Was there marijuana in the Wild West?

Yellowstone was a huge success – but it makes you wonder: was there grass in the Wild West?

Some would say today's cannabis industry is a Wild West, but was there weed in the days of cowboys, outlaws and cattle drives? Yellowstone is a huge hit and followed on from Deadwood, which brought back the Western. Baby boomers grew up with Bonanza, Wild Wild West, Big Valley and more, so the idea of ​​the guy on a horse riding across the pasture is pretty set. You see them with tobacco, but how about a blunt?

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We know they drank. For an estimated population of about 400,000 people in the American borderland between the Sierras and the Pacific, a remarkable amount of alcohol was imported in 1853 alone. This included 20,000 barrels of whiskey (about 650,000 gallons) and 400 barrels of rum (13,000 gallons). And beer, which is somewhat different from today's, was huge – 2 million gallons in 1853. So they were all about the high.

Cowboys lived a hard life and money was hard to come by. Marijuana was a cheap alternative to tobacco and because it was ubiquitous in the West in the late 19th century, it was available wherever tobacco was not available. This remained the case at least until the 1930s and to some extent even after the criminalization of marijuana possession and use among the indigent until the 1950s. Federal restrictions on cannabis use and sale first occurred in 1937 with the passage of the Marijuana Tax Act.

Cowboys had a hard life and cannabis was a balm for it. Smoked, it helped them unwind after a long day. Cowboys worked over 15 hours a day, tending and caring for cattle, working on a ranch and doing other physical labor. A “relaxed” evening often consisted of going outside near a fire to get food and sleeping on the ground. Bathing and changing clothes were rare.

The medical benefits would help them with pain, sleep disorders and chronic pain. This would alleviate

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Did you know that 8 to 12 cowboys herded about 3,000 head of cattle? The unusual daily journey was about 15 miles. Any more would mean that the cattle would lose too much weight and arrive too thin.