From: shug <[s--g] at [shuggie.demon.co.uk]>
Newsgroups: alt.hemp,alt.history,alt.history.living,alt.history.ancient-worlds,rec.food.historic,soc.history,soc.history.ancient,soc.history.living,soc.history.science,talk.politics.drugs,rec.drugs.cannabis,uk.politics.drugs,alt.drugs.culture,alt.drugs.pot,alt.hemp.recreational,alt.hemp.politics
Subject: An Historical overview of cannabis hemp
Date: Sun, 27 Jul 1997 17:47:42 +0100
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If anyone would like to comment, make additions, changes etc, please do.
I would also be very grateful for more references to each of these items, more
items with references (particularly more recent events) and corrections.
And more accurate dates where possible.
===============================================================
An Historical overview of Cannabis hemp,
including the industrial uses of its fibre and seeds,
and the medical and non-medical use of its psychoactive compounds.
8000 BC - Archeological remains indicate that cannabis was one of the first
crops to be cultivated by mankind.
8000 BC - Agricultural and hemp textile industries start simultaneously in
Europe and Asia.
3727 BC - The world's first Medical Text, written by Shen Nung, describes
cannabis as a 'superior herb'. It recorded its effects on malaria,
female disorders, and many other illnesses.
1500 BC - Cannabis-smoking Scythians sweep through Europe and Asia
800 BC - Zoroastrians, Therapeutia, Coptics, Essenes and other African and
Eurasian religions adopt cannabis
600 BC - The 'Zend-Avesta', a sacred book used by the people's of India dating
back to 600 BC, spoke of hemp's 'intoxicating resin'.
500 BC - Gautama Buddha survives by eating cannabis
100 BC - Chinese paper made with cannabis and mulberry
70 AD - Dioscorides, Emperor Nero's surgeon, praises cannabis for making 'the
stoutest cords' and for its medical properties.
400 - Cannabis cultivated for the first time in Britain at Old Buckeham Mere.
500 - First botanical drawing of cannabis appears in 'Constantinopolitanus'
(Later Constantinople)
600 - Germans, Franks, Vikings and others make paper from hemp
800 - Mohammed allows cannabis, but forbids alcohol use.
1000 - 'Hempe' first listed in an English dictionary.
1000 - Moslems produce hashish for medical and social use.
1150 - Moslems use hemp to start Europe's first paper mill. Most paper made in
the next 800 years is made from hemp.
1492 - Hemp sails, caulking and rigging ignite the Age of Discovery and enable
Columbus and his ships to reach America.
1494 - Hemp paper making starts in England.
1545 - Spanish bring cannabis cultivation to Peru.
1563 - Queen Elizabeth I decrees that land owners with 60 acres or more must
grow cannabis or face a UKP5 fine.
1564 - King Philip of Spain orders cannabis to be grown throughout his empire
from modern day Argentina to Oregon.
1500 - 1600 - Dutch achieve Golden Age through hemp commerce.
1500 - 1600 - Explorers find 'wild hempe' in North America.
1606 - British take cannabis to Canada to be cultivated mainly for maritime
uses.
1611 - British start cultivating cannabis in Virginia.
1619 - Virginia colony makes cannabis cultivation mandatory, followed by most
other colonies. Europe pays hemp bounties.
1621 - 'The Anatomy of Melancholy' is published. It recommends hemp for
depression.
1631 - Cannabis used for bartering throughout American colonies.
1632 - Pilgrims bring cultivation to New England, they learnt about the
cultivation of hemp from the Native American People.
1637 - Hartford, Connecticut. The General Court ordered all families to plant
one teaspoon of hemp seed.
1639 - The Massachusetts courts follow those of Hartford.
1753 - Cannabis sativa classified by Linneaus
1763 - 67 You could be jailed in Virginia for not growing hemp due to a
shortage. (Herndon, G.M., 'Hemp in Colonial Virginia', 1963; 'The
Chesapeake Colonies', 1954; L.A.Times, Aug 12, 1981; et al)
1764 - 'The New English Dispensary' suggested applying hemp roots to the skin
for inflammation.
