Today's guest is Dr. Bradley Borougerdi author of Commidifying Cannabis and college history professor in Arlington Texas. Dr. Borougerdi takes us through the history of cannabis going back 100 years and how it was leveraged for many different purposes from medicinal to political as well as a commodity. 

In his book, Bradley J. Borougerdi offers a sweeping history that examines the greatly varying meanings cannabis has had in the Atlantic World. The plant has been a vital naval store, an economic staple, an exotic intoxicant, and a narcotic scourge. Borougerdi traces the social and economic processes that produced these meanings through his study of a wide range of historic documents. Cannabis has for centuries shaped societies around the Atlantic; this book argues that very old ideas still shape present attitudes about the plant.