History by ©Sarah Becker Marijuana – It’s Legal! In 1792, Quaker Edward Stabler borrowed 100 pounds to buy stock for his Alexandria Apothecary Shop. Now a National Historic Landmark, the Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Shop’s history dates from 1792 to 1933. Medicinal cannabis was first introduced in the 1850s; on the Leadbeater families’ corporate watch. “Records do not tell us what feelings of uncertainty Edward Stabler may have harbored in relation to his venture,” Eleanor Leadbeater wrote in 1934, “but they do show that his business prospered to such an extent that he was able to return the loan and double his stock of goods during the first year.” Hemp: Cannabis sativa, an industrial crop; a highly profitable fiber crop used in the production of rope and such. The Commonwealth’s latest Industrial Hemp Law was enacted in 2015. Dorland’s Medical Dictionary defines Cannabis as “the dried flowering tops of hemp plants which contain the euphoric principles ^1-3,4-trans and ^6-3,4 trans-tetrahydrocannabinol. It is classified as a hallucinogenic and prepared as bhang, ganja, hashish, and marijuana.” Cannabism: “a morbid state produced by the misuse of cannabis.” Marijuana: “a crude preparation of the leaves and flowering tops of [male and female] hemp plants.” “Two recent articles in Blackwood’s Magazine, on the ‘Narcotics we indulge in,’ have attracted more than ordinary attention: tobacco, hops, opium, hemp, &c.,” The New York Daily Times wrote in 1854. “Smokers, the intellectual class of them, especially, think, speak, and write better under its influence; and the mere fact, that they are inferior to themselves without it, is a good reason for supposing that it creates an abnormal condition….” On February 27, 2021, Virginia became the 4th state to legalize marijuana by way of the legislature–in this instance for adult recreation use. The Virginia House of Delegates passed the…