Prohibition advocates around the world have long used rhetoric to associate the plant with violence and depravity.
How long have we known cannabis?
According to a study published in the journal Science Advances, the earliest direct evidence of human use of cannabis as a drug was found in a 2,500-year-old cemetery in Central Asia.
How long have we known cannabis?
According to a study published in the journal Science Advances, the earliest direct evidence of human use of cannabis as a drug was found in a 2,500-year-old cemetery in Central Asia.
An international team of researchers analyzed the interior and contents of 10 wooden bowls excavated from burials in the Jirzankal cemetery, a site on the Pamir Plateau in what is now far western China. The bowls contained small stones that had been exposed to high heat, and archaeologists identified them as roasters for burning incense or other herbal substances.
When chemical analysis of the roasters showed that nine out of ten had once contained cannabis, the researchers compared the chemical composition of the samples with that of cannabis plants found 1,000 miles to the east in the Jiayi cemetery, in burials dating from the eighth to sixth centuries B.C.
They saw that the Jirzankal hemp had something that the Jiayi hemp did not: molecular residues of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the chemical responsible for the psychoactive effects of cannabis. The strain of cannabis found in Jiayi is THC-free and was primarily used as a source of fiber for clothing and rope, as well as nutrient-rich oilseeds.
Hemp from Jirzankal contains more mind-altering compounds than ever found in ancient settlements, suggesting that people may have deliberately grown certain varieties of cannabis to produce strong effects or chosen wild plants known for their ability to induce such effects.
Robert Spengler, director of the paleoethnobotanical laboratories at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and co-author of the study, says that the constant flow of people moving across the Pamir Plateau — an important crossroads connecting Central Asia and China with southwest Asia — may have led to the hybridization of local cannabis varieties with varieties from other regions. While hybridization is another factor known to increase the THC potency of psychoactive cannabis varieties, whether this was intentional or just a happy accident is also still unclear.
According to Spengler, the new study demonstrates that as early as 2,500 years ago, people were potentially using certain plants to produce chemicals.
«This is a great example of how closely related and connected humans are to the biotic world around them, and how they put evolutionary pressure on the plants around them» — he says.
The discovery at Jirzankal also provides the first direct evidence that people inhaled burned cannabis plants to obtain its psychoactive effects. No evidence of smoking pipes or similar devices has been found in Asia before contact with the New World in modern times, but inhaling cannabis smoke from a heat source is described by the fifth-century B.C. Greek historian Herodotus, who described in his History how the Scythians, a nomadic tribe living in the Caspian Steppe, purified themselves with cannabis smoke after burying their dead: «The Scythians then take the seeds of this hemp and, crawling under mats, throw them on hot stones, where they smolder and emit such vapors that no Greek steam bath could surpass them. The Scythians howl with joy in the steam bath».
Herodotus also notes that the cannabis plant «grows both by itself and by being sown», which, according to University of North Carolina classics expert Emily Baragwanath, is usually interpreted to mean that the plant has been cultivated, supporting the researcher's ideas about the purposeful hybridization of cannabis.
What's going on in our era?
«I want a damn strong statement on marijuana…I mean a statement on marijuana that will just tear them apart…By God, we're going to hit marijuana, and I want to hit it right in the face...I want to hit it, against legalization and all that» — Richard Nixon, 37th President of the United States.
Before the War on Drugs put marijuana farmers in the spotlight, cannabis was grown openly and commercially on every continent on Earth, as it had been for centuries.
This ancient and extensive history of cannabis cultivation has given rise to the view that the mid-twentieth century prohibition was the first of its kind — the result of racial, political, and economic forces that used marijuana prohibition as an excuse for suppression. Contrary to this version of some historians, who emphasize the continuity of tradition, modern drug laws appear irregular and short-sighted.
In his seminal (and controversial) book on cannabis, The Emperor Wears Naked (which many legalization advocates call «the cannabis bible»), Jack Herer begins by saying, «For millennia, entire families have gathered together to harvest in the cannabis fields during the flowering season and had no idea that one day the U.S. government would lead an international movement to eradicate it».
