"It would be wryly interesting if in human history the cultivation of marijuana led generally to the invention of agriculture, and thereby to civilization."

Carl Sagan

HEMP HISTORY: TIMELINE

8000 BCE

Traces of hemp have been found in modern day China and Taiwan. Evidence shows that hemp was used for pottery and food (seed & oil).

2000 - 800 BCE

Hindu sacred text Atharvaveda (Science of Charms) as “Sacred Grass”, one of the five sacred plants of India.

600 BCE

Hemp rope is found in southern Russia.

500 BCE

A jar of hemp seed and leaves were found in Berlin, Germany. Use of hemp continues to spread across northern Europe.

200 BCE

Hemp rope is found in Greece.

100 BCE

China uses hemp to make paper. Hemp rope is found in Britain.

570 AD

A French Queen was buried in hemp clothing.

850 AD

Vikings use hemp and spread it to Iceland.

900 AD

Arabs adopt technology to make hemp paper.

1533 AD

King Henry VIII, king of England, fines farmers if they do not raise hemp.

1549 AD

Cannabis is introduced in South America (Brazil).

1616 AD

Jamestown, first permanent English settlement in the Americas, grows hemp to make ropes, sails, and clothing.

1700's AD

American farmers in several colonies are required by law to grow hemp.

1776 AD

The Declaration of Independence is drafted up on hemp paper.

1840 AD

Abraham Lincoln uses hemp seed oil to fuel his household lamps.

1916 AD

USDA publishes findings that show hemp produces 4X more paper per acre than trees.

1937 AD

The Marijuana Tax Act placed a tax on all cannabis sales (including hemp), heavily discouraging the production of hemp.

1938 AD

Popular Mechanics writes an article about how hemp could be used in 25,000 different products.

1942 AD

Henry Ford builds an experimental car body made with hemp fiber, which is ten times stronger than steel. USDA initiates the “Hemp for Victory” program – this leads to more than 150,000 acres of hemp production.

1957 AD

The last commercial hemp fields in the US were planted in Wisconsin.

1970 AD

The Controlled Substances Act classified hemp as an illegal Schedule I drug, which imposed strict regulations on the cultivation of industrial hemp as well as marijuana.

1998 AD

The U.S. begins to import food-grade hemp seed and oil.

2004 AD

Ninth Circuit Court decision in Hemp Industries Association vs. DEA permanently protects sales of hemp foods and body care products in the U.S.

2007 AD

The first hemp licenses in over 50 years are granted to two North Dakota farmers.

2014 AD

President Obama signed the Farm Bill, which allowed research institutions to start piloting hemp farming.

2015 AD

The Industrial Hemp Farming Act (H.R. 525 and S. 134) was introduced in the House and Senate. If passed, it would remove all federal restrictions on industrial hemp and legalize its cultivation.

2016 AD

A Colorado farm has earned the Organic certification from USDA for its hemp.

2018 AD

The 2018 Farm Bill was passed by the both houses and signed into law by President Donald Trump, which formerly legalized the farming, production, and manufacturing of Hemp and Hemp Based products in states that allow the program.

HEMP & FLAX IN COLONIAL AMERICA

THE COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG FOUNDATION

Colonial planters gushed of the crop's promise. Col. William Byrd II called its cultivation “the Darling of all my Projects.” Robert Beverley predicted the plant “will be of the greatest consequence to us.” Thomas Jefferson directed that “an acre of the best ground” at his Poplar Forest estate be kept for a permanent patch of the stuff.

THE MARIHUANA TAX

ACT OF 1937

JAMA PSYCHIATRY

The anti-marihuana law of 1937 was largely the federal government's response to political pressure from enforcement agencies and other alarmed groups who feared the use and spread of marihuana by "Mexicans." Recent evidence also suggests that the Federal Bureau of Narcotics resisted the enforcement burden of the antimarihuana law until mounting pressure on the Treasury Department led to a departmental decision, probably in 1935, to appease this fear, mostly in the Southwest and West, by federal legislation.

AMERICA'S LONG

HISTORY OF HEMP

MERRY JANE

The current national prohibition against cannabis in all its useful forms is a modern concept. Up until 1937, hemp was not only used in a variety of products, but was also cultivated on American farms across the nation.

HEMP'S DEEP

AMERICAN ROOTS

HEMP MAGAZINE

Hemp has been a part of America’s history since before this land was called America. It has played a vital role for both the indigenous people of North America and for the European colonists who arrived and took their lands from the indigenous people.

THE BOGG'S ACT

OF 1951:

NARCOTIC DRUGS ACT

AMERICAN STATUTES

The Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 deemed Hemp and Cannabis as an illegal substance, but it was not until 1951 that criminal charges were written for use, possession, or sale of Hemp and Cannabis.

HEMP'S HUMBLE

ORIGINS

MINISTRY OF HEMP

The Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 deemed Hemp and Cannabis as an illegal substance, but it was not until 1951 that criminal charges were written for use, possession, or sale of Hemp and Cannabis.

1938 Hemp Breaker

FAMOUS PASSAGES IN HISTORY THAT MENTION HEMP

HEMPOLOGY.ORG

A collection of experts that mention hemp that span from 550 BCE to 1992. Authors from Aesop to William Shakespeare are cited. 

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