1776 - Decleration of Independence drafted on hemp paper.
1783 - Cannabis indica classified by Lamarck.
1791 - President Washington sets duties on cannabis to encourage domestic
industry. Jefferson calls cannabis 'a necessity' and urges farmers to
grow cannabis instead of tobacco.
1800 - Napoleon's army, returning from Egypt, introduces cannibis (hashish,
marijuana) into France. Avante-garde artists and writers in Paris
develop their own cannabis ritual, leading, in 1844, to the
establishment of *Le Club de Haschischins.* [William A. Emboden, Jr.,
Ritual Use of Cannabis Sativa L.: A historical-ethnographic survey, in
Peter T. Furst (Ed.), *Flesh of the Gods*, pp. 214-236; pp. 227-228]
1800s - Cotton gins make fibre cheaper than hemp.
Britain buys 90% of its maritime hemp products from Russia.
1807 - Napoleon signs Treaty of Tilset with Czar Alexander of Russia which
cuts off all legal Russian trade with Britain. Britain blackmails and
press gangs American sailors into illegaly trading in Russian hemp.
1808 - Napoleon wants to place French Troops at Russian ports to ensure the
Treaty of Tilset is comlied with. The Czar refuses and turns a blind
eye to Britain's illegal trade.
1812, 19th June - America decares war on Britain.
1812, 24th June - Napoleon invades Russia aiming to end Britain's main supply
of hemp
1839 - Homeopathy journal American Prover's Union publishes first of many
reports on the effects of cannabis.
1841 - Scottish doctor W.B.O'Shaughnessy works in India then intoduces
cannabis to Western medicine.
In the following 50 years, hundreds of medical papers are written on
the medical benefits of cannabis
1841 - Dr. Jacques Joseph Moreau uses hashish in treatment of mental patients
at the Bicetre.
1845 - Psychologist and 'inventor' of modern psychopharmacological and
pschyotimimetic drug treatment, Jacques-Joseph Moreau de Tours
documents physical and mental benefits of cannabis.
1847 - The American Medical Association is founded.
1850s - Petrochemical age begins. Toxic sulphite and chlorine processes make
paper from trees, steamships replace sails, tropical fibres
introduced.
1852 - The American Pharmaceutical Association is founded. The Association's
1856 Consitution lists one of its goals as: "To as much as possible
restrict the dispensing and sale of medicines to regularly educated
druggests and apothecaries." [David Musto, 'The American Disease',
p258]
1857 - 'The Hashish Eater' by Fitz Hugh Ludlow is published.
1857 - Smith Brothers of Edinburgh start to market a highly active extract of
cannabis indicas used as a basis for innumerable tinctures.
1860 - First US Government commissioned study of cannabis and health conducted
by Ohio State Medical Society.
1870 - Cannabis is listed in the US Pharmocopoeia as a medicine for various
ailments
1876 - Hashish is served at American Centennial Exposition
1890 - Queen Victoria's personal physician, Sir Russell Reynolds, prescribes
cannabis for her menstrual cramps. He claims that cannabis 'when pure
and administered carefully, is one of the most valuable medicines we
possess'.
1894 - British Indian Hemp Drugs Commission studies social use of cannabis and
concluded: "There is no evidence of any weight regarding the mental and
moral injuries from the moderate use of these drugs (cannabis)......
Moderation does not lead to excess in hemp any more than it does in
alcohol. Regular, moderate use of ganja or bhang produces the same
effects as moderate and regular doses of whiskey." [Norman Taylor, 'The
Pleasant Assassin'; 'The Story of Marijuana', in David Solomon, 'The
Marijuana Papers', pp31-47]
1895 - First known use of the word 'marijuana' for cannabis, by Pancho Villa's
supporters in Sonora, Mexico. The song 'La Curaracha' tells the story
of one of Villa's men looking for his stash of 'marijuana por fumar'
(to smoke).
