Sugar Leaves
The Cannabis-Sugar Connection
See photo credits below.
The following is an excerpt from p. 115-118 of Chapter 2, “Sugar is the Knife: The World’s Favorite Drug” from my new book, Drugism (2022):
Sugar holds many parallels with other drugs. One drug which holds a particularly interesting connection with sugar is cannabis. In fact, as we will see, the modern practice of smoking weed was directly catalyzed by the sugar industry. Partly due to this reason, the drugisms formed around sugar and cannabis intersect in fascinating ways; there are many similarities in their histories, usage, vocabulary, and respective cultures. Before we conclude the chapter, we will very briefly examine the relationship between sugar and cannabis, which are, respectively, the world’s favorite legal and illegal drugs.
Although cannabis existed in the western hemisphere before European contact, the plant is generally thought to be native to the area around the Himalayas, the mountains which border India, China, and adjacent nations.[i] Its history of use is therefore richest in those areas. In the colonial era, large numbers of people from India traveled west to find work. Many brought cannabis with them. The Caribbean sugar industry absorbed most of the labor from this population. As a result, Caribbean sugar plantations are among the earliest sites of documented weed smoking in the New World.[ii] From the Caribbean, the practice spread to Mexico and eventually throughout the western hemisphere.
The modern practice of smoking weed was directly catalyzed by the sugar industry.
Similarly, African people, forced into labor by Portuguese colonists, brought cannabis with them to sugar plantations in Brazil.[iii] From these sugar plantations, the taste for cannabis spread throughout Brazil and beyond. Clearly, sugar plantations served as vital venues for the popularization of smoked cannabis, something that is now ubiquitous around the world. It is not difficult to imagine how cannabis might have mitigated the pain and exhaustion that came along with working in the cane fields.
This historical intersection is not the only thing the two drugs have in common. Both cane sugar and cannabis, as agricultural products, are often grown from cuttings.[iv] On cannabis plants, the small leaves which surround the flowers are known as sugar leaves. In this case, sugar refers to the cannabinoid-rich trichomes on the leaves.
Historically, both sugar and cannabis were referred to by their region of origin. Early sugar varieties included Moroccan, Sicilian, Jamaican, etc.[v] Similarly, varieties of cannabis have been named after their land of origin: Mexican, Thai, Panama Red, and, like sugar, Jamaican. If you asked for “Jamaican” in the 1700s, you would receive cane sugar; in the 1970s, you would probably be handed a joint.
Caribbean sugar plantations are among the earliest sites of documented weed smoking in the New World.
In the decades since, countless cannabis strains have been named after sugar and its various incarnations. For example, there are Sugar Cane, Sugar Kush, Sugar Cookie, Sugar Plum, Sweet Tooth, and Sweet Kush. Then there are also strains named after specific sugary confections: Cotton Candy Kush, Gelato, Sherbert, Bubble Gum, Black Cherry Soda, Ice Cream Cake...the list goes on. Sugary themes have become an entire genre of cannabis strains. Interestingly, the first people to name cannabis after sugar may have been the CIA. They employed the drug in their post-World War II mind control experiments, and referred to it in code language as “sugar.”[vi]
Sugar and cannabis have been combined into the same products for hundreds if not thousands of years. One of the oldest edible cannabis preparations, bhang, originates from India. The preparation has existed for thousands of years and traditionally includes sugar.[vii] It is not clear when sugar was first included in bhang recipes but this combination of cannabis and sugar is almost certain to have occurred many hundreds—perhaps even thousands—of years before either substance reached the western hemisphere.
Ancient Sanskrit texts also refer to other combinations of sugar and cannabis in addition to bhang.[viii] The combination would eventually catch on and spread throughout the world. Writing in the mid-nineteenth century, German ethnobotanist Baron Ernst von Bibra noted the various preparations of sugar and cannabis he encountered in his world travels. He described numerous candies and sweets infused with hashish, which were prepared in Egypt and sold in Greece.[ix] Still today, cannabis is often consumed in combination with sugar, as brownies, candy, etc.
On cannabis plants, the small leaves which surround the flowers are known as sugar leaves.
Another interesting synchronicity can be found in the histories of sugar and bud. In 1937, the Marihuana Tax Act passed, which ruled that only farmers selected by the Treasury would be allowed to grow cannabis. While structured as a tax law, the Act was enforced in a way which effectively resulted in a ban on cannabis. The same year, the Sugar Act of 1937 was passed, which set quotas for domestic sugar consumption as well as importation.[x] This Act, quite the opposite of the above-mentioned, created ideal conditions for increased sugar consumption in the US, primarily that of Cuban and Hawaiian origin.
The Marihuana Tact Act remained in place until 1970, when it was replaced by the Controlled Substances Act. The Sugar Act remained in place until 1974. By that point, Hawaii was a state, Cuba was independent, and the abundance of domestically produced high fructose corn syrup was such that the US could afford to change its sugar policy and deprioritize foreign quotas. The Marihuana Tax Act and the Sugar Act were both passed and replaced in the same periods.
That two foundational laws in US sugar and cannabis policy were both enacted in the same year of the Depression and lasted until the nineteen seventies shows something about drugism in the US. Such legal regulation around the two drugs produced, whether intentionally or not, an enormous increase in consumption of both. The Sugar Act did so by ensuring a nonstop domestic supply of sugar. The Marihuana Tax Act, which drastically reduced the amount of cannabis produced in the US, had a boomerang effect.
Countless cannabis strains have been named after sugar and its various incarnations.
