World Hemp Historical TimeLine

      7,000B.C.  First recorded uses of cannabis in central Europe

      6,500B.C. Yangshao Culture in China - clothes, the nets they fished and hunted with, and the ropes they used in the earliest machines were all made of hemp.

      6000 B.C.  Cannabis seeds used for food in China

      4000 B.C.  Textiles made of hemp are used in China. Remains have been found of hemp fibers from this period and from Turkistan a century later.

      2737 B.C.  Chinese Emperor Sheng Nun described cannabis as a superior herb

      2727 B.C.  First recorded use of cannabis as medicine in Chinese pharmacopoeia The Oen-ts-ao Ching.

      2000 B.C. Xia Dynasty  prescribes marijuana preparations for

"malaria, beriberi, constipation, rheumatic pains, absent-mindedness, and female              disorders."

      2700 B.C.  A tomb from this time, was found to have hemp as fiber, oil and medicine

      2000 B.C.  Emperor She hadn-nung, prescribes marijuana preparations for

      "malaria, beriberi, constipation, rheumatic pains, absent-mindedness, and female              disorders."

      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.

      1000 B.C.  Hemp cultivation begins in India.

      1200 - 800 B.C.  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. It is used by medicinally and ritually as an offering to Shiva.

      700 - 600 B.C.  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" (Vendidad or The Law Against Demons)

      700 - 300 B.C.  Scythian tribes leave Cannabis seeds as offerings in royal tombs.

      500 B.C.  Herodotus recorded that the peoples known as Scythians used cannabis to produce fine linens.

      500 B.C.  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 Kazakhstan.

      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 B.C.  Hemp spreads throughout northern Europe

      450 B.C.  Greek Herodus declares ""hemp garments are as fine as linen."

      400 B.C.  What is present day Norway is Cultivating Cannabis

      400 B.C.  Buddha is known to be eating hempseed

      430 B.C.  Herodotus reports on both ritual and recreational use of Cannabis by the Scythians (The Histories by Herodotus trans. G. Rawlinson)

      100 - 0 B.C.  The psychotropic properties of Cannabis are mentioned in the newly compiled herbal Pen Ts'ao Ching which is attributed to an emperor

      100 B.C.  Shensi province, China -Hemp paper found in graves (hemp and mulberry)

      100 B.C.  Dioscorides, a surgeon in the Roman Legions under the Emperor Nero, named hemp “Cannabis sativa” and recorded numerous medicinal uses

      0 - 100 A.D.  Construction of Samaritan gold and glass paste stash box for storing hashish, coriander, or salt, buried in Siberian tomb

      28 A.D.  Tung-kuan archives records that after a war-caused famine, the people subsisted on "wild" Cannabis and soybean

      70 A.D.  Hemp cultivated for the first time in England

      70AD - Pedanius Dioscorides mentions the use of cannabis as a Roman Medicine

      170AD Claudius Galenus of Pergamum(Galen) alludes to a physoactive cannabis seed confection.

      105 A.D.  China - Ts'ai Lun invented “modern” paper. (bark, hemp, rags & water)

      500-751 A.D.  “Isochanvre” A building material made from hemp hurds mixed with lime that petrifies into a mineral state, is used by Roman Builders 

      500-600AD Judist Talmud states euphoriant properties of cannabis

      600 Vikings, Franks and Germans make paper, sails, rope, and other products from Hemp

      900AD - Arabic 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.

      1200  Hemp Based Beer very popular for knights of this era

      1215  Magna Charta was printed on Hemp paper

      1256  Alamut falls

      Early 12th Century  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 it's 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  Oman Emir Soudoun Scheikhouni issues one of the first edicts against the eating of hashish,  to end the use of Indian hashish by destroying all such plants, and imprisoning all users (first removing their teeth for good measure). Interesting to note that after a few years consumption increased

      1456  Guttenberg Bible printed on hemp paper

      1494  Hemp papermaking starts in England

      1526  Babur Nama, first emperor and founder of Mughal Empire learned of hashish in Afghanistan

      1535  Henry VIII declared that 1/4 acre of hemp must be grown by landowners, or they would be fined

      1545  King Philip of Spain orders hemp growth throughout his empire to provide food, sails, rope, towels, sheets, shirts, medicines and relaxants to his peoples

      1545  Hemp seed was planted 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

      1563  Queen Elizabeth I decrees that hemp must be grown by land owners who own 60 acres or more, or they would be fined

      Mid-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

      1600  Galileo's note’s written on hemp paper

      1606  French Botanist Louis Hebert planted the first European hemp crop in North America in Port Royal, Acadia (present day Nova Scotia, Canada)

      1611  First hemp Crop planted in the state of Virginia

      1619  James Town, it was a criminal offence to not grow cannabis

      1631  Hemp is used as currency for bartering throughout American Colonies

      1631  Massachusetts passes law to make it a criminal offence to not grow cannabis

      1632  Connecticut passes law to make it a criminal offence to not grow cannabis

      1635  Plymouth, Virginia plants first hemp Crop

      1635  First permanent European settlement in North Carolina. The local tribe, known as Tuscarora (In the Skarure dilect of Iroquois, Tuscarora means "hemp gatherer")

      1637  General Court at Hartford ordered that "every family within this plantation shall procure and plant this present year one spoonful of English hemp seed in some soyle."

