Marijuana (“Cannabis”) Timeline
Marijuana (“Cannabis”) is one of the oldest medicines known to humanity. Cannabis-based preparations have been used throughout history (in hundreds of different cultures), specifically because the active ingredients of the hemp plant can treat and help alleviate a vast number of medical conditions. Marijuana has also been used for thousands of years by individuals and cultures in order to change mood, perception, and consciousness - in other words, to feel “high.” Its effects range from increasing creativity to provoking mystical experiences, to heightening the capacity to feel, sense and share.
Although the exact history of cannabis use throughout time cannot be exactly documented, below is a time-line which summarizes the known, documented uses of Cannabis-based preparations
6000 B.C. Cannabis seeds used for food in China
4000 B.C. Textiles made of hemp are used in China. (Remains from this period have been found).
2727 B.C. First recorded use of cannabis as medicine in Chinese pharmacopoeia. In every part of the world humankind has used cannabis for a wide variety of health problems.
1500 B.C. Cannabis cultivated in China for food and fiber
1500 B.C. Scythians cultivate cannabis and use it to weave fine hemp cloth.
1200-800 BC Bhang (dried cannabis leaves, seeds and stems) is mentioned in the Hindu sacred text Atharva veda (Science of Charms) as "Sacred Grass", one of the five sacred plants of India.
700-600 BC The Zoroastrian Zend-Avesta, an ancient Persian religious text of several hundred volumes, and said to have been written by Zarathustra (Zoroaster), refers to bhang as Zoroaster's "good narcotic"
700-300 BC Scythian tribes leave Cannabis seeds as offerings in royal tombs.
500 BC Scythian couple die and are buried with two small tents covering censers. Attached to one tent stick was a decorated leather pouch containing wild Cannabis seeds. This closely matches the stories told by Herodotus. The gravesite, discovered in the late 1940s, was in Pazryk, northwest of the Tien Shan Mountains in modern-day Khazakstan.
500 B.C. Hemp is introduced into Northern Europe by the Scythians. An urn containing leaves and seeds of the Cannabis plant, unearthed near Berlin, is dated to about this time.
500-100 BC Hemp spreads throughout northern Europe.
430 B.C. Herodotus reports on both ritual and recreation use of Cannabis by the Scythians (Herodotus The Histories 430 B.C. trans. G. Rawlinson).
100 - 0 BCE The psychotropic properties of Cannabis are mentioned in the newly compiled herbal Pen Ts'ao Ching which is attributed to an emperor c. 2700 B.C.
0 - 100 A.D. Construction of Samartian gold and glass paste stash box for storing hashish, coriander, or salt, buried in Siberian tomb.
70 AD Dioscorides mentions the use of Cannabis as a Roman medicament.
170 Galen (Roman) alludes to the psychoactivity of Cannabis seed confections.
500 - 600 The Jewish Talmud mentions the euphoriant properties of Cannabis. (Abel 1980)
900 - 1000 Scholars debate the pros and cons of eating hashish. Use spreads throughout Arabia.
1090 - 1256 In Khorasan, Persia, Hasan ibn al-Sabbah, the Old Man of the Mountain, recruits followers to commit assassinations...legends develop around their supposed use of hashish. These legends are some of the earliest written tales of the discovery of the inebriating powers of Cannabis and the supposed use of Hashish. 1256 Alamut falls
1200-1399 Hashish smoking very popular throughout the Middle East.
12th Century Cannabis is introduced in Egypt during the reign of the Ayyubid dynasty on the occasion of the flooding of Egypt by mystic devotees coming from Syria. (M.K. Hussein 1957 - Soueif 1972)
1155 - 1221 Persian legend of the Sufi master Sheik Haidar's of Khorasan's personal discovery of Cannabis and its subsequent spread to Iraq, Bahrain, Egypt and Syria. Another of the earliest written narratives of the use of Cannabis as an inebriant.
13th Century The oldest monograph on hashish, Zahr al-'arish fi tahrim al-hashish, was written. It has since been lost.
13th Century Ibn al-Baytar of Spain provides a description of psychoactive Cannabis.
13th Century Arab traders bring Cannabis to the Mozambique coast of Africa.
1231 Hashish introduced to Iraq in the reign of Caliph Mustansir (Rosenthal 1971)
1271 - 1295 Journeys of Marco Polo in which he gives second-hand reports of the story of Hasan ibn al-Sabbah and his "assassins" using hashish. First time reports of Cannabis have been brought to the attention of Europe.
1378 Ottoman Emir Soudoun Scheikhouni issues one of the first edicts against the eating of hashish.
1526 Babur Nama, first emperor and founder of Mughal Empire learned of hashish in Afghanistan.
1549 Angolan slaves brought cannabis with them to the sugar plantations of northeastern Brazil. They were permitted to plant their cannabis between rows of cane, and to smoke it between harvests. 3
16th Century The epic poem, Benk u Bode, by the poet Mohammed Ebn Soleiman Foruli of Baghdad, deals allegorically with a dialectical battle between wine and hashish.
17th Century Use of hashish, alcohol, and opium spreads among the population of occupied Constantinople
1606-1632 French and British cultivate Cannabis for hemp at their colonies in Port Royal (1606), Virginia (1611), and Plymouth (1632). 3
17th Century Hashish becomes a major trade item between Central Asia and South Asia.
