A Giant-Sized History Of Cannabis

Posted on by Brian Colwell

Cannabis is an amazing plant with a rich history tied closely to the growth of civilization, playing a pivotal role in agriculture, textiles, medicine and trade. The history of cannabis can be divided into two eras:

  • Ancient History to 1900 – The discovery and spread of cannabis during the ancient and medieval eras, from agricultural commodity to recreational drug.
  • 1900 to the Modern Era – There was a clear historic change for cannabis around 1900, when views of cannabis in the United States shifted as anti-Mexican sentiment began to rise, and the term for cannabis was switched to “marijuana” to draw attention to the drug’s use by Mexicans. This is an era that represents not only the attempted eradication of cannabis use, but its re-discovery as a diverse and vital medicine.

A Complete History Of Cannabis: From The Beginning To New Beginnings

  • 26,900 BCE: Use of hemp cord in Czechoslovakia (oldest known object to be associated with cannabis).
  • 8,000+ BCE: Use of hemp cord in pottery in the area of modern day Taiwan.
  • 6,000 BCE: Cannabis seeds and oil used for food in China.
  • 4,000 BCE: Textiles made of hemp used in China and Turkestan. Cannabis was regarded among “five grains” in China, and was farmed as a major food crop.
  • 3,000 BCE: Cannabis was an important crop in ancient Korea.
  • 2,737 BCE: First recorded use of cannabis as medicine by Emperor Shen Neng of China.
  • 2,000 BCE: Bhang (dried cannabis leaves, seeds and stems) was mentioned in the Hindu sacred text Atharvaveda (Science of Charms) as “Sacred Grass”, one of the five sacred plants of India. The ancient Egyptians used cannabis in suppositories for relieving the pain of hemorrhoids and also used cannabis to treat sore eyes.
  • 1,700 BCE: Egyptian papyrus that mentioned medical cannabis: the Ramesseum III Papyrus.
  • 1,500 BCE: Cannabis cultivated in China for food and fiber. Scythians cultivated cannabis and used it to weave fine hemp cloth.
  • 1,340 BCE: “three-ply hemp cord” in the ruins of El Amarna, the city of the Pharaoh Akhenaton.
  • 1,300 BCE: The Berlin Papyrus and The Chester Beatty Medical Papyrus VI mention medical cannabis.
  • 1,213 BCE: Ramesses II, the Egyptian pharaoh, mummified on his death. Cannabis pollen was later recovered from the mummy.
  • 1,000 BCE: In India the medical and religious use of cannabis began.
  • 900 BCE: Assyrians employed the psychotropic effects of cannabis for recreational and medical purposes.
  • 700 BCE: Scythian tribes left Cannabis seeds as offerings in royal tombs. There is some conjecture that cannabis was used along with wine in a preparation known as nepenthe, which was recorded by Homer around 700 BCE as being used in Greece to “banish pain and sorrow” .
  • 650 BCE: The Zoroastrian Zendavesta, an ancient Persian religious text of several hundred volumes, referred to bhang as the “good narcotic.”
  • 600 BCE: Hemp rope appeared in southern Russia.
  • 500 BCE: Cannabis was commonly used by 500 BCE in Asia as herbal medicine. Gautama Buddha said to have survived by eating hempseed. Cannabis used in Germany (Hochdorf Hallstatt D wagon burial site). First botanical drawings of cannabis in Constantinopolitaus.
  • 480 BCE: The classical Greek historian Herodotus reported that the inhabitants of Scythia would often inhale the vapors of hemp-seed smoke, both as ritual and for their own pleasurable recreation.
  • 300 BCE: Physician Dioscorides prescribed cannabis for toothaches and earaches. Greek doctor Claudius Galen noted it was widely consumed throughout the empire. Women of the Roman elite also used cannabis to alleviate labor pains. Carthage and Rome struggled for political and commercial power over hemp and spice trade routes in the Mediterranean.
  • 200 BCE: Hemp rope appeared in Greece. Chinese Book of Rites mentioned hemp fabric.
  • 100 BCE: First evidence of hemp paper, invented in China.
  • 87 BCE: Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was buried with textiles and paper made from cannabis.
  • 0 The psychotropic properties of Cannabis were mentioned in the newly compiled herbal Pen Ts’ao Ching.
  • 45: St Mark established the Ethiopian Coptic Church. The Copts claim that marijuana as a sacrament has a lineage descending from the Jewish sect, the Essenes, who are considered to be responsible for the Dead Sea Scrolls.
  • 70: Roman medical texts listed cannabis as a cure for earache and as a way to suppress sexual desire. Dioscorides, a physician in Nero’s army, listed medical marijuana in his Pharmacopoeia.
  • 79: Pliny the Elder’s The Natural History mentioned hemp rope and marijuana’s analgesic effects.
  • 80: Plutarch mentioned Thracians using cannabis as an intoxicant.
  • 100: Imported hemp rope appeared in England.
  • 150: Greek physician Galen prescribed medical marijuana.
  • 200: Hua T’o, the founder of Chinese surgery, used a compound of cannabis, taken with wine, to anesthetize patients during surgical operations.
  • 207: First pharmacopoeia of the East listed medical marijuana.
  • 550: The Jewish Talmud mentioned the euphoriant properties of Cannabis.
  • 570: The French queen Arnegunde was buried with hemp cloth.
  • 800: Hashish (a purified form of cannabis smoked with a pipe) was widely used throughout the Middle East and parts of Asia after about 800 AD. Its rise in popularity corresponded with the spread of Islam in the region.
  • 850: Vikings took hemp rope and seeds to Iceland.
  • 900: Arabs learned techniques for making hemp paper.
  • 1000: Arabic physician Ibn Wahshiyah’s On Poisons warned of marijuana’s potential dangers. Arabic scholars al-Mayusi and al-Badri regarded cannabis as an effective treatment for epilepsy. The English word ‘Hempe’ first listed in a dictionary. Hemp ropes appeared on Italian ships.
  • 1025: Medieval Persian medical writer published “Avicenna’s Canon of Medicine”, stating that cannabis was an effective treatment for gout, edema, infectious wounds, and severe headaches.
  • 1100: In Khorasan, Persia, Hasan ibn al-Sabbah, recruited followers to commit assassinations … legends developed 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 use of hashish by a paramilitary organization as a hypnotic.
  • Early 12th Century: Hashish smoking became very popular throughout the Middle East.
  • 1150: Muslims introduced the manufacture of paper from cannabis, first in Spain then in Italy.
  • 1155: Persian legend of the Sufi master Sheik Haydar’s personal discovery of cannabis and his own alleged invention of hashish with it’s subsequent spread to Iraq, Bahrain, Egypt and Syria. Another of the earliest written narratives of the use of cannabis as an inebriant.