As drug historian Alfred McCoy and others have noted, legal prohibition of drugs has, time after time, had the backward effect of increasing demand.[xi] Suppression of legal supply chains leads to the creation of new, illicit supply chains. New supply chains inevitably introduce the drug to new users. The result is increased consumption and demand, despite prohibition. In the end, regulation is regulation: any policy devoted to a single commodity is evidence that large numbers of people use it. We see this clearly with both sugar and cannabis.
Further, the vast majority of people who use cannabis also use sugar. I would wager that, of these, most consume sugar any given day before they consume cannabis, the exception being those truly devoted stoners who smoke weed each day before doing anything else. The point being, when most people use cannabis, they have already used sugar earlier that day. In this sense, whether or not they are conscious of it, their cannabis use is part of their instinctual response to their sugar use. In fact, the two are actually more connected than many realize.
I see it in my own weed-smoking friends; the more sweets they eat, the more cannabis they feel the urge to consume. And, of course, vice versa. It becomes an endless cycle. And, years ago, I saw it in myself. I noticed that the more sugar I had in my system, the more cannabis I had to consume to feel properly high. When I stopped eating sugar, my tolerance to cannabis lowered noticeably. I got higher on less bud. But it was several years before I learned the physiological reason for this.
Sugar dulls the cannabis high. And the reverse is true—cannabis mitigates the effects of sugar.
The reason: cannabis lowers the body’s glucose levels.[xii] While this may sound insignificant, it is actually integral to the drug’s effects. Lowered glucose levels contribute to the infamous munchies as well as the general sedation and elevated heartrate that tend to follow cannabis use.[xiii] Cannabis helps us “wind down” in part because it lowers our blood glucose.
Consequently, an abundance of sugar in the diet keeps glucose levels high, which in turn prevents cannabis from exercising its fullest effects upon us. Thus, physiologically, sugary products can increase our tolerance to and desire for cannabis. Put simply, sugar dulls the cannabis high. And the reverse is true—cannabis mitigates the effects of sugar.
Considering such information in the context of widespread cannabis legalization may lead one to wonder what effect cannabis might have more broadly on sugar consumption. Will it play a role in lowering sugar consumption? Or raising it? Or perhaps it will have no discernible effect at all? Whichever destiny awaits, a more pressing issue is the status of sugar today.
Endnotes
[i] “Cannabis History: How…” and Lee, Smoke Signals, 4.
[ii] Herer, The Emperor Wears…, 123.
[iii] Dikötter, Laamann, and Xun, Narcotic Culture, 200.
[iv] Mintz, 21; Stoa, Craft Weed, 107.
[v] Mintz, 82.
[vi] Lee & Shlain, Acid Dreams, 7.
[vii] Courtwright, Forces of Habit, 39.
[viii] Lewin, Phantastica, 91.
[ix] Von Bibra, Plant Intoxicants, 148-149.
[x] Walvin, 165.
[xi] McCoy, 20-22; 457-458.
[xii] Dufty, 101.
[xiii] Bello, The Benefits of…, 33; United States Department of Health and Human Services, “Low Blood Glucose…”
Sources
Bello, Joan. The Benefits of Marijuana: Physical, Psychological and Spiritual. Lifeservices Press, Susquehanna, PA. 2008.
“Cannabis History: How Cannabis Came to America.” Sensi Seeds, Apr 27, 2020. Online. https://sensiseeds.com/en/blog/cannabis-history-how-cannabis-came-to-america/
Courtwright, David. Forces of Habit: Drugs and the Making of the Modern World. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA. 2001.
Dikötter, Frank, Lars Laamann, and Zhou Xun. Narcotic Culture: A History of Drugs in China. Hurst & Company, London, UK. 2004.
Dufty, William. Sugar Blues. Warner Books, NY. 1975.
Herer, Jack. The Emperor Wears No Clothes. AH HA Publishing, Austin, TX. 2010 [originally published in 1985].
Lee, Martin A. Smoke Signals: A Social History of Marijuana—Medical, Recreational, and Scientific. Scribner, 2021. New York, NY.
Lewin, Louis. Phantastica. Park Street Press, Rochester, VT. 1998.
McCoy, Alfred. The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade. Lawrence Hill Books, 2003. Chicago, IL. Print.
Mintz, Sidney. Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History. Penguin Books, NY. 1985.
Stoa, Ryan. Craft Weed: Family Farming and the Future of the Marijuana Industry. The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. 2018.
United States Department of Health and Human Services. “Low Blood Glucose (Hypoglycemia).” National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, Jul 2021. https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/diabetes/overview/preventing-problems/low-blood-glucose-hypoglycemia
Von Bibra, Baron Ernst. Plant Intoxicants: A Classic Text on the Use of Mind-Altering Plants. Healing Arts Press, Rochester, VT. 1995.
Walvin, James. Sugar: The Word Corrupted: From Slavery to Obesity. Penguin, NY. 2018.
Photo credits:
Photo of sugar cane from The Food Vault Gh at https://www.thefoodvaultgh.com/product/sugar-cane/
Photo of cannabis plant with sugar leaves from Marijuana-seeds.nl at https://www.marijuana-seeds.nl/blog/what-to-do-with-sugar-leaves
Photo of homegrown cannabis plant in the Caribbean from The North American Congress on Latin America at https://nacla.org/blog/2012/7/26/war-drugs-caribbean-going-smoke
Photo of pile of cannabis joints from Unsplash at https://unsplash.com/s/photos/cannabis-joint
Historical illustration of a sugar plantation in the Caribbean from the British Library at https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/cutting-the-sugar-cane-antigua
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