A Brief History of Marijuana Prohibition, Pt. 1

While almost everyone know something about marijuana, most people don't know a lot about this plant and drug.  Marijuana is one of many names given to the cannabis plant, particularly to the flowering bud of the plant.   The cannabis plant and it's use are nothing new, far from it, it's use has been documented as far back as 2737 BC.  A Chinese medical journal from that year is the first documented mention of the medicinal use of the plant.    The journal mentioned the euphoric effects of the plant, but focused on it's use as a treatment for gout, rheumatism, malaria and absent-mindedness.

Use of the plant spread from China into India then Africa, finally reaching Europe around 500 B.C.  It was in the 1500's that Marijuana finally came to America.  It was introduced in Jamestown and immediately became one of the predominant crops grown by settlers. 

 In the 1600's the first marijuana laws in America were established.  But these laws weren't against growing or using the cannabis plant, on the contrary, these laws required settlers to grow the plant! This plant was so in demand from it's many uses that they couldn't grow enough of it fast enough! Cannabis fibers were used to make hemp cloth and hemp rope, a huge staple in the world shipping industry, and hemp paper was becoming more popular. Cannabis hemp was even legal tender in most of America all the way through the 1800s and it could be used to pay your taxes for over 200 years.

George Washington and Thomas Jefferson both grew large crops of cannabis on their plantations and the U.S. census of 1850 stated that there were 8,327 hemp plantations already established in the new world.  Benjamin Franklin established one of the first paper mills in America producing paper from cannabis.  In his book, The Emperor Wears No Clothes, activist Jack Herer solidly establishes the cannabis plant as one of the most useful and valuable crops on the planet (if not the most). As for medicinal uses, various cannabis extracts were the first, second, and third most prescribed medicines in the United States from the 1840s through the 1890s.  Throughout all this time of heavy use, there were no deaths or negative effects reported except for some reports of novice users becoming temporarily disoriented or introverted.  Marijuana remained legal and continued to be used medically until the 1930s.