  • 1200: 1,001 Nights, an Arabian collection of tales, described hashish’s intoxicating and aphrodisiac properties.
  • 1230: Cannabis was introduced to Iraq during the reign of Caliph Al-Mustansir Bi’llah by the entourage of Bahraini rulers visiting Iraq.
  • 1250: During the Ayyubid dynasty of Egypt, cannabis was introduced by mystic devotees from Syria.
  • 1295: Journeys of Marco Polo in which he gave 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.
  • 13th Century: The oldest monograph on hashish, Zahr al-‘arish fi tahrim al-hashish, was written. It has since been lost. Ibn al-Baytar of Spain provided a description of the psychoactive nature of Cannabis.
  • 1300: Arab traders brought cannabis to the Mozambique coast of Africa. Ethiopian pipes containing marijuana suggest the herb spread from Egypt to the rest of Africa.
  • 1378: Ottoman Emir Soudoun Scheikhouni issued one of the first edicts against the eating of hashish.
  • 1484: Pope Innocent VIII singled out cannabis as an unholy sacrament of the Satanic mass.
  • 1494: Hemp paper making started in England.
  • 1526: Babur Nama, first emperor and founder of Mughal Empire, learned of hashish in Afghanistan.
  • 1532: French physician Rabelais’s Gargantua and Pantagruel mentioned marijuana’s medicinal effects.
  • 1533: King Henry VIII fined farmers if they did not raise hemp for industrial use.
  • 1545: The Spaniards brought industrial hemp to the Western Hemisphere and cultivated it in Chile.
  • 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.
  • 1550: The epic poem, Benk u Bode, by the poet Mohammed Ebn Soleiman Foruli of Baghdad, dealt allegorically with a dialectical battle between wine and hashish.
  • 1554: Spanish brought cannabis cultivation to Peru.
  • 1563: Queen Elizabeth I decreed that landowners with 60 acres or more must grow cannabis else face a £5 fine. Portuguese physician Garcia da Orta reported on marijuana’s medicinal effects.
  • 1564: King Philip of Spain followed lead of Queen Elizabeth and ordered cannabis to be grown throughout his Empire from modern-day Argentina to Oregon.
  • 1578: China’s Li Shih-Chen wrote of the antibiotic and antiemetic effects of cannabis.
  • Late 1500s: Cannabis was brought to North America by the Spanish
  • 1600: England began to import hemp from Russia.
  • Early 1600s: the Virginia, Massachusetts and Connecticut colonies required farmers to grow hemp.
  • 1606: Cannabis cultivated for hemp at colony in Port Royal. French Botanist Louis Hebert planted the first hemp crop in North America in Port Royal, Acadia (present-day Nova Scotia).
  • 1607: “hempe” was among the crops Gabriel Archer observed being cultivated by the natives at the main Powhatan village, where Richmond, Virginia is now situated.
  • 1611: Cannabis cultivated for hemp at colony in Virginia.
  • 1613: Samuell Argall reported wild hemp “better than that in England” growing along the shores of the upper Potomac.
  • 1616: Jamestown settlers began growing the hemp plant for its unusually strong fiber and used it to make rope, sails, and clothing.
  • 1621: Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy suggested cannabis may treat depression.
  • 1632: Pilgrims brought cannabis to New England. Cannabis cultivated for hemp at colony in Plymouth.
  • 1650: Use of hashish, alcohol, and opium spread among the population of occupied Constantinople. Hashish became a major trade item between Central Asia and South Asia.
  • 1652: Cannabis use in South Africa by the indigenous Khoisan and Bantu peoples was popular prior to European settlement in the Cape.
  • 1753: Linnaeus classified Cannabis Sativa.
  • 1764: Medical marijuana appeared in The New England Dispensatory.
  • 1765: George Washington was interested in farming hemp, and also questioned the potential medicinal uses of marijuana in his journals.
  • 1776: Kentucky began growing hemp. The U.S. Declaration of Independence was drafted on hemp paper.
  • 1790s: U.S. founding fathers George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams grew hemp.
  • 1793: The British imposed regulation and begin collecting taxes on all forms of cannabis in India.
  • 1794: Medical marijuana appeared in The Edinburgh New Dispensary.
  • 1797: The U.S.S. Constitution was outfitted with hemp sails and rigging.
  • 1798: Napoleon discovered that much of the Egyptian lower class habitually used hashish. Soldiers returning to France brought the tradition with them, and he declared a total prohibition.
  • 1800s: Upper Canada’s Lieutenant Governor, on behalf of the King of England, distributed free hemp seed to Canadian farmers.
  • 1800: Marijuana plantations flourished in Mississippi, Georgia, California, South Carolina, Nebraska, New York, and Kentucky. Also during this period, smoking hashish was popular throughout France and to a lesser degree in the US. Hashish production expanded from Russian Turkestan into Yarkand in Chinese Turkestan.
  • 1809: Antoine Sylvestre de Sacy incorrectly suggested a base etymology between the words “assassin” and “hashishin” .
  • 1830: The slaves the Portuguese imported from Africa were familiar with cannabis and used it psychoactively, leading the Municipal Council of Rio de Janeiro to prohibit bringing cannabis into the city, and punishing its use by any slave.
  • 1830s: Sir William Brooke O’Shaughnessy, an Irish doctor studying in India, found that cannabis extracts could help lessen stomach pain and vomiting in people suffering from cholera.
  • 1835: The Club de Hashichines, whose bohemian membership included the poet Baudelaire, was founded.
  • 1839: Homeopathy journal American Provers’ Union published first of many reports on the effects of Cannabis.
  • 1840: In America, medicinal preparations with a cannabis base are available. Abraham Lincoln uses hemp oil to fuel his household lamps. Hashish was available in Persian pharmacies. Concerns about use of gandia by laborers led to a ban in British Mauritius.
  • 1842: Irish physician O’Shaughnessy published cannabis research in English medical journals.
  • 1843: French author Gautier published The Hashish Club.
  • 1844: Paris’ Club des Hashischins was founded.
  • 1845: French physician Moreau published Hashish and Mental Illness. The book, ‘Du Hachisch et de l’Alienation Mentale: Etudes Psychologiques’, had one of the most complete descriptions of the acute effects of cannabis. Moreau clearly stated his purpose: ‘…I saw in hashish, more specifically in its effects on mental abilities, a powerful and unique method to investigate the genesis of mental illness’.
  • By the 1850s: Swahili traders had carried cannabis from the east coast of Africa, to the Congo Basin in the west.
  • 1850: Cannabis was added to The U.S. Pharmacopoeia. Marijuana was widely used throughout United States as a medicinal drug and could easily be purchased in pharmacies and general stores.