1798 Napoleon discovers that much of the Egyptian lower class habitually uses hashish (Kimmens 1977). He declares a total prohibition. Soldiers returning to France bring the tradition with them.
19th Century Hashish production expands from Russian Turkestan into Yarkand in Chinese Turkestan.
1840 In America, medicinal preparations with a Cannabis base are available. Hashish available in Persian pharmacies.
1843 Le Club des Hachichins, or Hashish Eater's Club, established in Paris.
after 1850 Hashish appears in Greece.
1856 British tax trade in India
1870 - 1880 First reports of hashish smoking on Greek mainland
c. 1875 Cultivation for hashish introduced to Greece
1890 Greek Department of Interior prohibits importance, cultivation and use of hashish.
1890 Hashish made illegal in Turkey
1893 - 1894 The India Hemp Drugs Commission Report is issued.
1893 - 1894 70,000 to 80,000 kg of hashish legally imported into India from Central Asia each year.
1906 United States Pure Food and Drug Act is passed, regulating the labeling of products containing Alcohol, Opiates, Cocaine, and Cannabis, among others. The law went into effect Jan 1, 1907.
Early 20th Century Hashish smoking very popular throughout the Middle East.
1915 - 1927 Cannabis begins to be prohibited for nonmedical use in the U.S., especially in SW states...California (1915), Texas (1919), Louisiana (1924), and New York (1927).
1920 Metaxus dictators in Greece crack down on hashish smoking.
1920s Hashish smuggled into Egypt from Greece, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, and Central Asia
1926 Lebanese hashish production peaks after World War I until prohibited in 1926.
1928 Recreational use of Cannabis is banned in Britain.
1920s - 1930s High-quality hashish produced in Turkey near Greek border.
1930 Yarkand region of Chinese Turkestan exports 91,471 kg of hashish legally into the Northwest Frontier and Punjab regions of India
1930s Legal taxed imports of hashish continue into India from Central Asia.
1934 - 1935 Chinese government moves to end all Cannabis cultivation in Yarkand. Both licit and illicit hashish production become illegal in Chinese Turkestan.
1936 Propaganda film "Reefer Madness" made to scare American youth away from using Cannabis.
1937 Cannabis made federally illegal in the U.S. with the passage of the Marihuana Tax Act.
1938 Supply of hashish from Chinese Turkestan nearly ceases.
1940s Greek hashish smoking tradition fades.
1941 Indian government considers cultivation in Kashmir to fill void of hashish from Chinese Turkestan.
1941 - 1942 Hand-rubbed charas from Nepal is choicest hashish in India during World War II.
1945 Legal hashish consumption continues in India
1945 - 1955 Hashish use in Greece flourishes again
1950s Hashish still smuggled into India from Chinese Central Asia
1950s Moroccan government tacitly allows kif cultivation in Rif Mountains.
1962 First hashish made in Morocco.
1963 Turkish police seize 2.5 tons of hashish
1965 Mustafa comes to Ketama in Morocco to make hashish from local kif.
1966 The Moroccan government attempts to purge kif growers from Rif Mountains.
1967 "Smash", the first hashish oil appears. Red Lebanese reaches California.
Early 1970s Afghani hashish is popularized.
1970 - 1973 Huge fields of Cannabis cultivated for hashish production in Afghanistan.
1972 The Nixon-appointed Shafer Commission urged use of cannabis be re-legalized, but their recommendation was ignored. Medical research continues.
Early 1970s Lebanese red and blonde hashish of very high-quality exported. The highest quality Turkish hashish from Gaziantep near Syria appears in Western Europe.
Early 1970s Afghani hashish varieties introduced to North America for sinsemilla production. Westerners bring metal sieve cloths to Afghanistan. Law enforcement efforts against hashish begin in Afghanistan
1973 Nepal bans the Cannabis shops and charas (hand-rolled hash) export.
1973 Afghan government makes hashish production and sales illegal.
1975 FDA establishes Compassionate Use program for medical marijuana.
Late 1970s Increasing manufacture of "modern" Afghani hashish. Cannabis varieties from Afghanistan imported into Kashmir for sieved hashish production.
1980s Morocco becomes one of, if not the largest, hashish producing and exporting nations.
1980s "Border" hashish produced in northwestern Pakistan along the Afghan border to avoid Soviet-Afghan war.
Early 1980s Quality of Lebanese hashish declines.
1983 - 1984 Small amounts of the last high-quality Turkish hashish appear.
1985 Hashish still produced by Muslims of Kashgar and Yarkland (NW China).
1988 DEA administrative law Judge Francis Young finds after thorough hearings that marijuana has clearly established medical use and should be reclassified as a prescriptive drug. His recommendation is ignored.
Early 1990s Large appearance of locally produced hashish in Amsterdam coffee shops.
1993 Cannabis eradication efforts resume in Morocco.
1994 Heavy fighting between rival Muslim clans continues to upset hashish trade in Afghanistan
1994 Border hashish still produced in Pakistan.
1996 Jurisdictions within in the United States begin to decriminalize medical marijuana use.
Oct 23, 2001 Britain's Home Secretary, David Blunkett, proposes relaxing the classification of cannabis from a class B to class C.
June 2003 Canada is first country in the world to offer medical marijuana to its patients.
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