A brief global history of the war on cannabis

Have laws on weed ever been truly relaxed? The ancient history of marijuana has created a false narrative that the prohibitions of the 20th century were the first of their kind. Yet, as Ryan Stoa explores, from Ancient China to 14th century Egypt, this has been a contentious issue for those in power. 

 “Our marijuana-farming ancestors of the past could have told us, based on experience, that when prohibitionists come after cannabis, they will do so in predictable ways. They will use rhetoric to associate the plant with violence, depravity, and other more dangerous drugs, as the European temperance movement did in France and Great Britain. They will use a militarized show of force to eradicate crops, persecute farmers, and dissuade the next generation from growing marijuana, as the Ottomans did in Egypt. They will portray marijuana users as religious extremists or dangerous minorities, as Pope Innocent VIII did in Europe, Sunni Muslims did in the Middle East, or white South Africans did in South Africa.”