  • 1854: Whittier wrote the first American work to mention cannabis as an intoxicant.
  • 1856: British taxed “ganja” and “charas” trade in India.
  • 1857: American writer Ludlow published The Hasheesh Eater.
  • 1858: French poet Baudelaire published On the Artificial Ideal, which was about the state of being under the influence of opium and hashish.
  • 1860: the first clinical conference about cannabis took place in America, organized by the Ohio State Medical Society.
  • 1862: Hashish candy was advertised in an issue of Vanity Fair as a pleasurable and harmless stimulant that could cure melancholy and nervousness.
  • 1870: First reports of hashish smoking on the Greek mainland. Natal (now in South Africa) passed the Coolie Law Consolidation prohibiting “the smoking, use, or possession by and the sale, barter, or gift to, any Coolies [Indian indentured workers] whatsoever, of any portion of the hemp plant. The earliest record of a commercial cannabis cigarette can be found in an 1870 publication of The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal. Grimault’s Indian Cigarettes- marketed as a treatment for respiratory ailments- was a powerful mixture of cannabis resin, belladonna leaves (also known as deadly nightshade, a powerful and sometimes deadly muscle relaxant), and a small amount of potassium nitrate.
  • 1873: Levi Strauss received rights to patent their denim jeans made from hemp cloth to reinforce points of strain, such as the base of the button fly and pocket corners.
  • 1876: Hashish was served at American Centennial Exposition.
  • By the late 1800s: cannabis extracts were sold in pharmacies and doctors’ offices throughout Europe and the United States to treat stomach problems and other ailments.
  • 1879: The Khedivate of Egypt banned the importation of cannabis.
  • 1890: Greek Department of Interior prohibited importance, cultivation and use of hashish. Hashish made illegal in Turkey. Queen Victoria’s personal physician, Sir Russell Reynolds, prescribed cannabis for menstrual cramps. He claimed in the first issue of The Lancet, that cannabis “When pure and administered carefully, is one of the of the most valuable medicines we possess”.
  • 1890s: USDA Chief Botanist began growing hemp varieties at the current site of the Pentagon and continued until the 1940s.
  • 1894: Scandinavian maltose- and cannabis-based drink won a prize at the Exposition Internationale d’Anvers. It was promoted as “an excellent lunch drink, especially for children and young people”. The British Indian government completed a wide-ranging study of cannabis in India. The report’s findings stated: “Viewing the subject generally, it may be added that the moderate use of these drugs is the rule, and that the excessive use is comparatively exceptional. The moderate use practically produces no ill effects. In all but the most exceptional cases, the injury from habitual moderate use is not appreciable. The excessive use may certainly be accepted as very injurious, though it must be admitted that in many excessive consumers the injury is not clearly marked. The injury done by the excessive use is, however, confined almost exclusively to the consumer himself; the effect on society is rarely appreciable. It has been the most striking feature in this inquiry to find how little the effects of hemp drugs have obtruded themselves on observation.”
  • 1906: In the U.S. the Pure Food and Drug Act was passed, regulating the labeling of products containing Alcohol, Opiates, Cocaine, and Cannabis, among others.
  • 1908: Drug prohibition in Canada began with the Opium Act of 1908, which prohibited the sale, manufacture, and importation of opium for other than medicinal use.
  • 1910: The Mexican Revolution caused an influx of Mexican immigrants who introduced the habit of recreational use (instead of it’s generally medicinal use) into American society.
  • 1911: Hindus reported to be using ’Gunjah’ in San Francisco. South Africa starts to outlaw cannabis. Canadian Opium and Drug Act of 1911, which outlawed the sale or possession of morphine, opium, or cocaine. Smoking opium became a separate offence, punishable by a maximum penalty of $50 and one month in jail.
  • 1912: The possibility of putting controls on the use of cannabis is raised at the first International Opium Conference.
  • 1913: Cannabis was outlawed by the Ganja Law in Jamaica (then a British colony).
  • 1914: The Harrison Act in the U.S. defined use of Marijuana (among other drugs) as a crime.
  • 1915: In California, cannabis began to be prohibited for nonmedical use.
  • 1916: United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) chief scientists Jason L. Merrill and Lyster H. Dewey created paper made from hemp pulp, which they concluded was “favorable in comparison with those used with pulp wood” in USDA Bulletin No. 404.
  • 1919: The 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution banned the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcohol and positioned marijuana as an attractive alternative leading to an increase in use of the substance. In Texas, cannabis began to be prohibited for nonmedical use.
  • 1920s: Spurred-on by the precursor of Marcus Garvey’s Rastafarian movement, cannabis gained a more widespread popularity throughout black communities in the US. The United Kingdom and New Zealand outlawed cannabis in the 1920s.
  • 1922: Cannabis was outlawed in South Africa. Pioneering feminist Emily Murphy published an inflammatory book, The Black Candle. She claimed that marijuana turned its users into homicidal maniacs.
  • 1923: Canada criminalized cannabis in The Opium and Narcotic Drug Act. The South African delegate to the League of Nations claimed mine workers were not as productive after using ‘dagga'(cannabis) and called for international controls.
  • 1924: In Louisiana, cannabis began to be prohibited for nonmedical use. At the second International Opiates Conference, the Egyptian delegate claimed that serious problems were associated with hashish use and called for immediate international controls. Russian botanists classified another major strain of the plant, Cannabis ruderalis. The medical indications of cannabis, in the beginning of the 20th century, were summarized in Sajous’s Analytic Cyclopedia of Practical Medicine (1924) in three areas: (1) Sedative or Hypnotic. (2) Analgesic. (3) Other uses: to improve appetite and digestion, for the ‘pronounced anorexia following exhausting diseases’, gastric neuroses, dyspepsia, diarrhea, dysentery, cholera, nephritis, hematuria, diabetes mellitus, cardiac palpitation, vertigo, sexual atony in the female, and impotence in the male.
  • 1925: a compromise was made at an international conference in The Hague about the International Opium Convention that banned exportation of “Indian hemp” to countries that had prohibited its use. The ‘Panama Canal Zone Report’ conducted due to the level of cannabis use by soldiers in the area concluded that there was no evidence that cannabis use was habit-forming or deleterious.The report recommended that no action be taken to prevent the use or sale of cannabis.
  • 1926: Lebanese hashish production was prohibited.
  • 1927: In New York, cannabis began to be prohibited for nonmedical use.
  • 1928: Recreational use of Cannabis was banned in Britain. The Canadian House of Commons encouraged Canadian farmers to grow hemp.
  • 1930: The Yarkand region of Chinese Turkestan exported 91,471 kg of hashish legally into the Northwest Frontier and Punjab regions of India. Louis Armstrong was arrested in Los Angeles for possession of cannabis.
