History of Marijuana

Here is the story of cannabis, aka marijuana. Today it is illegal in most places, but that likely is to soon change, especially after people watch this video.

Music by Electric Needle Room and Daniel Lewis Diedrich.
All images found in the public domain or fall under fair use guidelines.

Sources:
Erich Goode and Nachman Ben-Yehuda. Moral Panics: The Social Construction of Deviance

Martin Booth. Cannabis: A History

Martin A. Lee. Smoke Signals: A Social History of Marijuana: Medical, Recreational, and Scientific.

Grass: The History of Marijuana.

Bruce Barcott. Weed the People: The Future of Legal Marijuana in America.

John Charles Chasteen. Getting High: Marijuana through the Ages

John Hudak. Marijuana: A Short History

http://leg.mt.gov/content/Committees/Interim/2009_2010/Children_Family/Emerging-Issue/mmga-presentation-cannabis-history-aug2010.pdf

http://www.medicaldaily.com/brief-history-medical-cannabis-ancient-anesthesia-modern-dispensary-370344

https://books.google.com/books?id=r9wPbxMAG8cC&pg=PA10&lpg=PA10&dq=Shen+Neng+marijuana&source=bl&ots=TrkGy5KnCu&sig=RvNuvRvVIwaWJiY7EBKzyLmdEuA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjh_sLX9vjQAhUM8WMKHcKyBt8Q6AEIPDAF#v=onepage&q=Shen%20Neng%20marijuana&f=false

https://www.cannabis-med.org/data/pdf/2002-02-3.pdf

http://time.com/4298038/marijuana-history-in-america/

http://origins.osu.edu/article/illegalization-marijuana-brief-history

http://www.alternet.org/story/77339/debunking_the_hemp_conspiracy_theory

Why is Marijuana Illegal?

http://medicalmarijuana.procon.org/view.timeline.php?timelineID=000026

Podcast episode:
https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/iammrbeat/episodes/2016-12-28T09_11_05-08_00

Once upon a time there was a plant called cannabis. Since as far back as 10,000 years ago, it was one of the first crops grown when farming began. Hemp, a variety of the cannabis plant, had consistently been used in places like ancient China to create stuff like clothing and rope. Hemp was and still is non psychoactive, which means it doesn’t affect the mind or mental processes because its THC levels are so low. In other words, smoking it will not get you high.

The first recorded use of the cannabis that does get you high was in approximately 2,737 BCE. Emperor Shen Neng of China used the plant as medicine for things like gout, malaria, and poor memory. You heard that right.

Throughout the next 3,000 years, cannabis use for medicinal purposes slowly spread throughout Asia and into Europe. The Chinese mixed it into food. In ancient India, they mixed into a drink called bhang. (bang)

In the second century CE, the Greek doctor Galen prescribed cannabis as medicine. Prior to that in Greece, cannabis seeds had been consumed recreationally.

Soon after this, the Chinese doctor Hua Tuo (Hwa Toe) used cannabis to relieve pain for patients undergoing surgery. He would ground it and mix it with wine.

During the Middle Ages, cannabis was pretty popular in the Middle East. Muslims there weren’t supposed to drink wine, but ain’t nobody said they couldn’t smoke grass! That’s what they actually called it. Well, they called it hashish. (Hasheesh) However, the Arabic doctor Ibn Wahshiyah (eebeen washeeuh) did warn about its potential dangers.

Christopher Columbus brought rope made out of hemp on his first voyage to the New World in 1492. Both the French and the British had their colonists grow cannabis in the New World. During the 1600s, cannabis grew even more popular, and became a major thing to trade between South and Central Asia.

In the 1700s, doctors everywhere recommended cannabis as medicine. The Irish doctor William O’Shaughnessy, in particular, helped popularize its medical use for pain treatment. However, in 1798, Napoleon learned that many of his soldiers had started smoking cannabis while in Egypt and had brought the habit back with them to France. In response, he outlawed the plant.

