top of page

HISTORY OF HEMP

Ancients

Hemp is one of mankind’s oldest cultivated crops and has been used for over 12,000 years — roughly 10,000 years before the birth of Christ and 7,500 years before the Great Pyramids of Giza (The Thistle, 2000). The oldest evidence of hemp was an imprint of its leaf on a piece of Chinese pottery dating back to the 5th millennium BC. The Chinese were also the first to make paper from hemp (Hui-Lin, 1974). 

​

Hemp fabric was recently discovered in the largest and best-preserved Neolithic sites in the world. Located in Turkey, a perfectly preserved piece of hemp linen was found wrapped around a skeleton, dating back about 9,000 years ago (Ancient Origins, 2014).

​

Some even speculate that the Great Pyramids in Giza were built using a mixture of hemp and lime. When hemp and lime are blended together, an elliptical bond is formed and a fossilization process begins. The formed ‘hempcrete’ blocks would have fossilized into limestone within a sixty year period (Hemp Technologies Global, 2019).

​

Archaeological literature shows that from about 1,000 B.C.E. up until the late 1800’s hemp was the largest agricultural crop in the world. Hemp was the premier renewable resource input for manufacturing thousands of products: linen, rope, paper, lighting oil, food, medicines, and more (Able, 1980).

Pre-Industrial

United States Hemp History

 

One could argue that hemp is the most important historical crop in the founding and flourishing of the United States of America. Providing the raw material for everyday clothing, the first paper money, the navy’s ropes and sails, and the Revolutionary Army’s uniforms (U.S. Dept. of Interior, 2018), hemp was so vital that many early laws mandated that farmers cultivate the crop. One could even pay their taxes with hemp instead of money from 1631 until the early 1800’s -- almost 200 years (Herer, 1991)! 

​

Many of the founding fathers of the United States actually grew hemp on their large plantations. In fact, in one of Thomas Jefferson’s diaries, he writes about illegally smuggling hemp seeds out of China, where exporting the highly valued seeds was a capital offense (Abel, 1980). Benjamin Franklin created country’s first paper mill which produced paper made entirely from hemp. Hemp liberated the U.S. from its dependence on England for literary materials: printed books, Bibles, and fliers.

 

In 1850, the United States Census tallied 8,327 hemp plantations (minimum of 2,000 acres). This did not take into account the tens of thousands of small farms and family hemp patches, nor the remaining 80% of U.S. hemp consumption fulfilled by imports (Herer, 1991).

 

For much of the mid- to late-1800’s, medical uses from marijuana and hemp extracts were the second and third most prescribed medicines in the United States (Herer, 1991). Large U.S. and European pharmaceutical companies such as Eli Lilly, Parke-Davis, Tildens, and Smith Brothers were among the leading producers of cannabis extracts. Everyday Americans trusted the safety and effectiveness of these brands for pain relief, sleep aid, and more. No deaths or mental disorders were ever reported, only that first-time users would occasionally become disoriented or overly introverted (Mikuriya, 1973).

Industrial Age | Prohibition

The industrial revolution that began in the 18th century in England, changed technology, socioeconomics, and entire cultures through the transition from an agrarian and hand-crafted economy to one dominated by industry and machine manufacturing. 

​

During the early 20th century, the United States was deeply embroiled in segregation and racist rhetoric which helped to fuel the prohibition of cannabis. The Federal Bureau of Narcotics was formed in 1930 and a man at the top of enforcing the prohibition on alcohol was appointed to run the organization. This man was Harry Anslinger, an outspoken and zealous champion for the prohibition of marihuana. Unfortunately, hemp was quietly lumped in with it and when The Marihuana Tax Act went into effect in 1937 several farmers were arrested who had been planting industrial hemp for generations. At that time the word 'marijuana' was not in mainstream language. It's a made-up word that successfully fooled the population into thinking that a 'new' drug was being smuggled into the country and was a threat to our society and harming our children.

​

It's interesting to point out that in that same year, the DuPont corporation was given a patent to make plastics from oil and coal. The following year Popular Mechanics came out with an article titled "Hemp - The Next Billion Dollar Crop". Unfortunately, this article was a little too late. The damage had already been done. What progressed became a full-on war against cannabis that was well thought-out and executed through a variety of propaganda avenues for almost a century.

​

bottom of page