Collection: Hemp History

The history of cannabis and its usage by humans dates back to at least the third millennium BC in written history, and possibly far further back by archaeological evidence. For millennia, the plant has been valued for its use for fiber and rope, as food and medicine, and for its psychoactive properties for religious and recreational use.

The earliest restrictions on cannabis were reported in the Islamic world by the 14th century. In the 19th century, it began to be restricted in colonial countries, often associated with racial and class stresses. In the middle of the 20th century, international coordination led to sweeping restrictions on cannabis throughout most of the globe. Entering the 21st century, some nations began to change their approaches to cannabis, with measures taken to decriminalize cannabis; in 2001 Canada became the first nation to legalize medical cannabis, and in 2015 Uruguay became the first to legalize recreational cannabis with Canada following in 2018 and South Africa for personal home use only.

Cannabis is indigenous to Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent.^[4] Hemp is possibly one of the earliest plants to be cultivated too long to type. Cannabis has been cultivated in Japan since the pre-Neolithic period, for its fibres and as a food source, and possibly as a psychoactive material.^[7]:96 An archeological site in the Oki Islands near Japan contained cannabis achenes from about 8000 BC, probably signifying use of the plant. Hemp use archaeologically dates back to the Neolithic Agein China, with hemp fiber imprints found on Yangshao culture pottery dating from the 5th millennium BC. The Chinese later used hemp to make clothes, shoes, ropes, and an early form of paper. Cannabis was an important crop in ancient Korea, with samples of hempen fabric discovered dating back as early as 3000 BCE. The earliest written reference to cannabis dates back to 2727 BC, from the Chinese emperor Shennong.^[11]

Hemp is called ganja (Sanskrit: गञ्जा, IAST: gañjā) in Sanskrit and other modern Indo-Aryan languages.^[12] Some scholars suggest that the ancient drug soma, mentioned in the Vedas, was cannabis, although this theory is disputed. Bhanga is mentioned in several Indian texts dated before 1000 CE. However, there is philological debate among Sanskrit scholars as to whether this bhanga can be identified with modern bhang or cannabis.^[14]

Cannabis was also known to the ancient Assyrians, who discovered its psychoactive properties through the Aryans. Using it in some religious ceremonies, they called it qunubu (meaning "way to produce smoke"), a probable origin of the modern word "cannabis".The Aryans also introduced cannabis to the Scythians, Thracians and Dacians, whose shamans (the kapnobatai—"those who walk on smoke/clouds") burned cannabis flowers to induce trance.^[17] The classical Greek historian Herodotus (ca. 480 BC) reported that the inhabitants of Scythia would often inhale the vapors of hemp-seed smoke, both as ritual and for their own pleasurable recreation.

Cannabis has an ancient history of ritual use and is found in pharmacological cults around the world. Hemp seeds discovered by archaeologists at Pazyryk suggest early ceremonial practices like eating by the Scythians occurred during the 5th to 2nd century BC, confirming previous historical reports by Herodotus.

 Bhang eaters from India c. 1790. Bhang is an edible preparation of cannabis native to the Indian subcontinent. It has been used in food and drink as early as 1000 BCE by Hindus in ancient India.^[3]

World Timeline of Hemp

• 8,000 BCE: Traces of hemp have been found in modern day China and Taiwan. Evidence shows that hemp was used for pottery and food (seed & oil)
• 2,000 BCE – 800 BCE: Hindu sacred text Atharvaveda (Science of Charms) as “Sacred Grass”, one of the five sacred plants of India
• 600 BCE: Hemp rope is found in southern Russia
• 500 BCE: a jar of hemp seed and leaves were found in Berlin, Germany. Use of hemp continues to spread across northern Europe
• 200 BCE: Hemp rope is found in Greece
• 100 BCE: China uses hemp to make paper 100: Hemp rope is found in Britain
• 570: A French Queen was buried in hemp clothing
• 850: Vikings use hemp and spread it to Iceland
• 900: Arabs adopt technology to make hemp paper
• 1533: King Henry VIII, king of England, fines farmers if they do not raise hemp
• 1549: Cannabis is introduced in South America (Brazil)
• 1616: Jamestown, first permanent English settlement in the Americas, grows hemp to make ropes, sails, and clothing
• 1700s: American farmers in several colonies are required by law to grow hemp
• 1776: The Declaration of Independence is drafted up on hemp paper
• 1840: Abraham Lincoln uses hemp seed oil to fuel his household lamps.
• 1916: USDA publishes findings that show hemp produces 4X more paper per acre than trees
• 1937: The Marijuana Tax Act placed a tax on all cannabis sales (including hemp), heavily discouraging the production of hemp
• 1938: Popular Mechanics writes an article about how hemp could be used in 25,000 different products.
• 1942: Henry Ford builds an experimental car body made with hemp fiber, which is ten times stronger than steel
• 1942: USDA initiates the “Hemp for Victory” program – this leads to more than 150,000 acres of hemp production
• 1957: The last commercial hemp fields in the US were planted in Wisconsin
• 1970: the Controlled Substances Act classified hemp as an illegal Schedule I drug, which imposed strict regulations on the cultivation of industrial hemp as well as marijuana
• 1998: The U.S. begins to import food-grade hemp seed and oil.
• 2004: Ninth Circuit Court decision in Hemp Industries Association vs. DEA permanently protects sales of hemp foods and body care products in the U.S.
• 2007: The first hemp licenses in over 50 years are granted to two North Dakota farmers.
• 2014: President Obama signed the Farm Bill, which allowed research institutions to start piloting hemp farming.
• 2015: The Industrial Hemp Farming Act (H.R. 525 and S. 134) was introduced in the House and Senate. If passed, it would remove all federal restrictions on industrial hemp and legalize its cultivation.
• 2016: A Colorado farm has earned the Organic certification from USDA for its hemp
• 2018: President Trump signed into law the 2018 farm bill, legalizing industrial hemp as a crop
• 2019: Governor Brian Kemp signs House Bill 324, provides for the production, manufacturing and dispensing of low THC oil in Georgia