Cannabis has likely been with humans as long as we’ve been growing crops, about 10,000 years.
The plant has always been a big part of our lives and culture because of its many uses: its seeds can be eaten, its fibers turned into materials, and its buds used for medicine, spiritual practices, and recreation. Because of its usefulness, humans spread cannabis seeds all across the globe.
So how did cannabis become illegal in the United States and throughout much of the world? And if it’s been useful to humans for millennia, why are more than 500,000 people in the US punished for growing and possessing the plant every year?
Cannabis arrived in the Americas a few hundred years ago […]