However, while the massive U.S. war on drugs was unprecedented, it was not the first in history. Marijuana has always been a subject of controversy and conflict since people began growing it. Throughout history, many societies have prohibited the cultivation and use of cannabis.
Common to many repressions is social and economic inequality or distrust of the unknown. When members of minority or lower classes of society used marijuana, authorities often imposed prohibition as a way of suppression and control. Marijuana was perceived as a threat to social order, and eradication began with a ban on cultivation.
An example is the ancient Chinese, who may have been the first to grow cannabis and the first to write about its psychoactive properties. However, they were also probably among the first to reject it as a socially acceptable drug. During the rise of Taoism around 600 BC, cannabis began to be perceived as an antisocial substance: Taoist priests treated it with contempt, considering it a crazy drug reserved for shamans.
This attitude persisted in subsequent eras — and to this day, marijuana is still trying to separate itself from the tainted history of opium in China.
Some Islamic scholars have associated marijuana with a threat to society, fearing its devastating effect on the labor force. As a result, some societies tolerated or ignored hashish use, while others (such as Damascus in 1265) imposed strict prohibitions.
Muslim Sufis, on the other hand, viewed alteration of consciousness as a means of spiritual enlightenment. Mystical Sufis believed that cannabis could be used to achieve direct communication with Allah. These views were not always supported by mainstream Islam.
Sufis often belonged to the lower strata of society, which made their use of marijuana a subject of persecution. In 1253, Sufis were openly growing marijuana in Cairo. The government, claiming Sufism was a threat, organized raids and destroyed the crops. Afterward, however, the Sufis made deals with farmers along the Nile to continue growing cannabis. Such collaborations continued until 1324, when Egyptian authorities destroyed the crops.
In 1378, the situation worsened: farms were burned, farmers were arrested or executed, and cannabis users were punished severely. Despite the repression, demand for hashish remained high, and the cycle of cultivation, consumption and control continued for centuries.
Pagans who grew marijuana promised spiritual enrichment in the here and now, while the church declared cannabis a satanic sacrament and condemned it. Their cultivation was brutally persecuted — they were persecuted, arrested and executed.
Colonial empires, with their constant concern for a powerful army and hardworking labor force, were often wary of marijuana. Although the Spanish were among the first colonizers to encourage the cultivation of hemp in the Americas, their attitude toward marijuana was rather negative.
In 1550, the Spanish governor of Mexico issued an edict restricting the cultivation of cannabis because «natives began using the plant for more than just rope» — note Robert Clark and Mark Merlin in Cannabis: Evolution and Ethnobotany. In South Africa, white descendants of Dutch and British colonizers passed a series of 19th-century laws aimed at curbing the cultivation and use of marijuana by hired Indian agricultural workers, whom whites viewed as a contaminant of society and a threat to civil order.
The Portuguese Empire also struggled to control cannabis. The Portuguese sought to create a strong labor force for cannabis production, but also viewed marijuana as a pernicious vice, especially when used by slaves. As a result, many Portuguese African colonies, including Zambia and Angola, banned marijuana.
However, researchers in the region note that marijuana is «grown virtually everywhere» and is used by «all tribes of the interior», according to a Transnational Institute report.
When the Portuguese brought slaves to Brazil in the 16th century, the slaves brought marijuana seeds with them, which they sewed into their clothing and then germinated upon arrival. The strains they used were likely well adapted to the Brazilian climate — marijuana quickly spread from the coasts to the Amazon and throughout the territory.
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During Portuguese rule, marijuana cultivation was generally legal. However, with Brazil's independence in the early nineteenth century, municipal prohibitions, particularly in Rio de Janeiro, set off a chain reaction of prohibitions throughout the country aimed at curbing marijuana use among the slave population.
One of the reasons for Portugal's lenient attitude toward marijuana cultivation in Brazil was that the Queen of Portugal herself had used it during the Napoleonic Wars. Interestingly, Napoleon's events were not his first association with marijuana.