The History Of Weed In The USA With Schedule III Rescheduling

Those of us who live in a state where weed is fully legal often take for granted what it means to be able to smoke weed freely, given the history of cannabis in our country.  Only in the last couple of decades has there been clear signs of a more marijuana-friendly society, and it’s easy to forget that not so long ago, cannabis was, without exaggeration, the most villainized plant in America.

So, how did we get here? 

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The Beginning

It’s hard to talk about the history of weed in America without going farther back, before the United States was formed.  That’s because weed didn’t magically appear when our founding fathers first set up camp in the colonies.  In fact, we have evidence of marijuana use dating back to 3000BC in the Eastern part of the world, where it was cultivated and used for medicinal and recreational purposes, mainly through pipes that are very similar to the ones we have today.

India and Central Asia were the first regions of the world to discover the true value of cannabis, as that’s where it was first cultivated.  But, over the next many centuries, its popularity would spread throughout all parts of the world.

So, how did cannabis make its way into the Western world?  While it’s hard to trace the exact steps, we do know that Napoleon Bonaparte’s troops were big fans of getting high, as they probably stumbled upon the plant during their military travels.  And, those same troops supposedly introduced cannabis to England during the late 1700s and early 1800s, where its popularity grew quickly.  It just so happens that this was the time when our country was first established, and European colonists brought marijuana to the early settlers of the United States.

As a fascinating side note, while Native Americans who resided in America before the colonists enjoyed a host of healing plants including those of a psychoactive nature, records show that they didn’t first get their hands on marijuana until it was given to them by European colonists.  

Criminalizing Marijuana 

Around the mid-1800s, marijuana was a widely available substance for the average person to enjoy as desired.  Also, around this time, the medical industry began understanding its value, and it became an active ingredient in hundreds of medications both prescribed and over the counter, for everything from mood disorders to headaches.  It’s hard to imagine that there was a time centuries ago when weed was as valued by the general population as it is today.

By the 1910s, smoking marijuana was something of a mainstream hobby, and it became even more popular in the 1920s thanks to the jazz age, led by a generation of individuals who were more open to experimenting with intoxicating substances than ever before.  Throughout Harlem, New Orleans, and Chicago, where there were thriving jazz scenes, marijuana use was huge among musicians, who incorporated weed references into their song lyrics. 

But, things were about to change.  In 1925, international law determined that cannabis could no longer be exported out of India, the largest supplier of weed around the world.  In 1937, the United States passed the Marihuana Tax Act, which put an unreasonably high tax on all cannabis products, and effectively ended the mainstream weed trade in America.  At the same time, the tone had changed across the country thanks to anti-marijuana propaganda led by media giants like William Randolph Hearst, who highly exaggerated the risks of marijuana use in a way that effectively turned the general public off of the plant.  It’s worth pointing out that Americans came up with the term “marihuana” (later “marijuana”), to give it a Mexican connotation, working off of anti-Mexican sentiments shared by the general public around the same time.

The campaign against weed worked, because the plant rapidly lost its appeal over the coming decades, and even took on a more derogatory association with criminal activity.  But, before long, a new counterculture generation would emerge in the 1950s, who once again embraced marijuana and helped it slowly trickle back into the mainstream.  The 60s would see even more marijuana use, helped significantly by the hippie movement and mainstream musicians like the Beatles, The Who, and The Beach Boys, all working marijuana references into their lyrics.

Weed became big business once again, until cannabis was finally completely criminalized in 1971, although that didn’t stop famous figures like Bob Marley from still using it in the U.S.  What this meant was that any attempt to sell, purchase, possess or consume marijuana would lead to criminal charges.  But, as we know, even criminalization couldn’t stop marijuana lovers.  Criminalization resulted in a rise in the black market, which would remain fully active for decades to come despite law enforcement doing everything they could to stop underground sales of marijuana.

An Era of Legalization 

Marijuana remained illegal throughout the United States, until California passed a groundbreaking law.  In 1996, California became the first state to legalize medical marijuana, allowing patients with certain qualifying conditions to have legal access to cannabis in order to treat their symptoms.  Shortly after, more states across America followed, and this had a ripple effect on our relationship with the plant.  The rise in medical marijuana sales proved that the plant can be taken safely, while challenging the notion that cannabis is a dirty intoxicating substance used by criminals.

As medical marijuana became a booming industry, there became a push to fully decriminalize the plant.  

In 2012, Colorado and Washington became the first states to legalize recreational cannabis use, and, create a regulated system that would allow businesses to sell marijuana directly to customers.  Since then, an influx of states have either decriminalized weed possession or fully legalized and regulated the cannabis market.

Simultaneously, our relationship with marijuana is changing on a societal level.  The younger generations didn’t grow up with anti-cannabis propaganda, but with evidence of its medicinal benefits through medical marijuana programs in their states.  Now, at the time of this piece being published, we await the next big hurdle, which is federal legalization, and that could come sooner than we think, with more pro-cannabis lawmakers in Washington than ever before. Now, with Schedule III Rescheduling of weed, we expect some new unexpected challenges and advantages for future Cannabis selling.

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