Cannabis Chronicles

The earlier articles in our series on the use of Fusarium as a bio-herbicide in the drug war focused on the debate as it happened circa 1999-2002. This entry helps to bring the story more up to date, it comes from a website called the Narco News Bulletin which we discovered while researching “Plan [...]

The following take on the escalation of the drug war through the use of biological herbicides comes from CounterPunch, a bi-weekly muckraking newsletter with a radical attitude who advertises that: “Nothing makes us happier than when CounterPunch readers write in to say how useful they’ve found our newsletter in their battles against the war machine, [...]

As was detailed in the previous entry here at the Cannabis Chronicles, a movement was started in the late 1990’s to use Fusarium fungus as a bio-herbicide to exterminate both Cannabis and Coca. Our archival coverage continues with another article from 1999, this one from a magazine called the New Scientist.

Operation Eradicate
* 11 September [...]

This journal entry begins a series we are calling “Fusarium Attack”, which will detail some of the history behind wrong headed efforts to employ the Fusarium fungus as a bio-control agent in the war on drugs.
The first article in this series that we’ll add to the Cannabis Chronicles archive is from the New York Times [...]

As is so often the case, some of the best coverage we’ve found concerning the Black Tuna gang comes from a weekly publication. Last month (June ‘08), the Miami New Times, covered Robert Platshorn’s release from prison with the article that actually inspired the Cannabis Chronicles’ in depth coverage/archiving of material on the Black [...]

In addition to coverage in the mainstream media, the alternative media caught on to the Black Tuna Gang story too. High Times, the oldest and most well established marijuana magazine in North America, (sorry Marc - your Cannabis Culture is a relative newcomer,) also covered some of this fish tale.
The first High Times article [...]

In somewhat the same tradition as Howard Marks, there’s a website authored by the man who was tried and convicted on a variety of charges related to his marijuana smuggling operation known as the Black Tuna Gang. Also in the tradition of Mr Nice, the Black Tuna kingpin has authored a book about his [...]

We were well known at Cannabis World for our tag line about learning and growing, “If you are learning as you grow, then you are growing too.” And, in all honesty, that’s much more than just rhetoric, it’s really the way we live. Despite being well into “middle age”, we still consider ourselves [...]

In a ruling that should chill the hearts of privacy advocates and stoners alike, a court in the US has ordered Google to hand over the viewing logs of each and every individual U-Tube user.
Here’s the story as reported by the BBC . . .
Google must divulge YouTube log
Google must divulge the viewing habits [...]

As a part of our personal archiving project, we add yet another article to the compilation detailing the “Buds of Bekaa”, this time a 2001 piece from Newsweek Magazine . . .
Lebanon: Hash Makes A Comeback
The Bekaa Valley Regains Its Outlaw Reputation
NEWSWEEK
Sep 17, 2001 Issue
Abu Ali is back in business. Wading through a fertile [...]

Returning to our on-going personal project, archiving stories about hashish in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, here’s a piece from the British press that was printed late last year . . .

The dimly lit basement reeks of hashish. Piled high along a wall are dozens of large white sacks filled with the leaves and seeds of the [...]

With this posting we descend into what might be considered “policy wonk” material. The following analysis of the Bekaa Valley’s role in the geopolitical struggle between Israel and Hezbollah originated from Strategic Forecasting Inc.1

The Bekaa’s Crucial Role in the Israeli-Hezbollah Fight
August 2, 2006 | 0350 GMT
Summary
Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley will play a critical role [...]

As a part of our current research project, we are attempting to archive as broad a perspective as possible concerning the the production of Lebanese hashish in the 21st century. We see this as a way to seek our own understanding of the complex issues surrounding this topic.
As a part of working to tell [...]

We’ve archived a good number of perspectives on the resurgence of the “Buds of Bekaa”, and many of those articles have included quotes and sympathetic coverage of Bekaa’s farmers, but none of the articles have been written completely from the Lebanese perspective.
Thanks to the Internet, it’s possible to provide a unique Lebanese perspective from Ya [...]