      Late 17th Century  Hashish becomes a major trade item between Central Asia and South Asia

      17-18th  Century  In order to foster America's Independence, Farmers and citizens are encouraged to pay their taxes in hemp. It is recognized as legal tender.

      1713  Chief Tom Blunt, from an opposing Tuscarora Tribe, assisted the European settlers in capturing Chief Hancock, a Tuscarora leader who was against European settlement

      1718  Tuscarora sign treaty with European settlers, granting them 56,000 acres (227 km²)

      1762  Virginia rewarded hemp growers and "imposed penalties upon those that did not produce it."

      1775  Hemp industry started in Kentucky

      1798  Napoleon discovers that much of the Egyptian lower class habitually uses hashish (Kimmens 1977). He declares a total prohibition of hashish, but soldiers returning to France bring the tradition with them

      19th Century  Hashish production expands from Russian Turkistan into Yarkand in Chinese Turkistan

      1809  Antoine Sylvestre de Sacy, a leading Arabist, reveals the etymology of the words "assassin" and "hashishin"

      1807  Treaty of Tilset between France and Russia, to stop Russian trade with Britain, its allies, or any other neutral nation acting as agents for Britain

      1812  France Invades Russia, for failure to stop trading with Britain (note: Russia is Britain main Supplier of hemp)

      1825  Hemp industry started in Missouri

      1839  Medical School of Calcutta (W.B. O’Shaghnessy) observed the use of hemp for indigenous treatment of various disorders and found that a tincture of hemp was an effective analgesic, anticonvulsant and muscle relaxant

      1840  In America, medicinal preparations with a Cannabis base are available. Hashish available in Persian pharmacies

      1840  Opium Banker William Bingham Baring MP(UK) announced that "an exhalation of the Hemp plant, easily collected at certain seasons, which was in every way more injurious than the use of the poppy."

      1840’s  Heyday of the Club des Hachichins in Paris

      1843  Le Club des Hachichins, or Hashish Eater's Club, established in Paris

      1850  United States Census records 8,327 hemp plantations

      1851  Hashish appears in Greece

      1854  Westendorp finds a Aspergillus species attacking Cannabis

      1856  British tax ganja and charas trade in India

      1860  Hemp production in Kentucky alone exceeded 40,000 tons

      1863  The Emancipation Proclamation written under the light of a hemp oil lamp

      1870 – 1880  First reports of hashish smoking on Greek mainland

      1871  A response to Mark Stewarts questions – “The Governor General is of the opinion that while ganja may be among the most noxious of all intoxicants commonly used in India... even if absolute prohibition could be enforced, the result might be to induce the use of more noxious drugs"

      1873  Viceroy of Imperial Administrators(UK) determined “It does not appear to the Governor-General to be specifically proved that hemp incites to crime more than other drugs or spirits." And "General opinion seems to be that the evil effects of Ganja have been exaggerated."

      1875  Cultivation for hashish introduced to Greece

      1877  Kerr reports on Indian ganja and charas trade

      1880  Grimault Indian Cigarettes Advertised as a Cure for Asthma

      1890  Greek Department of Interior prohibits importance, cultivation and use of hashish

      1890  Hashish made illegal in Turkey

      1891  Mark Steward MP(UK) Enquire whether further steps should be taken to limit consumption of hemp

      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

      1894  The Encyclopaedia Britannica estimated that 300 million people, mostly from Eastern countries, were regular marijuana users. Millions more in both the East and the West received prescription marijuana for such wide-ranging ills as hydrophobia and tetanus

      1901  UK Royal Commission concluded that cannabis was relatively harmless and not worth banning

      1906  Pure Food and Drug Act(USA) is passed, regulating the labeling of products containing Alcohol, Opiates, Cocaine, and Cannabis, among others. The law went into effect Jan 1, 1907

      1907  California, labeled marijuana 'poison' and by 1915 prohibited its possession unless prescribed by a physician and by 1929 hemp was included among hard narcotics, such as morphine and cocaine

      By 1929, 16 western states had passed punitive restrictions

      Early 20th Century Hashish smoking very popular throughout the Middle East

      1915 - 1927  Cannabis begins to be prohibited for non-medical use in the U.S., especially in SW states...California (1915), Texas (1919), Louisiana (1924), and New York (1927)

      1916  USDA Bulletin 404 calls for expansion of Hemp to replace uses of timber by industry