The origin of cannabis: How did this plant spread around the world?
Where does cannabis come from?
Wild cannabis probably originated in Central Asia - in parts of China, Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Pakistan and India. Humans began farming around 10 000 years ago and it is thought that people began cultivating cannabis between 5 000 and 6 000 years ago. In prehistoric times, as the climate warmed and people began to migrate, they brought ''pot'' with them to various landscapes.
From Central Asia, cannabis is believed to have spread to the Middle East and the east coast of Africa, as well as to South-East Asia. Eventually, hundreds of years later, it reached Europe and America.
Different types of cannabis - local varieties -began to develop in certain areas . These varieties, such as Hindu Kush (originating in the Kush Mountains of Pakistan and Afghanistan), are influenced by the climate, geography, soil and environment of the region.
Cannabis in ancient China
The world'soldest medical writing, the Pen-ts'ao-ching, first came to prominence in the late 2nd century AD during the Han dynasty, but was compiled from ancient texts. It refers to Emperor Shennong, the founder of Chinese medicine, who lived at least around 2000 BC and whorecognised the benefits of cannabis for more than 100 ailments. The Pen-ts'ao-qing represents the earliest record of cannabis as a medical remedy, highlightingthe plant's healing potential and its safe use.
Chinese medicine is based on the principles of yin and yang, and cannabis has been regarded as a medicine that restores yin and is useful forconditions such as gout, rheumatic pain, constipation, malaria and gynecological disorders.
In 2019, researchers discovered a wooden object dating back to around 1500 BC.
Ten of these objects were found in a burial site in the Eastern Pamir region of China, suggesting they were part of a funeral ritual. These ''pyres'' consisted of pieces of wood with deep holes carved into them, and the charred remains found inside contained traces of cannabinoids. Cannabis and red-hot stone were placed inside these objects and the smoke was inhaled.
Growth stages of the cannabis plant.
Cannabis in India : Cannabis: Sacred Medicine and Ayurveda
Cannabis occupies a prominent place in the Atharvaveda, a collection of sacred Sanskrit writings dating back at least 800 BC, if not earlier. The text mentions cannabis as one of five sacred plants whose medicinal uses are intertwined with religious and ritual practices. It was recognised as a source of happiness and a carrier of joy and freedom.
The plant was also described in the Susrita Samhita, a foundational text of Ayurvedic medicine from around 800 BC, which explains the plant's many medicinal properties. Cannabis has been used for a staggering number of therapies: as anappetite stimulant , pain reliever, anaesthetic, anticonvulsant and antiparasitic, among others.
Bhang, a drink made from hemp, warm milk, nuts and spices, was a common remedy for ailments and also considered a favourite food of the god Shiva. Bhang was considered very effective in relieving anxiety and is still consumed in sacred contexts, such as during the Holi festival.
Cannabis in ancient Egypt
According to historians, cannabis came to Egypt from Central Asia, with medical records written on papyrus from 1550 BC highlighting the plant's anti-inflammatory properties and its use as a childbirth aid. TheEgyptians administered cannabis in creative ways - by mouth and skin, but also through the anus, vagina and in the eyes.
Many scholars believe that the word 'shemshemet', which appears in many Egyptian hieroglyphs, refers to a plant used both for rope making and for medicine - probably cannabis. Remains of the plant have also been found in the tombs of pharaohs, including Akhenaten or Amenhotep IV, who lived around 1335 BC, and Ramesses II, who lived from 1303-1212 BC.
Cannabis in Central Asia
The Scythians were an ancient nomadic people who lived around 600 BC-400 AD in a vast territory in Central Asia between the Black Sea and Siberia. TheGreek historian Herodotus referred to a'Scythian steam bath' in which people sat in tents and placed hemp and hot stones in wooden hearths - perhaps theworld's first recorded hot bath.
The mummified body of a woman has been found in the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia, dated to around 500 BC. She was named the "Siberian Ice Maiden" and was found buried with a bag of hemp. A recent MRI scan revealed that she had breast cancer; scientists theorize that she used cannabis for her condition.
Cannabis in Greece and Rome
The Greeks and Romans commonly used cannabis to make ropes and sails, and the earliest surviving record of medicinal cannabis among the Greeks is in the bookDe materia medica, written by the physician Dioscorides around the 1st century AD . Dioscorides sings the plant's praises as a cure for earaches and offers specific instructions on how to prepare cannabis medicine as a juice from young green cannabis seeds.
Dioscorides' recognition of cannabis as a medicine was closely followed by Pliny the Elder's entry in Naturalis Historia in 77 A.D. In it, Pliny discussed the medicinal uses of cannabis for joint pain, gout, and burns.
