"To some it's the holy herb, the healer of the nations, the potential saviour of the planet, banned because of a conspiracy involving J. Edgar Hoover's FBI, the petrochemical industry and the yellow press. Others still see it as the deceptive weed that undermined Arab civilisation. For millions of others in the west it's no longer even controversial: legalised for many patients under American state laws, tolerated in Holland, openly planted in hundreds of acres of the Swiss Alps." "But what do we really know about cannabis? Why does it make people stoned? Does it kill off brain cells? Why do different kinds of weed have different effects? Is it addictive? Is the talk about medical applications genuine, or just a scam to get it legalised? Patrick Matthews returns to the Rizla-strewn world he knew before becoming an award-winning wine writer and finds that researchers have unravelled the complexities of this plant, uncovering in the process much of the chemistry of our minds and emotions. And, as well as scientists, he meets a rich mixture of characters - the connoisseurs, criminals and cultivators, both here and in the Third World, who together make up our new Cannabis Culture."--BOOK JACKET.