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Cannabis being harvested by farmers, with only their hands visible.

Withering Green Rush

California cannabis breeding is at a crossroads.
by Ali Bektaş via Los Angeles Review of Books on August 5, 2023
Marijuana leaves superimposed over photo of two men.

The Dank Underground

In the late Sixties, countercultural media was distributed by the Underground Press Syndicate and bankrolled by marijuana.
by J. Hoberman via New York Review of Books on May 26, 2023
Marihuana revenue stamp $1 1937

1910s Cannabis Discourse and Prohibition

Does marijuana prohibition have racist origins? Where did ideas of “reefer madness” come from? This project looks to the historical record for answers.
by Isaac Campos via The Drug Page on March 7, 2023
Illustration of burning cannabis with helicopters overhead

The Cold War Killed Cannabis As We Knew It. Can It Rise Again?

Somewhere in Jamaica survive the original cannabis strains that were not burned by American agents or bred to be more profitable.
by Casey Taylor via Defector on January 11, 2022
Picture of a young woman with cannabis leaves.

The Pot to Prison Pipeline

How does a plant become a crime?
by Sophie Yanow, Zack Ruskin via The Nib on September 27, 2021
painting of a monkey smoking a pipe

Our Strange Addiction

The transformation of tobacco and cannabis into early modern global obsessions.
by Benjamin Breen via Lapham’s Quarterly on March 15, 2021

What the Guys Who Coined '420' Think About Their Place in Marijuana History

And how the term came to be code for pot-smoking in the first place.
by Olivia B. Waxman via TIME on April 19, 2017
Cannabis sativa plant.
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Reefer Madness in Mexico City

Historian Isaac Campos traces the origins of the idea that marijuana causes violent madness…and finds the trail leads south, to Mexico.
via BackStory on May 20, 2016

The History of 420, in Three Acts

There are many theories about the origin of 420, but five guys named Waldo started it all.
by Steve Hager via Freedom Leaf Press on April 20, 2015
cannabis plant

Marijuana's Early History in the United States

Smokeable pot's proliferation in North America involves the Mexican Revolution, the transatlantic slave trade, and Prohibition.
by Barney Warf, Mark Hay via Vice on March 31, 2015
"Just Say No" memorabilia at the Reagan Presidential Library.

White Suburbs and Drug Wars

To understand the racism of the drug war, we must look to the ways policymakers sought to protect white suburban youth.
by Max Felker-Kantor via Public Books on July 3, 2024
Image of a joint sticking out of the sidewalk in a suburban neighborhood.

The Suburbs Made the War on Drugs in Their Own Image

Matthew Lassiter’s history plays out in ranch houses, high school parking lots, and courtrooms from Shaker Heights to Westchester to Orange County.
by Claire Bond Potter via The New Republic on February 27, 2024
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How Liberal Policymakers and White Suburban Parents Drove the War on Drugs

A Q&A with Matthew Lassiter about how liberal policymakers and white parents drove the escalation of the War on Drugs.
by Matthew D. Lassiter, Michan Connor via HNN on January 10, 2024
Ronald Reagan signing anti-drug legislation as Nancy Reagan and legislators look on.
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America's War on Drugs Was Always Bipartisan—And Unwinnable

There was really only one big difference between liberal drug warriors and conservative ones.
by Matthew D. Lassiter via Made By History on December 7, 2023

The Forgotten Drug Trips of the Nineteenth Century

Long before the hippies, a group of thinkers used substances like cocaine, hashish, and nitrous oxide to uncover the secrets of the mind.
by Claire Bucknell via The New Yorker on April 17, 2023
A small cabin in the woods; Laird Sutton, a man with a thick white beard.

The Last Glimpses of California's Vanishing Hippie Utopias

A legion of idealists dropped out of society and went back to the land. Here's a glimpse of their otherworldly residences—and the end of the social experiment.
by David Jacob Kramer via GQ on September 9, 2021

Marijuana Reform Should Focus On Inequality

When regulators dictate who grows a cash crop, they can spread the wealth—or help the rich get richer.
by Sarah Milov via The Atlantic on October 5, 2019
Gas station turned cannabis dispensary

Puff, Puff, Pass

The explosion of kid-friendly paraphernalia led the federal government to crack down on pot.
by Emily Dufton via Perspectives on History on April 25, 2019

From Drug War to Dispensaries

An oral history of weed legalization’s first wave in the 1990s.
by Jordan Heller via Intelligencer on November 14, 2018

Rainbow Farm: The Domestic Siege That Time Forgot

In 2001, two men were killed by the FBI at a farm in Michigan. Then, 9/11 happened.
by Jeff Winkler via The Outline on October 2, 2018
Shafer Commission
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Nixon Made a Mistake on Pot. Will Trump Do the Same with Opioids?

Decades after Nixon waged war on pot, Trump is doing the some with opioids. It could make things worse.
by Emily Dufton via Made By History on April 20, 2018
Day laborer pumping up tire on tractor on large farm near Ralls, Texas, 1939.
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Stories of the Land: Diverse Agricultural Histories in the U.S.

An exhibit featuring public radio and television programs broadcast over 65 years that explore American agricultural life.
by Mariah E. Marsden via American Archive of Public Broadcasting on July 29, 2024
A bedroom decorated with Bob Marley merchandise and the Jamaican flag.

Bob Marley’s ‘Legend’ Is One of the Bestselling Albums Ever. But Does It Tell His Full Story?

After 40 years and more than 25 million copies sold, what story does ‘Legend’ tell us about Bob Marley and the people listening to it?
by Eric Ducker via The Ringer on February 14, 2024
The crime scene. A woman's body lies in the middle of a clearning next to the river, surrounded by coroners and police

Bad Shot, Mary

The mistress of JFK, there was a lot more than wealth, whiteness, and femininity to make Mary Pinchot Meyer a target of murder.
by Devin Thomas O’Shea via Apocalypse Confidential on November 22, 2023
Snoop Dogg.

The Snoop Dogg Manifesto

A pop star’s road map to decadence.
by Armond White via National Review on November 15, 2023
From left: schoolchildren, their teacher, and Nancy Reagan look on as a police officer talks about the DARE program

The Kids Who Snitched on Their Families Because DARE Told Them To

The program was about education. But it was also about surveillance.
by Max Felker-Kantor via Slate on September 30, 2023
Police and bystanders at night.

Do Cartels Exist?

A revisionist view of the drug wars.
by Rachel Nolan via Harper’s on June 20, 2023
Artistic representation of a man using psychedelics. The man's head appears like a matryoshka doll.

Brains on Drugs

Between the mid-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, drug use to expand one’s consciousness went from an intellectual pastime to an emblem of social decay.
by John Semley via The Baffler on June 14, 2023
Biggie Smalls posing for the camera, with three friends looking on from behind.

Behind the Scenes of Ready to Die

An intimate look at the creation of an iconic album.
by Justin Tinsley via Literary Hub on May 20, 2022
Protesters holding anti-War on Drugs signs with a red target printed over them

How the Drug War Dies

A few decades ago, the left and the right, politicians and the public, universally embraced the criminalization of drug use. But a new consensus has emerged.
by Maia Szalavitz via The Nation on March 21, 2022
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