A Brief 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. Junkhead Sickman on October 13, 2023 at 11:25 am

    Omg it’s Mr Beat, plz give me money 🙏



  2. Raping fish on October 13, 2023 at 11:27 am

    Smoke weed, kids, it’s fun!



  3. Çãësàr Twennyseven on October 13, 2023 at 11:28 am

    Lets smok sum hashish



  4. Mr. Beat on October 13, 2023 at 11:31 am

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



  5. ClassyRawBeef on October 13, 2023 at 11:32 am

    im watching this 5 years it was leglized in canada it’s funny



  6. nero on October 13, 2023 at 11:34 am

    Mr. Beat finally comes out as a POTHEAD !



  7. Promise Speaks on October 13, 2023 at 11:35 am

    Just about everything in this country is rooted in racism, and heavily coated in white supremacy . It’s appalling



  8. GRIMMsus on October 13, 2023 at 11:35 am

    ah yes, the dare program. totally didn’t get tons of kids to use more drugs.



  9. Jayden Iskom on October 13, 2023 at 11:35 am

    I bet that is something people would do. “Hey this shit is good can we like? Make it ourselves” before even thinking of food like that



  10. ha yes mate on October 13, 2023 at 11:36 am

    Mr beast ?!?!???!😮



  11. Jeff Olley on October 13, 2023 at 11:36 am

    The medical benefits as you have also stated go back thousands of years. To me sounds very much like the probation against alcohol do your research that was to kill the ethanol industry that was thriving at that time it has nothing to do with with its use but big company’s can not make any money from it. So follow the money who has the most to gain from such things including resent events.



  12. David Johnson on October 13, 2023 at 11:36 am

    In other words the evil stuff alcohol n opiates pushed out the good helpful. Now after many prayers ppl can legally get it in some places. Alcohol n opiates kill marijuana never killed nobody



  13. Ryder Cahill on October 13, 2023 at 11:38 am

    U.S. Government be like, "NO DRUGS, DRUGS BAD!" also U.S. Government, "You flood the streets with crack, on the low."



  14. drip jesus on October 13, 2023 at 11:38 am

    mr breast give me money



  15. 14k on October 13, 2023 at 11:39 am

    Y’all should remember that sugar is more fatal in smaller amounts than weed



  16. Mi Ka El on October 13, 2023 at 11:40 am

    Once upon a time in 1903 a propaganda film called Refer Madness fooled the world into a 120 year long drug war that solved no problems. The End. Okay time to smoke a joint.



  17. Samson Shofoluwe on October 13, 2023 at 11:41 am

    My mum should see this



  18. hurricanesteve65 on October 13, 2023 at 11:41 am

    When I worked in a state ran psyche hospital back in 1987, it’s long closed down now but I met a ww2 vet who was a patient there. He got caught smoking a joint on the deck of the ship he was serving in the navy in 1940. He got a life sentence for it !



  19. Rodney Reno on October 13, 2023 at 11:43 am

    Great informative video:)



  20. Vordaze on October 13, 2023 at 11:46 am

    A drug is a drug. Alcohol and tobacco are drugs too. All drugs should be banned: alcohol, marijuana etc.



  21. Alibaba on October 13, 2023 at 11:46 am

    BCE = Before Christ’s Era. You should just say BC though



  22. ridiculous P on October 13, 2023 at 11:46 am

    I’ve smoked that shit for 30 years ,all it does is releve the stress in life ,on the flip side it is addictive it used enough, and tends to make someone a certain way ,all users know this ,the problem is with synthetic cannabis which is in spray form ,hard to detect without a lab or test kit ,and is as addictive as crack and heroin ,this is the way its going ,so in the future ,I will only smoke from a traceable supply



  23. Xontyr on October 13, 2023 at 11:48 am

    That’s the only time I’ll laugh at someone saying "he killed his entire family with an axe!" Boh my goodness. Hopefully it’s not true and just propaganda, if so, it was the bud that did it. It was his outlying mental state.



  24. Richard Martin on October 13, 2023 at 11:48 am

    It’s almost as if it was totally legal until the modern pharmaceutical system realized how much money they would lose. Now there is so much negative stigma held by those who have never tried it, or only tried it as a teenage, that people are scared of the consequences of every pothead from here to Timbuktu running around chewing their own dicks off or something.



  25. Stevo's YouTube on October 13, 2023 at 11:49 am

    😂 I still find it hilarious that any human thinks that they have the right to tell another human what they can or can’t consume, especially when it’s literally a plant given to us by God.