  • 1930s: Cannabinol’s structure was elucidated by R.S. Cahn.
  • 1931: The Federal Bureau of Narcotics was formed with Anslinger appointed as its head. Massive unemployment and social unrest during the Great Depression stoked resentment of Mexican immigrants and public fear of the “evil weed.” As a result, and consistent with the Prohibition era’s view of all intoxicants, 29 states had outlawed cannabis by 1931.
  • 1936: The widely popular film “Reefer Madness” fueled parental concern over marijuana use and spread fear that the youth of America faced devious marijuana dealers that would corrupt them and lead to things like crime and sex.
  • 1937: The Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 was the first federal U.S. law to criminalize marijuana nationwide. The Act imposed an excise tax on the sale, possession or transfer of all hemp products, effectively criminalizing all but industrial uses of the plant. Fifty-eight year-old farmer Samuel Caldwell was the first person prosecuted under the Act. He was arrested for selling marijuana on October 2, 1937, just one day after the Act’s passage. Caldwell was sentenced to four years of hard labor. 1937 also marked the first seizure of cannabis by Canadian police.
  • 1938: Popular Mechanics Magazine determined that over 25,000 different products could be made from hemp and declared hemp as the “New Billion Dollar Crop.”
  • 1939: New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia appointed a blue-ribbon panel of renowned physicians, psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, pharmacologists, chemists and other researchers from the New York Academy of Medicine to review claims that smoking cannabis resulted in criminal behavior and a deterioration of physical and mental health. A summary of the preliminary findings published in 1942 by the American Journal of Psychiatry concluded that “prolonged use of marihuana does not lead to physical, mental or moral degeneration, nor have we observed any permanent deleterious effects from its continued use. Quite the contrary, marihuana and its derivatives and allied synthetics have potentially valuable therapeutic applications which merit further investigation.”
  • 1940: Cannabinol’s chemical synthesis was first achieved in the laboratories of R. Adams in the U.S.A. and Lord Todd in the U.K. Cannabidiol (CBD) was also first obtained from cannabis in 1940 by Adams and his colleagues.
  • 1941: Cannabis was removed from the U.S. Pharmacopoeia and its medicinal use was no longer recognized in America. The same year the Indian government considered cultivation in Kashmir to fill the void of hashish from Chinese Turkestan.
  • 1942: During World War II, the U.S. produced a short 1942 film, Hemp for Victory, promoting hemp as a necessary crop to win the war. THC was first extracted from cannabis in 1942 by Wollner, Matchett, Levine and Loewe. Henry Ford builds an experimental car with panels partially made from hemp fibre. U.S. scientists working at the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the CIA’s wartime predecessor, began to develop a chemical substance that could break down the psychological defenses of enemy spies and POWs. After testing several compounds, the OSS scientists selected a potent extract of marijuana as the best available “truth serum.” The cannabis concoction was given the code name TD, meaning Truth Drug. When injected into food or tobacco cigarettes, TD helped loosen the reserve of recalcitrant interrogation subjects.
  • 1944: The New York Academy of Medicine published a report stating that marijuana was only a mild intoxicant. Harry Anslinger responded to this report with a solicited article in the American Journal of Psychiatry that attempted to attack and discredit the information they had previously published.
  • 1945: Newsweek reported that over 100,000 Americans used Cannabis.
  • Between 1942 and 1945, the U.S. cultivated 400,000 acres of hemp for their war effort.
  • 1946: Dr. Walter S. Loewe conducted the first CBD test on lab animals. These tests gave proof that CBD didn’t cause an altered mental state. Dr. Raphael Mechoulam identified CBD’s three dimensional structure.
  • 1948: Harry Anslinger declared that using cannabis caused the user to become peaceful and pacifistic. He also claimed that the Communists would use cannabis to weaken the America’s will to fight.
  • 1951: The Boggs Act and the Narcotics Control Act in the U.S. increased all drug penalties and laid down mandatory sentences. UN bulletin of Narcotic Drugs estimated 200 million cannabis users worldwide.
  • 1950s: Cannabis made inroads with white Americans, the appearance of the beatnik subculture.
  • 1955: The antibacterial effects of cannabis were described at the Palacký University of Olomouc.
  • 1957: The last U.S. hemp fields were planted in Wisconsin.
  • 1960: Czech researchers confirmed the antibiotic and analgesic effects of cannabis.
  • 1960s: The United States saw a dramatic increase in cannabis usage, particularly among young people and college students, bringing cannabis into the middle-class cultural mainstream.
  • 1961: Harry Anslinger headed US delegation at UN Drugs Convention. New international restrictions were placed on cannabis aiming to eliminate its use within 25 years.
  • 1963-1964: The structures and stereochemistry of CBD and Δ9-THC, each of which occurs naturally as its (−)-enantiomer, were elucidated in Raphael Mechoulam’s laboratory: in 1963 for CBD and in 1964 for Δ9-THC, when it was first isolated from cannabis.
  • 1964: The first head shop is opened by the Thelin brothers in the United States. Dr. Albert Lockhart and Manley West began studying the health effects of traditional cannabis use in Jamaican communities. They discovered that Rastafarians had unusually low glaucoma rates and local fishermen were washing their eyes with cannabis extract in the belief that it would improve their sight.
  • 1965: Mechoulam synthesized (±)-Δ9-THC and (±)-CBD.
  • Late 1960’s: guinea~pig MPLM preparation was first used as a bioassay for cannabinoids by Bill Paton. Mechoulam began testing isolated cannabinoids on primates.
  • 1967: “Smash”, the first hashish oil appears. Red Lebanese reaches California. In July 1967, over 3,000 people hold amass ‘smoke-in’ in Hyde Park in London. The same month, The Times carries apro-legalisation advertisement which declares that “the laws against Marijuana are immoral in principle and unworkable in Practice.” The signatories include David Dimbleby, Bernard Levin, and the Beatles. Keith Richards and Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones were sentenced to prison for possession of marijuana. The sentences prompted an outcry that culminated in Lord Rees Mogg’s famous Times editorial ‘Who brakes a butterfly on a wheel?’ The convictions were quashed on appeal. In New York, on Valentines Day, Abbie Hoffman and the Yippies mail out 3000 joints to addresses chosen at random from the phonebook. They offer these people the chance to discover what all the fuss is about, but remind them that they are now criminals for possessing cannabis. The mail out was secretly funded by Jimi Hendrix, and attracts huge publicity. In the United States, the percentage of young adults that had used cannabis, at least once was 5%.
  • 1968: Campaign against cannabis use by US Troops in Vietnam. Soldiers switch to heroin.
  • 1969: Canadian government formed the Royal Commission of Inquiry in the Non-Medical Use of Drugs, usually referred to as the Le Dain Commission, to investigate non-medical cannabis use.
