420 Day Celebrates Humanity’s 10,000 Year Relationship with Cannabis

No one knows when exactly cannabis came into being as a distinct plant species, but it is believed to have evolved on the steppes of Central Asia, most likely in the regions that are now Mongolia and southern Siberia. The evolution of this unique plant was a most fortuitous event for humanity.

From foraging for plants to cultivating plants, agriculture is a recent human development beginning about 10,000 years ago. The renowned scientist Carl Sagan speculated, in his extraordinarily insightful book The Dragons of Eden, that cannabis may have been humanity’s first cultivated crop, writing “It would be wryly interesting if in human history the cultivation of marijuana led generally to the invention of agriculture, and thereby to civilization.”

The first documented human use of cannabis was a hemp cord found embedded in a pottery shard at a 10,000-year-old village site in what is now modern day Taiwan. From that early beginning, humans took cannabis with them everywhere.

“The irony that cannabis cultivation may have been the foundation of civilization lends historic credence to attempts to end its prohibition.”

Through trial and error, human cultures all over world discovered which plants were edible, which were poisonous and which provided healing qualities. Every culture in existence has developed their own unique knowledge of herbs and plants and passed this information down orally from generation to generation.

Caraway and thyme are described in the first written record of plants being used for their healing properties about 5,000 years ago. Although cannabis was not in the earliest of these writings, Chinese legends dating to 2,700 BCE record the story of Emperor Shen Nun (also referred to as Shennong), considered the Father of Chinese medicine, extolling cannabis’ healing properties.

Referred to in Hebrew as Kaneh-Bosem, cannabis made its way into the middle-east around 4,000 years ago where it was sanctified as “Holy Anointing Oil” in Exodus (30:22-23).

Two ancient Egypt texts, the Ramesseum III papyrus and the Ebers papyrus, note the healing properties of cannabis along with other ancient Egyptian texts describing its use for inflammation, cooling the uterus, administering enemas and eye problems such as glaucoma. Its use by the pharaohs was confirmed with the discovery of cannabis pollen on the mummy of Ramesses II, who died in 1213 BC.

In India, a 3,000-year-old legend tells the story of the Hindu god Shiva bringing cannabis, his favorite food, down from the Himalayas for the use and enjoyment of the Aryan people. Bhang, a cannabis drink made with milk, was developed and is used to this day as an anesthetic, a stimulant, an expectorant and to treat a wide variety of maladies.

From the nearby regions of Central Asia, the nomadic Scythians brought cannabis with them during their migration to southern Russia around 800 to 700 BCE. From there, nomadic tribes brought it to Germany and other parts of Europe, but cannabis did not arrive in Britain until around 400 CE with the Anglo-Saxon invasions.

Surprisingly, considering its relative proximity, the earliest evidence of cannabis in Africa outside of Egypt were two ceramic pipes containing traces of cannabis found in Ethiopia dating to the 14th Century CE. The use of cannabis for fiber, medicine and as an intoxicant soon spread throughout Africa.

As the Bering land bridge submerged over 11,000 years ago, the ancient peoples that crossed over into the New World apparently did not bring any agricultural crops with them as agriculture had barely begun. With no cannabis in the New World, French and British settlers brought it with them cultivating hemp at their colonies in the early 1600s.

Its use as a medicine in the Western world did not begin until Dr. William O’Shaughnessy brought his observations of the use of cannabis in India to England in 1842. Its use rapidly spread throughout Europe and the United States.

The irony that cannabis cultivation may have been the foundation of civilization lends historic credence to attempts to end its prohibition. For humans to have rejected the plant that led not only to their health and happiness but to civilization itself showcases the utter folly of prohibitions past and present.