  26. Steven Villacis on October 13, 2023 at 11:50 am

    HEY MR BEATT! I really like your content and fo the last couple of years and you have inspired me to work on similar "crazy" projects with your unique style of commedy! I’d love to share with you a mini series we did with a couple of my friends based on a crazy dude kidnaping people to force them to be part of THE WORSE SHOW NOT ON TV! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHGKLdsnB5E I hope you like it 😀



  27. jayne sager on October 13, 2023 at 11:52 am

    We own a medical/recreational dispensary. I can see many benefits in pain management (people prefer it to highly-addictive prescription drugs), and managing addiction, PTSD, anxiety, sleep issues, Parkinson’s or just for having fun.



  28. hurricanesteve65 on October 13, 2023 at 11:54 am

    William Randolph Hearst payed the govt to outlaw it. Look it up.



  29. Patrick Sanabria on October 13, 2023 at 11:54 am

    6 years later it’s still headed positively just very slowly



  30. Ben Owens on October 13, 2023 at 11:55 am

    Weeeeeeeeed 🌿



  31. ken bail on October 13, 2023 at 11:56 am

    Shows how people are so easily misinformed. Educate yourself. I use to smoke it but stopped manh years ago. But it isnt bad like people have made it to be. Alcohol is worse



  32. C Mills on October 13, 2023 at 11:58 am

    AI will free man the pain of freewill😅



  33. Nikolai Rau on October 13, 2023 at 12:01 pm

    Mr. Beat, do you know the German song: "Gebt das Hanf frei."? XD😅



  34. Christian Nordland on October 13, 2023 at 12:04 pm

    who els is faded watchin this



  35. Sc0tt_tt on October 13, 2023 at 12:07 pm

    23 states now!



  36. Caleb & Josh on October 13, 2023 at 12:08 pm

    Mr Beat, how much do you smoke a week.



  37. Ryan Margate on October 13, 2023 at 12:10 pm

    Negroes, Hispanics and Filipinos… yeah. We Filipinos know that our ancestors used it for medical purposes. I just don’t know why our country banned it too. I hope it gets legalized again.



  38. iChamp on October 13, 2023 at 12:10 pm

    “The first man to ever smoke Marijuana never smoked it he inhaled it. He was a Chinese man, a very great man”-Joey Diaz JRE 1140

    So joey was right lol



  39. DAVID on October 13, 2023 at 12:11 pm

    @2:09 what is the name of thise type of structure/fortification? or what is the name of rhe people who made these

    I am interested to read about it. cheers



  40. Exterminate123 on October 13, 2023 at 12:12 pm

    U lost all credibility when u said they called weed "hashish" lmao. Hasish is not the same as weed flower. I’d normally say you’re high but uve clearly never smoked weed in ur life lol



  41. First name Last name on October 13, 2023 at 12:13 pm

    Mr. Beat, smokin’ dem tweeds? Say it ain’t so



  42. day baek on October 13, 2023 at 12:13 pm

    shen nung was not a real emperor. he was a mythological figure.



  43. C Mills on October 13, 2023 at 12:15 pm

    AI will free man the pain of freewill😅



  44. Kamen Neikoo on October 13, 2023 at 12:16 pm

    Cannabis can grow everywhere, hemp is even better at it, however back in the day hemp contained more THC than it does now, at a level over 1.5-2% meaning it got you lightly stoned



  45. Haiden on October 13, 2023 at 12:19 pm

    who else is smoking a bowl watching this?



  46. Moutoslav on October 13, 2023 at 12:19 pm

    mrbreast



  47. Snobdoggle on October 13, 2023 at 12:21 pm

    Only thing im violent against when i smoke is food and my girls cheeks 😂



  48. freddythegoof on October 13, 2023 at 12:21 pm

    So in conclusion for 50 years they tried to take away something that humans have been using for thousands of years but failed and now they’re legalizing it because they’ve realized that they’re missing out on a lot of money.



  49. Steven Mann on October 13, 2023 at 12:21 pm

    Harry anslinger is one of the shittiest human beings to ever grace human kind of all time . Seriously. Change my mind.



  50. Michael Wicks on October 13, 2023 at 12:22 pm

    Ah, in my country it’s fine for me to buy 3 bottles of whisky and sit down and drink myself to death, but if I take a plant seed and harvest and consume it I can go to prison, whhaaaa, the drug laws in this world are totally bizzare, how can someone stop me from growing one of God’s plants and enjoying it’s benefits, that is not a free world 😱