Still, cannabis remained popular. In the 1800s, cannabis plantations were scattered around the United States. Doctors regularly prescribed it and it was easy to buy in general stores. By now, people traded for cannabis all around the world and its use dramatically increased.
By the end of the 1800s, though, attitudes toward cannabis had started to change. A growing number of people were freaking out about drugs, as alcoholism and opium addiction were dramatically on the rise.

50 Comments

  1. Stefan JN on May 6, 2019 at 4:47 pm

    Great Job with this video!



  2. Pamela Rice on May 6, 2019 at 4:47 pm

    Get high, bring down your civilization, make your enemies happy. Stay straight, find personal and cultural success.



  3. Elijah Ford on May 6, 2019 at 4:47 pm

    Marijunah’s bad. M’kay.



  4. Chad Lozano on May 6, 2019 at 4:47 pm

    1978 New Mexico legalized Medical cannabis, Look it up! ;). Cali wasnt the first state, NM was!



  5. TheReddPerkins on May 6, 2019 at 4:53 pm

    Anslinger sounds like he would get along with our current administration



  6. Paul Helton on May 6, 2019 at 4:54 pm

    No I’m not saying that I’m against the legalization of marijuana but your one of your facts is misleading at 10:08 in how you stated drugs are scheduled according to their danger. That’s not true. According to the DEA’s website, "Drugs, substances, and certain chemicals used to make drugs are classified into five (5) distinct categories or schedules depending upon the drug’s acceptable medical use and the drug’s potential for abuse."



  7. Audrey Lukas on May 6, 2019 at 4:55 pm

    It’s true it’s very dangerous, I too smoked one weed and killed my whole family w and axe



  8. Creg Smith on May 6, 2019 at 4:57 pm

    You got one of the easiest parts of history wrong. When CO legalized, it did it by grass roots efforts. The CO State Government cared, but they allowed it because they feared a backlash.



  9. Jarod David on May 6, 2019 at 4:59 pm

    Damn that’s crazy, California the first to illegalize it, and the second to legalize it



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  11. Elijah Ford on May 6, 2019 at 5:00 pm

    Fucking bigots.



  12. Kade Rowe on May 6, 2019 at 5:00 pm

    Whoa! That was like a really good video man!



  13. Kijiji User on May 6, 2019 at 5:02 pm


  14. CAPTAIN FLIPPY BIRDS on May 6, 2019 at 5:03 pm

    I fired up my pipe and watched this..
    Hope I can remember it.
    So, the astronauts drank
    BHANG?
    WOWIE, what a trip they must have had! 😵🚀



  15. Ignacio Vega on May 6, 2019 at 5:04 pm

    thanks brother!



  16. Faysal Farah on May 6, 2019 at 5:06 pm

    Whoevers Watching this please don smoke weed it could kill you know that you know please don smoke weed



  17. birdsdaword on May 6, 2019 at 5:07 pm

    Back in the 90s I studied the cannabinoid receptor in grad school. This was hot new research back then, since endorphins had been discovered not too long before.



  18. Salt Sniffer on May 6, 2019 at 5:09 pm

    I love it!

    Heh heh



  19. Pamela Rice on May 6, 2019 at 5:09 pm

    Eschew drugs, you self-centered slovenly hippie.



  20. RoboGraham on May 6, 2019 at 5:10 pm

    I wonder how much more advanced medicinal cannabis treatments would be today if not for the prohibition fiasco of the previous century.



  21. Shiva Hemant on May 6, 2019 at 5:11 pm

    Well your video is outdated already. At 15:23 Canada is fully legal and so is New York. Right?



  22. Shane Nelson on May 6, 2019 at 5:11 pm

    drugs are good



  23. Elijah Ford on May 6, 2019 at 5:12 pm

    Marijuana



  24. Zachary Prosser on May 6, 2019 at 5:12 pm

    All we need to do is legalize all drugs on all government levels and regulate the drugs as well as open clinics to be visited by those that want their opioid or amphetamine fix so they can be brought bacl after overdosing.