  • 1970: As part of the “War on Drugs,” the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, signed into law by President Richard Nixon, repealed the Marijuana Tax Act and listed marijuana as a Schedule I drug, along with heroin, LSD and ecstasy, with no medical uses and a high potential for abuse. The US National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) forms.
  • 1970’s: synthetic THC was created to be administered as the drug Marinol in a capsule.
  • 1971: First evidence suggesting marijuana may help glaucoma patients. In the United States, the percentage of young adults that had used cannabis, at least once, was 44%
  • 1972: the Dutch government divided drugs into more- and less-dangerous categories, with cannabis being in the lesser category. A report from the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse (also known as the Shafer Commission) released a report titled “Marijuana: A Signal of Misunderstanding.” The report recommended “partial prohibition” and lower penalties for possession of small amounts of marijuana. Nixon and other government officials, however, ignored the report’s findings.
  • 1973: Nepal banned cannabis shops and charas (hand-rolled hash) export. Afghan government made hashish production and sales illegal. Physician Tod H. Mikuriya reignited the debate concerning cannabis as medicine when he published “Marijuana Medical Papers”.
  • 1974: High Times was founded.
  • Mid-1970’s: A cannabis tincture was released for medicinal use by the British Pharmacopoeia.
  • 1975: Nabilone, a cannabinoid-based medication, appears. In the United States, the percentage of young adults that had used cannabis, at least once was 49%. In 1975, shortly after discovering that smoking cannabis could relieve symptoms of his severe glaucoma, Washington, DC resident Robert Randall was arrested for cultivating cannabis in his home. Randall successfully used the common law “Doctrine of Necessity” to fight the charges.
  • 1976: The U.S. federal government created the Investigational New Drug (IND) Compassionate Use research program to allow patients to receive up to nine pounds of cannabis from the government each year. Ford Administration banned government funding of medical research on Cannabis. Cannabis available for recreational use in Dutch coffee shops (The Netherlands effectively decriminalizes cannabis).
  • 1977: Carl Sagan proposed that marijuana may have been the world’s first agricultural crop, leading to the development of civilization itself: “It would be wryly interesting if in human history the cultivation of marijuana led generally to the invention of agriculture, and thereby to civilization.” Carl Sagan, The Dragons of Eden, Speculations on the Origin of Human Intelligence p 191 footnote.
  • 1978: New Mexico became first US state to make Cannabis available for medical use.
  • 1980: U.S. President Carter, including his assistant for drug policy, Dr. Peter Bourne, pushed for decriminalization of marijuana, with the president himself asking Congress to abolish federal criminal penalties for those caught with less than one ounce of marijuana. Dr. Mechoulam made another breakthrough in CBD history when he ran a study which showed cannabidiol could be a key factor in treating epilepsy. Paul McCartney spent ten days in prison in Japan for possession of cannabis. In the United States, the percentage of young adults that had used cannabis at least once was 68%.
  • 1980s: Morocco became one of the largest hashish producing and exporting nations. “Border hashish” was produced in northwestern Pakistan along the Afghan border to avoid Soviet-Afghan war.
  • 1982: First Lady Nancy Reagan started the “Just Say No” campaign. The Institute of Medicine (IOM), a division of the National Academy of Sciences, published the report “Marijuana and Health.” The IOM noted that “[p]reliminary studies suggest that marijuana and its derivatives or analogues might be useful in the treatment of the raised intraocular pressure of glaucoma, in the control of the severe nausea and vomiting caused by cancer chemotherapy, and in the treatment of asthma.”
  • 1983: The Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program was established, which brought police officers into schools to discuss the dangers of drug abuse. Funding and use of this program was later cut back as research showed that it did not lead to decreased drug use in youth.
  • Mid-1980s: two groundbreaking findings were made in Allyn Howlett’s laboratory at St Louis University that provided conclusive evidence that cannabinoid receptors do indeed exist.
  • 1985: In the U.S. the FDA approved dronabinol, a synthetic THC, for cancer patients. The U.S. began cannabis eradication in Belize (then the fourth-largest cannabis exporter to the U.S. at that time).
  • 1986: President Reagan signed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act, reinstating mandatory minimums and raising federal penalties for possession and distribution and officially began the U.S. international “war on drugs.”
  • 1987: Lockhart and West developed and gained permission to market the pharmaceutical Canasol, one of the first cannabis extracts.
  • 1988: The CB1 and CB2 cannabinoid receptors were discovered. Today, we know they are some of the most abundant neuroreceptors in the brain. U.S. DEA administrative law Judge Francis Young found, after thorough hearings, that marijuana had a clearly established medical use and should be reclassified as a prescriptive drug. His recommendation was ignored.
  • 1989: President George H.W. Bush declared a “New War on Drugs” and continued anti-marijuana campaigns.
  • 1990: The cloning of the rodent *CB~1 receptor in Tom Bonner’s laboratory at NIH and of the human *CB~1 receptor by Gérard and colleagues in Brussels.
  • 1991: A Harvard Medical School study revealed that nearly half (44%) of U.S. oncologists were recommending cannabis to their patients as a way of mitigating the side effects of cancer treatments.
  • 1992: In reaction to a surge of requests from AIDS patients for medical marijuana, the U.S. government closed the Compassionate Use program. That same year the pharmaceutical medication dronabinol was approved for AIDS-wasting syndrome. Manitoba Harvest Hemp Foods’ Co-Founder Martin began importing and manufacturing handmade hemp items.
  • 1993: Cloning of a G~protein~coupled Cannabinoid receptor (*CB~2) in Sean Munro’s laboratory in Cambridge. Hempcore became the first British company to obtain a license to grow cannabis as the Home Office lift restrictions on industrial hemp cultivation.
  • 1994: The Federation of American Scientists recommended that the President instruct the National Institutes of Health and the FDA to reopen Investigational New Drug (IND) protocols that would provide federal research cannabis to seriously ill patients.
  • 1995: Introduction of hashish-making equipment and appearance of locally produced hashish in Amsterdam coffee shops. UMHAC became the Manitoba Hemp Alliance and lobbied the Government of Manitoba for assistance in advancing hemp agriculture. At the U.S. state level, the first hemp bill was introduced in Colorado in 1995.
  • Mid-1990s: the average THC content of confiscated weed was roughly 4 percent.
  • 1996: California, in the Compassionate Use Act of 1996, became the first U.S. state to legalize marijuana for medicinal use by people with severe or chronic illnesses. Hemp trial results indicated that hemp could be grown with undetectable amounts (less than 0.003%) of THC.
