History of Growing Cannabis
Cannabis has a long history of cultivation around the world! Growers today are building on thousands of years of knowledge about this amazing plant–here's how it got started!
Blurb: The history of growing cannabis goes back way past the 70's, man. Learn more now!
Not every cannabis grower likes to get precious about their hobby/trade/therapy, but when we say this is a storied tradition going back literally thousands of years, it's no exaggeration!
The hemp plant itself originated on the steppes of Central Asia, present day Western China. But while its cloth and cordage usage date back 4,000 years ago, it would be another 1,500 before actual psychoactive amounts of THC were found.
The altitude of a cemetary in the mountains is thought to have been a factor in the higher concentrations of THC found in the braziers of an ancient funeral, and tinkering to get those levels and its consumers more elevated began!
From there, cannabis use specifically for psychoactive purposes spread to other parts of Asia, Africa, and Europe via Silk Road trading. A pound of beads traded to the right growers could keep merchants and nobility alike lifted for the rest of their lives!
While scholars in the Middle East and peoples along the many trading routes of pre-colonial Africa were using (and banning!) cannabis for its euphoric highs, Western Europe and the freshly colonized Americas were still focused on opiates and alcohol for elevation. Hemp's arrival in the Western Hemisphere was as a cash crop for manufacturing rather than mind expansion.
Cannabis was an important crop in the early days of the United States, at some points required to be grown to further support colonial takeovers. In fact, hemp was such a valuable commodity that it was actually used as currency at one point!
It wasn't until the 1900s that recreational marijuana made its way to the US, via Mexico. The manufactured tensions between disenfranchised people during the Great Depression lead to the demonization of its use in the States, but the cannabis counter culture still took root!
Now, cannabis is grown all over the world for both medical and recreational purposes. The concentrations of beneficial cannabidiols has only gotten higher with breeding and breakthroughs in lighting and nutrition, and with more and more states legalizing its use, it's not going anywhere.
Want to see more folks growing their own? Check out the players in the first ever Grow Strong Cup–a cannabis cultivation competition where you get to judge!