  25. pdude1911 on May 6, 2019 at 5:13 pm

    Nice work! Greets from The Netherlands 🙂



  26. Beautiful World on May 6, 2019 at 5:16 pm

    Weed not for everyone



  27. Andre Breitler on May 6, 2019 at 5:16 pm

    doctors are on cocaine



  28. Louis on May 6, 2019 at 5:16 pm

    This was very informative! Thanks for making this.



  29. That cat productions on May 6, 2019 at 5:18 pm

    I dis not learn Jamestown was a weed farm wow okay



  30. Name Commingled on May 6, 2019 at 5:18 pm

    I thought the term Hash came from the ‘Hashashins’ or something like that? Some military types like the gurkas of some sort



  31. SKT on May 6, 2019 at 5:19 pm

    jeff sessions needs to see this



  32. viziunz13 V13 on May 6, 2019 at 5:19 pm

    annoying ass cell phone and elevator noices in this video making me fuckin paranoid…jesus christ



  33. Sleppypiggy on May 6, 2019 at 5:20 pm

    Literally everybody agrees that we should legalize it except boomers in Washington and the private prisons



  34. Sam D on May 6, 2019 at 5:20 pm

    Fear is the root of all evil.



  35. Connor Oulton on May 6, 2019 at 5:24 pm

    Weed plants are really pretty plants



  36. Atomic Reverend Alexander on May 6, 2019 at 5:25 pm

    Hippies smell like the way I presume a skunks ass smells like.



  37. Beneath The Surface on May 6, 2019 at 5:25 pm

    I took me a marijuana while I watched this…



  38. Elijah Ford on May 6, 2019 at 5:29 pm

    Legalize Marijuanah!



  39. MarkBTW on May 6, 2019 at 5:29 pm

    15:25 Since when is weed decriminalized in Nebraska, Arkansas, Tennesse, etc? I don’t think that map is 100% accurate.



  40. dugroz on May 6, 2019 at 5:31 pm

    Question — how is marijuana legal in states like Washington and Colorado when the federal laws against selling it have never (yet) been overturned? Or is the Fed just like "meh, whatever."



  41. M Daze on May 6, 2019 at 5:34 pm

    Yet another reason to dislike Napolean. Kill joy.



  42. Scot Naber on May 6, 2019 at 5:35 pm

    we should have left the likes at 420



  43. Your Mama on May 6, 2019 at 5:36 pm

    #420



  44. jason Geer on May 6, 2019 at 5:38 pm

    How dare you bash on donuts donuts are awesome!



  45. Adam Mangler on May 6, 2019 at 5:39 pm

    Well, I tried cannabis a couple of times, but it does nothing for me except scatter my thoughts and make me _more_ forgetful. It certainly does nothing for pain (but maybe it makes you forget you had it earlier on?) It’s worst effects are for younger children – you should look out the studies on that. Otherwise, apart from posing similar dangers to tobacco, I suppose it’s not too harmful.



  46. JuJu’s RV Experience on May 6, 2019 at 5:39 pm

    That was very educational. Thanks for posting!



  47. Lasstpak on May 6, 2019 at 5:41 pm

    I still don’t get why there is so much antagonism against cannabis. Even though it was part of Western culture almost as long as alcohol..



  48. Hatem Nabih on May 6, 2019 at 5:41 pm

    But hashish is actually cannabis resin, and it’s really really bad, but it still means grass though.
    and actually the Egyptian equivalence of the DEA was founded in 1929, so yes, cannabis in general and other substances were illegal in the thirties.



  49. Mr. Beat on May 6, 2019 at 5:43 pm

    I got interviewed by Robert from Reading Through History about this video. Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHPnjtxwb7c



  50. chris-_-chros on May 6, 2019 at 5:43 pm

    Finally today in lebanon weed and drugs are legal