  • 1997: The American Office of National Drug Control Policy commissioned the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to conduct a comprehensive study of the medical efficacy of cannabis therapeutics. The IOM concluded that cannabis was a safe and effective medicine, patients should have access, and the government should expand avenues for research and drug development. The federal government completely ignored its findings and refused to act on its recommendations. After reviewing a series of trials in 1997, the U.S. Society for Neuroscience concluded that “substances similar to or derived from marijuana could benefit the more than 97 million Americans who experience some form of pain each year.” In 1997, the New England Journal of Medicine, one of the world’s leading medical publications, published an editorial that said: “A federal policy that prohibits physicians from alleviating suffering by prescribing marijuana to seriously ill patients is misguided, heavy-handed, and inhumane…. It is also hypocritical to forbid physicians to prescribe marijuana while permitting them to prescribe morphine and meperidine to relieve extreme dyspnea and pain… [because] there is no risk of death from smoking marijuana.”
  • 1998: A review by the British House of Lords Science & Technology Select Committee concluded that “cannabinoids are undoubtedly effective as anti-emetic agents in vomiting induced by anti-cancer drugs.” Industrial hemp is legalized in Canada and hemp foods begin exporting to the U.S. In the spring of 1998, the British government licensed GWPharmaceuticals to grow cannabis and develop a precise and consistent extract for use in clinical trials. The Clinton administration spent $25 million on television campaigns that placed anti-drug messages in primetime TV shows.
  • 1999: Maine voters approved a medical cannabis initiative. The U.S. DEA reclassifies dronabinol as a schedule III drug, making the medication easier to prescribe, while cannabis itself continued to be listed Schedule I as having “no accepted medical use.” The IOM published Marijuana as Medicine: Assessing the Science Base, a comprehensive meta-analysis of existing research concerning the therapeutic value of cannabis. In its review, the Institute of Medicine concluded that cannabis could be a valid alternative for many people living with cancer. North Dakota, Minnesota, and Hawaii legalized the growing of industrial hemp at state level, but federally, industrial hemp was still illegal to grow in the U.S.
  • 2000: Nevada and Colorado voters approved medical cannabis initiatives. Hawaii legislature passed medical cannabis legislation. The International Association for Cannabis as Medicine (IACM) was founded. Statistics for Ontario between 1996 and 2000 indicated that cannabis use among 18-29 year olds increased from 18% to 28%. Landmark cannabis case: R. v. Parker (Ontario Court of Appeal).
  • 2001: Portugal decriminalized all drugs, maintaining the prohibition on production and sale, but changing personal possession and use from a criminal offense to an administrative one. A review of clinical studies conducted in several U.S. states during the previous two decades revealed that, in 768 individuals with cancer, cannabis was a highly effective anti-emetic in chemotherapy. The University of California established the Center for Medical Cannabis Research (CMCR) to conduct scientific studies to ascertain the general medical safety and efficacy of cannabis products and examine alternative forms of cannabis administration. The United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) began a campaign to make sales of all hemp foods illegal in the U.S. The Hemp Industries Association (HIA), Dr. Bronner’s, and other companies that offered hemp products took legal action against the DEA.
  • 2003: Belgium decriminalized cannabis. The World Health Organization Expert Committee on Drug Dependence recommended transferring THC to Schedule IV of the Convention, citing its medical uses and low abuse potential. An FDA-approved preliminary safety trial of smoked cannabis, conducted in 2003 at the University of California at San Francisco, concluded that neither synthetic THC nor inhaled cannabis had any significant effect on the immune system or viral load. A 2003 study that the National MS Society called “interesting and potentially exciting” demonstrated that cannabinoids were able to slow the disease process in mice by offering neuroprotection against EAE. October 7, 2003, the United States government granted the first CBD based patent (used as a neuroprotectant) under U.S. Patent #6,630,507. Landmark Canadian cannabis cases: R. v. J.P. (Ontario Court of Appeal). R v Malmo‑Levine; R v Caine (Supreme Court of Canada).
  • 2004: Montana voters approved a medical cannabis initiative. Vermont’s legislature passed medical cannabis legislation. Ninth Circuit Court ruled in favour of the Hemp Industries Association and protected sales of hemp foods and body care products in the U.S.
  • 2005: Chile decriminalized cannabis. Sativex®, GW Pharmaceuticals’ cannabinoid product, became the world’s first prescription medicine derived from extracts of the cannabis plant. Marc Emery, a Canadian citizen and the largest distributor of marijuana seeds into the United States from approximately 1995 through July 2005 was on the FBI #1 wanted drug list for years and was eventually indicted by the U.S. DEA. The targeted effects of cannabinoids on GBM were demonstrated in 2005 by researchers who showed that the cannabinoid THC both selectively inhibited the proliferation of malignant cells and induced them to die off, while leaving healthy cells unaffected. Reefer madness V2 launched by the mental health charities RETHINK and SANE, drawing attention to research which claimed to show a link between cannabis use and serious mental illness.
  • 2006: Brazil decriminalized cannabis. Rhode Island legislature passed medical cannabis legislation.
  • 2007: New Mexico legislature passed medical cannabis legislation. People living with HIV/AIDS who use cannabis to combat the side-effects of HAART therapy are approximately three times more likely to remain on their prescribed drug therapies than those who do not use cannabis, according to a 2007 study. The first hemp licenses in over 50 years are granted to two North Dakota farmers. Landmark Canadian cannabis cases: R. v. Long (Ontario Court of Justice). R. v. Bodnar/Hall/Spasic (Ontario Court of Justice).
  • 2008: Michigan voters approved a medical cannabis initiative. Massachusetts voters approved a cannabis decriminalization initiative. In 2008, the American College of Physicians (ACP) published a position paper underscoring the therapeutic value of cannabis and specifically recommending the federal government consider “reclassification [of cannabis] into a more appropriate schedule, given the scientific evidence regarding marijuana’s safety and efficacy in some clinical conditions.” Landmark Canadian cannabis case: Sfetkopoulos v. Canada (Federal Court of Canada).
  • 2009: The U.S. Justice Department announced that federal prosecutors would no longer pursue medical marijuana users and distributors who complied with state laws. A 2009 review of clinical studies conducted over a 38-year period found that “nearly all of the 33 published controlled clinical trials conducted in the United States have shown significant and measurable benefits in subjects receiving the treatment.” Research published in 2009 found that the non-psychoactive cannabinoid cannabidiol (CBD) inhibited the invasion of both human cervical cancer and human lung cancer cells. A 2009 study found that a significant percentage of those with HIV/AIDS find cannabis effective for anxiety, depression, fatigue, diarrhea, nausea, and peripheral neuropathy.