1910 - African-American 'reefer' use reported in jazz clubs of New Orleans,
said to be influencing white people.
1910 - Mexican's reported to be smoking cannabis in Texas.
1910 - Newspaper tycoon Randolph Hearst has 800,000 acres of prime Mexican
timberland seized from him by Villa and his men.
1911 - Hindus reported to be using 'gunjah' in San Fransisco.
1911 - South Africa starts to outlaw cannabis.
1912 - First International Opium conference. The possibility of putting
controls on cannabis is raised.
1915 - Utah passes the first state anti-marijuana law. Mormons who had gone to
Mexico in 1910 returned smoking cannabis. It was oulawed as a result of
Utah legislature enacting all Mormon religious prohibitions as law.
1915 - California outlaws cannabis.
1916 - USDA Bulletin No.404 calls for new program of expansion of hemp to
replace uses of timber in industry. [David F. Musto, An historical
perspective on legal and medical responses to substance abuse,
*Villanova Law Review*, 18:808-817 (May), 1973; p. 816]
1919 - Texas outlaws cannabis.
1920s - Hearst runs series of stories portraying Negroes and Mexicans as
frenzied beasts under the influence of 'marijuana'. (The word
'marijuana' was used to con the American people that it was not
cannabis). Local State laws against cannabis are not enforced because
law enforcement officials are concerned with alcohol prohibition.
1921 - Alfred C. Prentice, M.D. a member of the Committee on Narcotic Drugs
of the American Medical Association, declares "Public opinion regarding
the vice of drug addiction has been deliberately and consistently
corrupted through propaganda in both the medical and lay press.... The
shallow pretense that drug addiction is a 'disease'.... has been
asserted and urged in volumes of 'literature' by self-styled
'specialists.'" [Alfred C Prentice, The Problem of the narcotic drug
addict, *Journal of the American Medical Association*, 76:1551-1556; p.
1553]
1923 - League of Nations. South Africa claims mine workers are not as
productive after using 'dagga' (cannabis) and calls for international
controls. Britain insists on further research before any controls are
imposed.
1924 - Second International Opiates Conference. Egypt claims serious problems
associated with 'hashish' use and calls for immediate international
controls. The conference voted (with Britain abstaining) to declare
cannabis a Narcotic and recommends strict international control.
1924 - Cannabis ruderalis identified by Lamarck.
1925 - The Panama Canal Zone Report conducted due to the level of cannabis use
by soldiers in the area conludes that there is no evidence that
cannabis use is habit-forming or deliterious. The report recommends
that no action be taken to prevent the sale or use of cannabis.
1927 - New York outlaws cannabis.
1928, Sept 28th - The Dangerous Drugs Act 1925 becomes law and cannabis is
made illegal in Britain.
1930s - New decorticators invented to mechanise the hemp harvest.
1930s - 1200 hash-bars in New York.
1930s - Andrew Mellon is Secretary of Treasury. (Mellon was owner of Gulf
Oil).
1930s - Hearst's sensationalist anti-marijuana stories leads to outcry for
cannabis to be prohibited throughout the US.
1937 - By 1937, 46 of the 48 states had oulawed cannabis.
1931 - The Federal Bureau of Narcotics is formed with Anslinger appointed as
its head.
1934 - Anslinger refers to 'ginger-coloured niggers' in official FBN
circulars.
1936 - The FBN is under pressure from states in the south west to create
federal legislation to ban cannabis.
1937 - Shortly before the Marijuana Tax Act, Commissioner Harry J. Anslinger
writes: "How many murders, suicides, robberies, criminal assaults,
hold-ups, burglaries, and deeds of maniacal insanity it [cannabis]
causes each year, especially among the young, can only be conjectured."
