How we got here today

420 looms, so why not look at the origins and spread of cannabis? The facility was already there, so it would be nice to know how we got here today.

Like many domesticated plants, cannabis has a point of origin. It started as a wild plant in parts of Central and East Asia. Humans then began cultivating the plant around 12,000 years ago in what is now modern China. Back then, we used cannabis as hemp, which we turned into fiber for making clothes and other useful uses.

When we first started using cannabis as a drug, the archaeological record is not all that clear. The earliest records of marijuana date back to around 2,500 years ago. But we also have concrete scientific evidence that humans cultivated cannabis specifically for drug use 4,000 years ago. But even that date isn’t a concrete starting point because we’ve probably been using cannabis as a drug long before that.

The spread of cannabis to Europe and Africa

From its humble beginnings, cannabis began to spread in both its hemp and THC-infused drug forms around 3,000 to 2,000 years ago. It arrived in the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent around this time. Both regions have a long history with cannabis. In the Indian subcontinent, the Vedic scriptures describe the plant and its wonderful healing properties. In the Middle East, hashish became a well-known drug and formed the basis of the English word “assassin”.

Cannabis then leaves its native continent of Asia and emerges in Europe in Africa. Shortly after arriving in the Middle East, the plant appears throughout Eastern Europe. Scientists suspect that the ancient Scythians, an ancient nomadic people, brought the plant over. Cannabis seemed to be particularly popular with the continent’s Germanic tribes. Researchers have found cannabis seeds on Viking ships, and it was the Anglo-Saxons who sailed around 1,200 BC. brought cannabis to Britain.

The arrival of marijuana in Africa comes a little later, around 700 BC. The advent of the plant is closely linked to the spread of Islam around this time. Eventually, as the Rashidun Caliphate spread across the Arabian Peninsula and the Levant, they found themselves in North Africa. Interestingly, the caliphate circled the Mediterranean and found itself in southern Spain, bringing marijuana with it.

To the New World and how we got here today

The arrival of cannabis in America came a little later. The plant was not native to either continent, and the vast expanses of water separating it from the Old World meant cannabis would not arrive until later. European ships brought cannabis to South America in the 16th century and to the Caribbean in the 18th century. Much of Latin America and the Caribbean has a strong history with cannabis. In Jamaica, for example, cannabis plays a crucial ritual role in Rastafarianism.

Marijuana then made its way north to the United States and Canada in the 20th century. Hemp was already coming from British settlers, but we didn’t get marijuana until Mexican immigrants left for the United States during the Mexican Revolution. Stricter regulations quickly followed, even though North America has been growing hemp for centuries.

As we can see, cannabis has had a long history since its origins in Asia. Since then it has grown into a global plant with a rich history in many parts of the world.