From the Summer of Love to the War on Drugs, Archive of Nixon Era Cannabis Prohibition, and Mary Jane Superweed’s Underground Drug Manuals, 1968 to 1969

Mary Jane Superweed

Pamphlet

"The MArijuana Consumer's and Dealer's Guide," a cannabis and psychedelic drug manual group from 1968 to 1969, documenting the translation of countercultural drug knowledge into inexpensive practical guides for cultivation, processing, testing, and home chemistry immediately before the federal Controlled Substances Act of 1970. Issued through Stone Kingdom Syndicate and Chthon Press and distributed by mail from San Rafael, California, the three manuals address readers explicitly as growers, consumers, and dealers, supplying methods intended to reduce dependence on conventional commercial supply. Their political position is equally explicit: The Complete Cannabis Cultivator is dedicated sarcastically to “our beloved leader MR. R. M. NIXON without whose Mexican-American policy this book might not have been necessary.”

Three illustrated pamphlets, each 16 pages and 5.5 x 8.5 inches, published in San Rafael, California, 1968 to 1969. [1] Superweed, Mary Jane. The Marijuana Consumer’s and Dealer’s Guide. San Rafael: Stone Kingdom Syndicate, 1968. The earliest of the three manuals gives practical instructions for extracting lysergic acid amides from morning glory or Hawaiian wood rose seeds, producing hashish from marijuana, extracting mescaline from peyote, converting “Inferior Grade Pot into Connoisseur-Quality Super-Grass,” testing for THC, and dealing with adulterated cannabis. Its table of contents advertises “Produce $2000 Worth of Hashish From $85 Worth of Marijuana,” while the publisher’s disclaimer states that the processes are printed “for its educational value and as a humble addition to the total of mankind’s knowledge.”
[2] Superweed, Mary Jane. The Complete Cannabis Cultivator. San Rafael: Stone Kingdom Syndicate, 1969. A practical manual covering marijuana cultivation from seed sprouting through harvesting, including soil, fertilizers, watering, lighting, concealment, plant diseases, insects, breeding, female seed production, use of male plants, and flowering. The publisher’s “Statement to the People” situates cultivation within a broader psychedelic program, declaring that Stone Kingdom had previously produced books on “psychedelic subculture; books on growing better grass, extracting and manufacturing psychedelics, and finding herbs which get you high,” before arguing for the dissemination of information and “awareness.” The text concludes its introductory warning with the Nixon dedication quoted above.
[3] Superweed, Mary Jane. Drug Manufacturing for Fun and Profit. San Rafael: Chthon Press, 1969. Advertised on its cover as “A sequel to THE MARIJUANA CONSUMER’S AND DEALER’S GUIDE” and promising “make DMT in your kitchen • new simplified process,” the pamphlet expands the earlier guide into DMT preparation, khala khij, cannabis cultivation, hashish, “Super Candy,” and related subjects. An interior notice solicits membership in the Church of the Tree of Life, giving its address as 451 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco, and describes the organization’s strategy of establishing “presently legal substances” as sacraments under a claim of religious freedom.

The 1969 volumes appeared during an even more immediate confrontation over marijuana. Nixon entered office that January, and by August his administration was preparing Operation Intercept, a large scale effort to interrupt marijuana and drug traffic across the entire United States Mexico border. Beginning September 21, the operation subjected border traffic to intensified inspection and surveillance; internal State Department records show that the American ambassador had warned immediately beforehand that the program might have “catastrophic consequences” for relations with Mexico. The manuals appeared during rapid changes in American drug law and countercultural publishing. California had prohibited LSD in 1966, and the federal government prohibited possession of LSD in 1968; the Controlled Substances Act followed in 1970, establishing the federal scheduling system under which marijuana, LSD, mescaline, and other psychedelics were placed in Schedule I. Stone Kingdom’s own advertising shows a developing catalogue devoted to cannabis cultivation, psychedelic drugs, herbal intoxicants, cooking with cannabis, and home growing. Moderate toning, staining, rubbing, and edge wear, most pronounced on The Complete Cannabis Cultivator; interiors remain legible accross the issues. Overall good condition.

Item #23897

Price: $485.00