[Quoted in John Kaplan, *Marijuana*, p. 92]
1937 - DuPont patents process for making plastics from oil and coal as well as
a new bleaching process for making paper from wood pulp. DuPont advises
its share holders to invest in its new petrochemical industry claiming
that the government would force the acceptance of these new industries.
1937, April 14th - The Marijuana Transfer Tax Bill is introduced directly to
the house Ways and Means Committee. Anslinger testifies to
congress that 'marijuana' is the most violence-causing drug
known to man. Objections by the American Medical
Association (who only found out that 'marijuana' was
cannabis two days before the hearing) and the National Oil
Seed Institute are rejected.
1937, December - Marijuana Transfer Tax Act (HR 6385) is passed imposing
severe restrictions on its industrial and medical use as well
as making the flowering tops a narcotic subject to strict
control.
1938, February - US magazine 'Popular Mechanics' declares 'Hemp - the New
Billion Dollar Crop'. (The article had been written before
the Tax Act had passed)
1938 - LaGuardia, the Mayor of New York commissions a report to investigate
the use of cannabis.
1941 - Cannabis dropped from the American Pharmocopoeia.
1941 - Popular Mechanics Magazine reveal details of Henry Ford's plastic car
made using hemp and fueled from hemp. Henry Ford continues to illegally
grow hemp for some years after the federal ban, hoping to become
independant of the petroleum industry.
1943 - 'Hemp for Victory' program which lasts until 1945 urges farmers to grow
hemp for the US war effort.
1943 - A similar programme was also initiated in Germany.
1943 - Colonel J.M. Phalen, editor of the *Military Surgeon*, declares in an
editorial entitled "The Marijuana Bugaboo": "The smoking of the leaves,
flowers, and seeds of Cannibis sativa is no more harmful than the
smoking of tobacco.... It is hoped that no witch hunt will be
instituted in the military service over a problem that does not exist."
[Lindensmith, *The Addict and the Law*, p234]
1944 - The LaGuardia Marijuana Report refutes claims made by Hearst and
Anslinger and reports that cannabis causes no violence at all and cites
other positive results. Anslinger reponds by denouncing LaGuardia and
threatens doctors with prison sentences if they dare carry out
independant research on cannabis.
1945 - Newsweek reports that over 100,000 Americans use cannabis.
1948 - Anslinger now declares that using cannabis causes the user to become
peaceful and pacifist. He also claims that communists would use
cannabis to weaken America's will to fight.
1951 - According to United Nations estimates, there are approximately 200
million marijuana users in the world, the major places being India,
Egypt, North Africa, Mexico, and the United States. [Jock Young, *The
Drug Takers*, p. 11]
1952 - First UK cannabis drugs bust at the Number 11 Club, Soho, London.
1960s - Recreational use of cannabis increases rapidly in Western youth
culture.
1961 - Anslinger is sacked by Kenendy. According to Judith Exner, Kennedy was
the first president to smoke cannabis in the White House. Kennedy was
also intending to legalize cannabis.
1963 - President Kennedy assassinated.
1964 - Thelin brothers open the first Head Shop in the US.
1964 - THC, the major psychoactive ingredient of cannabis was isolated (Goani
and Mechoulam, 1964).
1967 - Full page advert appears in The Times calling for legalisation of
cannabis and declaring that ' the laws against marijuana are immoral in
principle and unworkable in practice'.
1968 - The British Govt funded Wooton Report states that claims about the
harmful effects of cannabis have been exagerated and recommends that
the criminal law should no longer play a part in personal possession of
cannabis. The Callahan govt rejects these findings.
1968 - Campaign against cannabis use by US troops in Vietnam - soldiers switch
to heroin.
1969 - The parents of 6,000 secondary-level students in Clifton, New Jersey,
are sent letters by the Board of Education asking permission to conduct
saliva tests on their children to determine whether or not they use
marijuana. [Saliva tests asked for Jersey youths on marijuana use, *New
York Times*, Apr. 11, 1969, p. 12]
1970s - Social use of cannabis increases and starts being more widely accepted
as research ondicates that it is a substance of amazing therapeutic
potential. Policy of legal decriminilisation sweeps the US.