  • 2010: Czech Republic decriminalized cannabis. Hemp Industries Association estimated $419 million in U.S. retail sales of hemp products. Arizona voters approved a medical cannabis initiative for the third time since 1996. District of Columbia City Council passed medical cannabis legislation. New Jersey legislature passed medical cannabis legislation. Voters in California narrowly defeat a cannabis legalization initiative, 53%/47$. Marc Emery of Vancouver, BC, Canada, was sentenced on September 10th in a U.S. District Court in Seattle to five years in prison and four years of supervised release for “conspiracy to manufacture marijuana” (eg. selling marijuana seeds). In 2010, the CMCR issued a report on the 14 clinical studies it has conducted, most of which were FDA-approved, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical studies that have demonstrated that cannabis can control pain, in some cases better than the available alternatives. Researchers reported in 2010 that the way cannabinoid and cannabinoid-like receptors in brain cells “regulate these cells’ differentiation, functions and viability” suggests cannabinoids and other drugs that target cannabinoid receptors can “manage neuroinflammation and eradicate malignant astrocytomas,” a type of glial cancer.
  • 2011: Delaware passed medical cannabis legislation. Connecticut passed cannabis decriminalization legislation. June 23rd, NORML gets the first ever cannabis legalization bill introduced into the US Congress. In a survey conducted by the United Nations in 2011, it was revealed that 12.6% of Canada’s population had used cannabis at least once in the past year. Landmark Canadian cannabis case: R. v. Mernagh (Ontario Superior Court).
  • 2012: Washington and Vermont were the first two U.S. states to vote to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. Colorado’s Proposition 64 made adult possession (those over 21 years of age) and business sale legal. A 2012 study found that a cannabinoid that activates CB2 receptors produced a dose-specific reduction of HIV infection of up to 50%, leading the researchers to suggest that the therapeutic use of cannabinoids may help fight the spread of the virus to uninfected T cells in late stages of HIV-1 infection. The U.S. hemp industry was valued at an estimated $500 million in annual retail sales and growing for all hemp products, according to the Hemp Industries Association.
  • 2013: Annual U.S. retail sales of hemp products exceeded $581 million. In Uruguay, President Jose Mujica signed legislation to legalize recreational cannabis. The story of Charlotte Figi surfaces: Charlotte Figi was born with Dravet’s Syndrome. When a national news story on CNN surfaced, it was revealed that Charlotte’s seizures were all but eliminated when she started using a high-CBD strain of medical cannabis as a last resort. The story gained widespread national attention, and almost certainly galvanized legislation in support of CBD as a recognized medical therapy.
  • 2014: Alabama, Florida, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, and Wisconsin passed laws legalizing CBD for medical purposes. Alaska and Oregon legalized cannabis for recreational use. Cannabis City becomes Seattle’s very first legal marijuana shop for over-the-counter purchase & recreational use. U.S. President Barack Obama signed a Federal Farm Bill with hemp amendment, allowing states with hemp legislation in place to grow hemp for research purposes. Approximately 22.2 million Americans 12 years of age or older reported current cannabis use, with 8.4% of this population reporting use within the previous month. The average THC content of confiscated weed was about 12%, with a few strains of pot containing THC levels as high as 37%. The American Academy of Neurology found evidence supporting the effectiveness of the cannabis extracts in treating certain symptoms of multiple sclerosis and pain. April 2014, the Medical Marijuana Access Program was replaced by the Marijuana for Medical Purposes Regulations (or MMPR) by Health Canada. August 2014, Uruguay legalized growing up to six plants at home, as well as the formation of growing clubs, a state-controlled marijuana dispensary regime.
  • 2015: Hemp food industry pioneers Manitoba Harvest and Hemp Oil Canada merge. With the passage of Senate Bill 5052, Washington State medical marijuana became fully under the control of the newly re-named Washington Liquor and Cannabis Board (LCB). Landmark Canadian cannabis case: R v. Smith (Supreme Court of Canada). June 2015, the Supreme Court of Canada expanded the definition of medical cannabis to include any form of the drug, including but not limited to brownies, teas, or oils. The NIH developed three reporting categories to describe the research efforts underway to examine the chemical, physiological, and therapeutic properties of cannabinoids and the physiological systems they affect: Cannabinoid Research, Cannabidiol Research, and Therapeutic Cannabinoid Research.
  • 2016: Toronto Police executed Project Claudia, seizing 279 kg of marijuana from multiple dispensaries regardless of their adherence to the Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulations. Landmark Canadian cannabis case: Allard et al v. Regina. An October 2016 national poll by Forum suggested that about five million adult Canadians used cannabis at least once a month.
  • 2017: One in seven U.S. adults used cannabis in 2017. In 2017, the worldwide legal marijuana trade grew by 37% and was worth $9.5 billion. At $8.5 billion, the U.S. accounted for 90% of the market. Cannabis saw its first US $5-billion company in 2017, Canadian licensed producer Canopy Growth Corp. In October 2017, Gallup reported that a record 64% of Americans believed cannabis should be legalized. In fiscal year 2017, the NIH supported 330 projects totaling almost $140 million on cannabinoid research. Within this investment, 70 projects ($36 million) examined therapeutic properties of cannabinoids, and 26 projects ($15 million) focused on CBD.
  • 2018: The first CBD-based drug, Epidiolex, by GW Pharmaceuticals (GWPH), was approved in by the FDA to treat epilepsy. As of 2018, there were 30 states plus Washington D.C. that had legalized marijuana in some form. Those states included Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Washington D.C., Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and West Virginia. Canada legalized recreational cannabis. February 2018 saw the first Nasdaq listing of a company engaged in marijuana growing, Canada’s LP Cronos Group. One month later, the company joined the Los Angeles-based cannabis retailer, MedMen to brand products and open stores in Canada. On July 19, 2018, the first marijuana IPO in the United States, Canadian company Tilray (TLRY), began trading on the Nasdaq. The legal marijuana industry projected to generate $32 billion of overall global economic impact by 2022. One in four young adults in the U.S. used marijuana. The 2018, the U.S. Farm Bill separated hemp from the legal definition of marijuana.
  • 2019: Super Bowl rejects cannabis advertisement. World Health Organization recommends reclassifying cannabis under international treaties. Some estimates put the edibles market to grow to $4 billion by 2022. Deloitte estimates that six out of ten likely Canadian cannabis customers will choose to consume edible products after they become legal later this year. Estimates that the CBD market could be $22 billion by 2022 in the U.S., and even more globally. The CBD market in Canada expected to hit $1 billion in the next 5 years. Cannabis consumers around the world are expected to spend $16.9 billion in 2019, which is a 38% jump from an estimate of $12.2 billion in 2018, and $9.5 billion in 2017. The compound annual sales from 2017 to 2022 is expected to hit 26.7%, which is at $31.3 billion worldwide sales in 2022. More than 50 bills to legalize cannabis have already been introduced in U.S. state legislatures across the country for 2019 sessions. Some important examples are listed below:
    • Colorado: A bill would give large marijuana companies a boon by repealing provisions that require background checks on initial investors and allowing publicly traded companies to obtain cannabis licenses.