Cannabis in the Arab and Persian world
A few hundred years later, in an area that was once part of the Roman Empire, the Arab scholars al-Mayusi (living around 1000 AD) and al-Badri (living in the 15th century AD) pointed to cannabis as an effective remedy for epilepsy. In addition, Avicenna, a highly respected Persian scholar who published his famous Canon of Medicine in 1025 AD , recognised cannabis as a useful remedy for pain, gout, swelling, infectious wounds and inflammation of the eyes.
Persian scholars were among the first to notice that small amounts of THC can produce positive effects, but large amounts can produce other, possibly negative effects.
It is alsobelieved that the first cannabis delicacy originated in Morocco: mahjoun, a sweet delicacy filled with hashish. The traditional version includes a paste of figs, dates and hash, covered with nuts and other flavourings such as honey, rose water, sea salt, turmeric, cardamom, ginger, cinnamon and lavender.
Cannabis in Africa
It is generally believed that the plant was brought to East Africa by Arab traders from India and the Middle East, at least since the 1400s. Cannabisis known tohave been part of the culture of enslaved Africans in Brazil, probably brought from Africa, particularly from the area of present-day Angola in West Africa.
Cannabis in Europe
Cannabis may have reached Europe via the Scythians from Central Asia, with the plant possibly travelling from east to west along the " Bronze Road", which later became known as the Silk Road. Cannabis has also been found inGermanic burials dating back to 500 BC.
The Anglo-Saxon Old English Herbarium was written in the 11th century AD, and was one of the earliest texts to document the use of cannabis in Europe. The herbarium describes cannabis as an anaesthetic and painkiller, and was also used for gout, urinary infections, childbirth problems and weight loss.
Cannabis is also mentioned in the medical writings of the German Hildegard von Bingen, a 12th century oracle, scholar, physician and abbess.
Further references to cannabis appear in a papal bull condemning the plant issuedby Pope Innocent VIII in1484 . However, it is believed that several maritime republics ignoredit because theyrelied on the plant's fibre for making ropes and sails. During the Italian Renaissance, it was used to make paper and linen.
The medicinal uses of hemp were also recorded in medical texts in England as early as the 1500s, during the reign of the Tudors.
Smoking cannabis for its psychoactive effects, especially hashish, became popular in Europe after Napoleon's campaign in Egypt in 1798, when French soldiers were encouraged to use hashish. After the plant was brought home, the use of cannabis spread throughout Europe in the modern era, where itwas used to treat a wide variety of ailments.
How did marijuana spread to America?
Cannabis crossed the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas in several different ways, but it probably first appeared in the early 1500s when Hernán Cortés and his Spanish soldiers invaded Mexico. The soldier Pedro Cuadrado and his friend began to successfully cultivate cannabisthere . In 1550, however, the Spanish governor restricted production because the locals were intoxicated by the plant ratherthan using it to make rope and textiles.
Because it is afast-growing plant that is easy to cultivate and has many uses, hemp was widely cultivated throughout colonial America and in the Spanish missions in the Southwest. In the early 16th century, the colonies of Virginia, Massachusetts, and Connecticutrequired farmers to grow hemp.
Farther north in the 13 colonies, King James I of England issued a royal decreein 1611 ordering colonists in Jamestown, Virginia ,to grow hemp. Hemp was a valuable crop for many colonists because it could be used to make rope, sails, clothing, textiles, and other materials.
As mentioned earlier, hemp is believed to have arrived in South America, particularly Brazil, via enslaved Africans around the 16th century. After the abolition of slavery in the British colonies in 1834, hemp is believed to have been brought to the Caribbean by Indian indentured servants. Marijuana became particularly popular in Jamaica, then a British colony, where it is still commonly consumed today. You can learn more about the history at Leafly.
Medicinal cannabis in the 19th and early 20th centuries
With the growing interest in cannabis in the 19th century, the plant came to the attention ofWestern medicine in 1839 when Irish physician William O'Shaughnessy published On the Preparations of the Indian Hemp, or Gunjah. He had been working in India, where he experimented with the plant and its uses , and noted its success in treating rheumatism, convulsions and attacks associated with tetanus and rabies.
In France , Jacques-Joseph Moreau, a psychiatrist ,experimented with hashish, believing that it could help in the treatment of mental illness. Moreau wrote a book, Hashish and Mental Illness. The work of O'Shaughnessy and Moreau had a significant impact on Western medicine.
In the second half of the 19th century, more than100 studieswere conducted on the plant and pharmaceutical companies in the US and Europe began to create and sell cannabis tinctures. Medicines containing cannabis became widely available to the public and many brands claimed to cure various diseases.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, views on cannabis began to change and many countries began to ban the plant, most notably the USA. Today, many nations are once again turning to the plant, especiallyfor its healing abilities.
Want to learn more first-hand about the medicinal benefits of cannabis? For example, make a medicinal cannabis ointment from your own grown cannabis plant! In the Czech Republic it is legal to grow seeds with up to 1% THC.