1970s - CIA sponsored 'experiments' claim to show new risks of cannabis
smoking.
1970s - US Tax money shifted from jobs programs to sponsor disinformation
groups.
1970 - Canadian Le Dain report claims that the debate on the non-medical use
of cannabis 'has all too often been based on hearsay, myth and ill-
informed opinion about the effects of the drug.'
1970 - Marijuana Tax Act declared unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court.
1971 - UK Misuse of Drugs Act lists cannabis as a Class B drug and bans its
medical use despite the recommendation of the Wooton Report that
'preperations of cannabis and its derivatives should continue to be
available on prescription for purposes of medical treatment and
research'.
1971 - President Nixon declares drugs 'America's public enemy Number one'.
1972 - The house votes 366 to 0 to authorize "a $1 billion, three-year federal
attack on drug abuse." [$1 billion voted for drug fight, *Syracuse
Herald-Journal*, March 16, 1972, p. 32]
1972 - The US Government Shafer report voices concern at the level of spending
used to stop illicit drug use. From 1969-73 the level of spending rose
over 1000 per cent.
1973 - Nixon declares 'we have turned the corner on drug addiction in
America'.
1973 - Drug Enforcement Administration formed to replace the Bureau of
Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs.
1973 - Michael R. Sonnenreich, Executive Director of the National Commission
on Marijuana and Drug Abuse, declares: "About 4 years ago we spent a
total of $66.4 million for the entire federal effort in the drug abuse
area.... This year we have spent $796.3 million and the budget
estimates that have been submitted indicate that we will exceed the $1
billion mark. When we do, we become, for want of a better term, a drug
abuse industrial complex." [Michael R. Sonnenreich, 'Discussion of the
Final Report of the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse, in
'Villanova Law Review', 18:817-827 (May), 1973, p818]
1973 - Oregon becomes the first state to take steps towards legalisation.
1975 - Hundreds of doctors call on US Government to instigate further research
on cannabis.
1975 - Supreme Court of Alaska declares that 'the right of privacy' protects
cannabis possession in the home. Limit for public poseesion is set at
one ounce.
1975 - Jamaican Studies reveal good health amongst prolific users of cannabis.
Use of opiates virtually unheard of in long-term cannabis users.
1976, Jan 5th - New York Times declares 'scientists find nothing really
harmful about pot'
1976 - President Ford bans medical research on cannabis.
1976 - Pharmaceuticval companies allowed to carry out research on synthetic
cannabis 'analogues'.
1976 - Holland adopts policy of tolerance to cannabis users.
1976 - Robert Randall becomes first American to receive Cannabis from Federal
supplies under a Investigational New Drug (IND) program.
1976 - Ford's chief advisor on drugs, Robert DuPont, declares that cannabis is
less harmful than alcohol or tobacco and urges for it's
decriminilisation.
1977 - Jimmy Carter elected president and declares that cannabis should be
legalised.
1977 - The Joint Committee of the New York Bar Association concludes that the
Rockefeller drug laws, the toughest in the nation, have had no effect
in reducing drug use but have clogged the courts and the criminal
justice system to the point of gridlock.
1978 - New Mexico become first US state to make cannabis available for medical
use.
1980 - Costa Rican study ratifies many findings of the Jamaican studies.
1980s - Reagan/Bush war on cannabis. Head shops outlawed. Urine testing,
recriminilisation, asset and property seizure, Special Alternative
Incarceration Camps formed to house non-violent drug users for
systematic brainwashing by such groups as 'Just Say No' and 'Parent
for a Drug Free America' who are funded predominately by tobacco and
pharmaceutical companies. The price per ounce is higher than gold and
in many states cannabis is the biggest cash crop.
1981 - The Coptic Study claims 'no harm to human brain or intelligence'.
1983 - Reagan/Bush administration instruct American Universities and
researchers to destroy all 1966-76 cannabis research work.
