Mankind has an enduring legacy of cannabis use. In Eastern societies, the Cannabis sativa plant has been linked to their medical practices as well as consumption for recreational purposes, however the plant’s first documented use was by the Taiwanese who used the fibers to manufacture clothing. Medically it was used to treat pain, earaches, and for stress management. Our recent war with cannabis is a new phenomenon as mankind chose to wage a war on cannabis consumption for political purposes.
Today cannabis is being used to create clothing, to manufacture building material like hemp bricks and hemp-crete, to manufacture new biodegradable plastic bags for home and industrial use, to clean up soil due to its ability to efficiently bioaccumulate materials from the surrounding soil and sequestering these compounds in its leaves, and it’s also being cultivated for consumption either medically or recreationally. Seems we may have finally turned the page on the “reefer madness” era.
There are many theories on why cannabis cultivation and consumption became taboo, some believe it was due to the medical professions desire to control drugs/medicine, some blame the petrochemical companies who have partnered with pharmaceutical companies to create the drugs we have today, but what’s indisputable is the role that politics has played in the demonization and wild hysteria surrounding the usage of this plant.
Cannabis has traveled the world with mankind. Everywhere that mankind settled, we brought the plant with us. It was able to adapt to each new environment; it can be grown in environments as different as the mountains of Tibet, to The West Indies. If mankind were to colonize a new planet, I’m certain that we would be taking Cannabis sativa with us there as well. We can eat the seeds for nutrition and use the oil for energy. This plant’s versatility is unparalleled!
We need to rediscover cannabis and its many uses. The stigma surrounding this plant needs to be removed, the laws that prevent cannabis from being treated like any other commodity need to be rubbished and exchanged for a practical and sensible strategy for promoting commerce and ensuring public safety. These goals are not mutually exclusive.