Cannabis and marijuana history (also known as hemp) started when it is indigenous in Central and South Asia. Contemporary uses of cannabis are as a recreational or medicinal drug, and as a part of religious or spiritual rites; the earliest recorded uses the ate from the 3rd millennium B.C.
The Chinese Emperor Fu His (ca. 2900 B.C.), whom the Chinese credit with bringing civilization to China, seems to have referred to “Ma”, the Chinese word for Cannabis, noting that Cannabis was a very popular medicine that possessed both yin and yang.
Around 2000 B.C., the Egyptians used cannabis to treat sore eyes. And then a century later, doctors in India could be found mixing marijuana with milk to use as an anesthetic. In 200 B.C. the Greeks used marijuana to remedy earaches.
During the Middle Ages, hemp was central to any herbalist’s medicine cabinet. William Turner, the naturalist considered the first English botanist, praised it in his New Herball, published in 1538. It was in the early 1600s when Jamestown settlers brought the marijuana plant, commonly known as hemp, to North America, and throughout the colonial period, hemp fiber was an important export.
Such notable use for cannabis slowed to a screeching halt and was temporarily removed from marijuana history after 1937 when the Marihuana Tax Act effectively banned the drug in the United States.
The History of Marijuana Is Misunderstood
It is a good thing that debates have paved the way to discover that it has many good uses more than what’s been described since Congress passed the Controlled Substances Act in 1970 that classified marijuana as a drug with “no accepted medical use”.
It was in the same year that NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) was founded as a nonprofit, public-interest advocacy group whose mission is to end marijuana prohibition.
Marijuana history was made in America on November 5th, 1996 when voters in California passed a state medical marijuana initiative known as Proposition 215. The legislation permits patients and their primary caregivers, with a physician’s recommendation, to possess and cultivate marijuana for medical use.
Today 60% of Americans support legalizing marijuana for medical use, according to an April 2010 AP-CNBC poll. Many more states now allow the usage of marijuana for certain medical conditions thus giving birth to the term medical marijuana and paving the road for the legal cannabis industry.
Many medical studies have shown that marijuana can help people suffering from a variety of medical conditions. Tumor cells growing in some areas of the body have been scientifically proven to decrease through marijuana use.
Many states are willing to let it help the American economy by imposing taxes on it. People who have been supporting the use and growing of marijuana are expecting that the law changes will soon make their dream happen.
A “New History” For Marijuana
Many marijuana supporters continue to lobby for the widespread legalization of the plant so that many people can reap its benefits.
People may have to wait before the decision on legalizing marijuana may happen in all states of America as different kinds of research are still being done to explore thoroughly its use and effect.
As depicted by marijuana’s mixed history, these researchers are also keen on trying to stay away from the plant’s controversial past. And internationally, there are quite a few countries where people can use marijuana freely.
Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Holland, and Israel are just some of the countries where people can use marijuana recreationally and without worrying about legal consequences.
At the present, the states of Colorado and Washington are now giving their residents certain freedoms regarding the recreational use of marijuana. Marijuana history in the United States is just beginning to be made due to the changes in state laws that allow for medical marijuana and dispensaries to be in business as long as laws have complied.
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