1984 - U.S. busts 10,000 pounds of marijuana on farms in Mexico. The seizures,
made on five farms in an isolated section of Chihuahua state, suggest a
70 percent increase in estimates that total U.S. consumption was 13,000
to 14,000 tons in 1982. Furthermore, the seizures add up to nearly
eight times the 1300 tons that officials had calculated Mexico
produced in 1983. [the San Francisco Chronicle, Saturday, November 24,
1984]
1985 - Drs Winter and DiFranza reveal dangers of radioactivity in tobacco.
DiFranza claims that 'radiation alone could account for about half of
all lung cancers in smokers'. No radioactivity exists in cannabis tars.
1985 - The Pentagon spends $40 million on interdiction. By 1990, the General
Accounting Office will report that the efforts have had no discernible
impact on the flow of drugs.
1988 - The Drug Enforcement Administration's Law Judge, Francis Young, after 2
years of court hearings declares that 'marijuana in its natural form is
one of the safest therapeutic substances known to man'. The DEA rejects
the ruling.
1988 - US Senate adds $2.6 billion to federal anti-drug efforts.
1989 - President Reagan declares victory in War on Drugs as being a major
achievement of his administration.
1989 - US Secretary of State James A. Baker reports that the global war on
narcotics production 'is clearly not being won'.
1990s - Interest in the medical and industrial uses of cannabis rises giving
new support for the hope of legalisation for recreational use.
Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, Italy and parts of Australia and New
Zealand adopt forms of decriminalisation.
1990 - Scientific journal 'Nature' reports THC receptors have been discovered
in the human brain.
1992 - Australia licenses hemp farm.
1992 - Bush loses election to admitted ex-smokers Clinton and Gore.
1992 - IND programme dropped.
1993 - Hemcore become the first British company to obtain a licence to grow
cannabis as the Home Office lift restrictions on industrial hemp
cultivation.
1994 - Key rings with leaves taken from Hemcore's first harvest are illegally
sold in publications such as 'Viz'. The Home Office are aware of the
situation but do not prosecute Hemcore who could have been facing 15
years and an unlimited fine.
1994 - Association of Cannabis Therapeutics talks to Depatment of Health about
possibility of legalising cannabis for medical use.
1994 - Paul Flynn, MP tables EDM 782 calling for the legalisation of cannabis.
1994 - Canadian government permits hemp farm in Ontario province.
1994 - Hemp Agrotech plants first commercial research crop in the US since
WW2, but the crop is destroyed by DEA agents just a week before
harvesting.
1994 - Clinton administration extends medical ban on cannabis.
1994 - US domestic sales of imported hemp brings in an estimated $25 million
in sales.
1995, February - UK Home Secretary Michael Howard increases penalties for
cannabis offences under the Criminal Justice Act, but most
judges refuse to implement them.
1995, March - UK Channel 4 TV dedicates 8 hours of programming to cannabis on
'Pot Night'.
1995, April - The BBC 'redress the balance' and try to help justify Michael
Howard's increase of fines with Panorama's 'High Risk', which
claims to reveal 'startling new evidence' about the dangers of
cannabis.
1995, October - Labour MP Clare Short says the subject of decriminilisation
should be discussed. She is immediatley denounced by other
leading Labour politicians.
1995, October - European Cannabis Consumer's Union formed in Amsterdam
1995, October - Activist, Dan Perron forms Cannabis Buyers Club in San
Fransisco which supplies high grade cannabis to people who
need it medically. Authorities turn a blind eye fearing riots
if it was turned over.
1996 - Politicians in 4 US states introduce legislation allowing for domestic
hemp cultivation. Both Hawaii and Vermont passed measures promoting
industrial hemp research.
Posted in association with The Legalize! Initiative - the international action
forum for all people concerned about the effects of current drug policy.
http://www.legalize.org
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For introductory information, send mail to [legalize info] at [legalize.org.]