marijuana but "didn't
inhale." President Bush has never admitted taking the drug, but his
drug use was strongly suggested in recorded conversations between him
and a friend -- the interestingly named Doug Wead. Only one of the
three 2008 contenders is an admitted ex-doper. Barack Obama has said,
"When I was a kid, I inhaled frequently. That was the point."