The History of Cannabis

Disputed

“People carried cannabis to Europe. Before farmers arrived, it did not grow there.”

Pollen studies suggest wild-type cannabis grew in Europe long before farming, even before Homo sapiens. But the method reads neighboring plants as clues, and one research group produced most of this work. "Native to Europe" is a strong hypothesis, not a settled fact.

False

“Cannabis evolved THC to get people high.”

No evidence supports this. The plant's reason for making cannabinoids is unknown. Leading ideas are defense against insects, grazers, microbes, and sunlight. The cannabis lineage split from hops 16 to 29 million years ago. The earliest find we could date with confidence is about 10,000 years old, and older pottery-linked claims are disputed.

True, but

“Cannabis that grows by itself along roads is wild.”

It grows without help, but DNA shows the plants studied descend from escaped crops. They are feral, not original wild plants. Escaped plants regain a wild look in as few as 50 generations. Truly wild ancestors may be extinct, though outside experts note sampling gaps.

Disputed

“Cord-marked pottery from Taiwan proves people used hemp 10,000 years ago.”

Cord marks do not name a plant, so they cannot show hemp use at any date. Dapenkeng cord-marked pottery dates to the 4th and 3rd millennia BCE. Ren et al. 2021 cite cord-impressed pottery from South China and Taiwan at about 12,000 years before present, unchecked here. We found no source tying any Taiwan pottery date to hemp.

Exaggerated

“Hemp was always one of China's five grains.”

Some classical lists name hemp. A note on the Rites of Zhou does, and Dal Martello's team counts hemp among the five. Zhao Qi's note on Mencius lists rice instead. The five grains was never one fixed list.

Disputed

“Cloth impressions on Neolithic Chinese pots prove early hemp weaving.”

Hui-Lin Li (1974) reports that Andersson believed some cloth impressions on Chinese pots were hemp. A 2023 review calls hemp-textile claims based on fabric impressions on ceramics disputed. A securely identified woven roll comes from Gaocheng Taixi, about 1600 to 1046 BCE.

False

“Emperor Shennong recorded cannabis as medicine in 2737 BCE.”

Shennong is a legend, not a dated person; one source places the Three Sovereigns at about 2852 to 2070 BCE. The herb book with his name was first written down in the later Han, about 200 CE. Its original is lost, and later editors tried to recreate it.

Disputed

“The Bible names cannabis in the holy anointing oil (kaneh bosm, Exodus 30:23).”

Sula Benet argued in 1936 that the Hebrew words sound like cannabis. The standard Hebrew lexicon reads the phrase as calamus, an aromatic reed, and the King James Version says sweet calamus. The cannabis reading is a minority view.

Disputed

“Egyptian mummies were found with cannabis.”

A German team reported nicotine, cocaine, and hashish in mummy tissue in 1992 and 1993. Cocaine comes only from American coca. A 2008 review argues the Munich results may reflect contamination and urges caution with analytic methods.

False

“Medieval 'Assassins' killed on command after being drugged with hashish.”

'Hashishi' began as an insult meaning rabble. Crusaders built the drug story, and Marco Polo gave it its final shape. Ismaili scholar Farhad Daftary finds no evidence that any drug trained fighters, and hostile Muslim sources are silent on the subject.

False

“Pope Innocent VIII's 1484 bull condemned cannabis as an unholy sacrament.”

The bull Summis desiderantes affectibus is real and targets witchcraft in upper Germany. Its full text names no plant, cannabis or hemp included. The closest it comes is damage to 'the grapes of vines, and the fruits of trees.'

False

“The Declaration of Independence was written on hemp paper.”

Monticello says: 'As far as we know, this is not true.' The signed copy is on parchment, which is animal skin. Jefferson's rough draft is on paper that conservators judged most likely Dutch, and Dutch makers more often used flax or linen rags.