    • Connecticut: Lawmakers are looking at a bill that would protect veterinarians from punishment if they discuss using cannabis therapeutically for pets. Another piece of legislation, which many legalization advocates are likely to oppose, would protect employers who terminate or decline to hire workers because they tested positive for marijuana from being sued. Connecticut’s 2019 attempt at adult-use cannabis legalization comes with the support of 40 statehouse Democrats already—and a sympathetic governor. Retail sales in neighboring Massachusetts have applied some pressure to Connecticut politicians interested in opening a new tax revenue spigot.
    • Hawaii: Health insurers would be required to cover hemp-derived CBD oil under legislation introduced in Hawaii this month. Another bill would let Hawaiian medical cannabis patients bring transport their marijuana from island to island.
    • Illinois: State Sen. Heather Steans (D-Chicago) and State Rep. Kelly Cassidy (D-Chicago) say they plan to introduce a formal adult-use legalization bill soon in the Illinois Legislature, according to a State Journal-Register report. At a town hall-style meeting in Springfield Jan. 28, Stearns and Cassidy said the measure would allow adults 21 and older to purchase and possess up to 30 grams of marijuana, as well as grow up to five marijuana plants in their household. Marijuana “bars” would be prohibited under the proposal, and teenagers caught driving under the influence of cannabis would lose their licenses. The legislation would also expunge the records of citizens previously convicted of low-level marijuana possession and dealing, Cassidy said. The lawmakers said the estimated $350 to $750 million in annual tax revenue from a recreational marijuana program would fund community development of impoverished neighborhoods.
    • Kentucky: State Sen. Jimmy Higdon (R-Lebanon) introduced a bill in Kentucky to decrease the penalty for cannabis possession to a $100 fine (or 15 hours of community service). Possession for personal use includes amounts of cannabis up to one ounce. SB 82 is a step toward cannabis reform in a state that’s otherwise on the vanguard of hemp cultivation and innovation in the U.S.
    • Maine: Lawmakers are pushing a bill that would create an open container policy for marijuana similar to laws that are already in effect for alcohol. Individuals would not be allowed to keep an open container of cannabis in the passenger seat; instead, it would have to be secured in a trunk, behind the last upright seat of the vehicle or somewhere else “not normally occupied by the operator or passenger.”
    • Maryland: A bill that would allow medical cannabis patients to purchase, possess and carry firearms is making its way through the Maryland legislature. Prospective firearm buyers still have to submit a federal application that inquires about the use of cannabis, and federal law prohibits marijuana consumers from purchasing guns regardless of state law, however. Lawmakers in Oklahoma and Colorado are considering similar bills.
    • Minnesota: Sen. Melisa Franzen (DFL- Edina) and Rep. Mike Freiberg (DFL-Golden Valley) introduced Senate Bill 619 and House Bill 420 Jan. 28 to legalize recreational marijuana for Minnesotans 21 and older. Adults would be allowed to grow up to four plants at home, and the state would regulate growing operations and taxation.
    • Missouri: Child adoptions wouldn’t be delayed or denied just because a prospective adoptive parent has a medical marijuana card or works in the cannabis industry under legislation introduced in Missouri earlier this month. Another bill would allow individuals enrolled in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program to maintain their benefits even if they’re registered medical cannabis patients.
    • Nebraska: State Sen. Anna Wishart (D-Lincoln) introduced the Adopt Medical Cannabis Act in January (LB110). Right away, the Senate Judiciary Committee took up the cause and held a public hearing that garnered dozens of comments on both sides of the issue. The bill would limit medical cannabis possession to 3 oz. of marijuana on your person and 8 oz. at home.
    • New Hampshire: State Rep. Renny Cushing (D-Hampton) introduced an adult-use legalization bill (HB 481) last month, which would allow possession of up to one ounce of cannabis. The bill would also set up a commission to determine and oversee taxes and regulations for a cannabis market in New Hampshire.
    • New Mexico: Senators filed a bill that would allow the government to “enter into an intergovernmental agreement with any sovereign Indian nation, tribe or pueblo located in New Mexico that elects to implement the provisions of the medical cannabis program.” Democratic legislators introduced HB 356 Jan. 24 to regulate and tax adult-use cannabis sales for individuals 21 and older. The legislation would allow counties and cities to opt out of the market and levy a 9-percent tax on commercial cannabis sales.
    • New York: Lawmakers introduced legislation that would require insurers to cover medical cannabis like any other prescription drug.
    • Oregon: A Senate bill would grant the governor authority to enter into an agreement with another state “for purpose of cross-jurisdictional coordination and enforcement of marijuana-related businesses.” Separately, lawmakers in the state want to prohibit transplant centers from denying organ donations to medical cannabis patients simply because they test positive for marijuana metabolites.
    • South Carolina: Sen. Tom Davis (R-Beaufort) and Rep. Peter McCoy (R-Charleston) introduced companion bills in January to legalize medical cannabis, with Davis calling the legislation (SB 366) the most socially conservative medical marijuana bill in the country, according to a recent WIS News report. The bill would not allow flower, instead giving patients access to capsules, oils and edibles.
    • Tennessee: State lawmakers proposed three cannabis-related bills Jan. 29. State Sen. Sara Kyle (D-Memphis) and Rep. Gloria Johnson (R-Knoxville) introduced SB 260/HB 234, which would allow those with a valid medical marijuana card issued in another state to carry up to a half ounce of cannabis in Tennessee. Kyle also proposed SB 256 to decriminalize the possession of less than an ounce of marijuana, and Johnson sponsored the bill in the House. Kyle also introduced SB 257, which aims to change the definition of marijuana for tax purposes to match how it is defined in the criminal code.
    • Texas: One representative filed a bill to replace instances of the word “marihuana” in state laws by using “cannabis” instead.
    • Washington State: Licensed marijuana businesses would be allowed to deliver cannabis products to adults 21 and older in Washington state under a House bill filed earlier this month.
    • West Virginia: Delegate Mick Bates (D-Raleigh) introduced HB 2331, legislation that would decriminalize marijuana and allow counties to approve its production and sale for adults 21 and older. The bill would legalize possession of up to one ounce or cannabis, and the State Bureau of Public Health would be responsible for permitting the production and sales facilities. Counties could levy a 5-percent sales tax on cannabis, and the Department of Revenue would supervise tax collection.
    • Wyoming: Republican House Majority Floor Leader Eric Barlow (R-Gillette) sponsored House Bill 278 to legalize medical marijuana in the state. The legislation would establish a tightly regulated system for the distribution and control of cannabis.

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