Baked: How Pot Brownies and Pate de Fruits Fueled an Edible Cannabis Revolution

Edible cannabis products are hot right now: Snoop's got some,
Willie Nelson's got some—even Martha Stewart's making fancy
French-style gummies. In states where it’s legal, you can buy
everything from marshmallows to macarons, all laden with THC, the
psychoactive compound in cannabis. This commercial boom may be
recent, but the history of edibles goes way, way back to the
origins of the plant thousands of years ago in the Himalayas—in
fact, people were eating (and drinking) cannabis long before they
were inhaling it. So when did cannabis start being smoked
instead—and how did it find itself not only banned, but classified
as more dangerous than both opium and meth? With the help of the
woman whose family ran America's first edibles empire, we also
discover why the pot brownie is America’s quintessential edible,
and how this humble, slightly mulchy baked good helped make weed
legal again. Plus: How today's cannabis chefs are upping the ante
and taking weed recipes to new—ahem—highs (please allow us just
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