Long before anyone rolled a joint in the States, the cannabis plant was already on American soil, and governments were telling farmers to grow it. The plant was hemp, and the reason was rope.
1619: Grow it, that's an order
Ships ran on rope and canvas, and both were made from hemp fiber. In 1619, Virginia's first legislative assembly at Jamestown directed colonists to grow hemp, and other colonies encouraged it too. In some places and periods, hemp was even accepted to pay taxes and debts.
The founders were hemp farmers
George Washington grew hemp at Mount Vernon and wrote about it in his farm records, mostly for rope, fishing nets and cloth. Thomas Jefferson grew it at Monticello. To be clear, this was industrial hemp for fiber: there's no solid evidence either man smoked it.
Myth check: You've probably heard the Declaration of Independence was written on hemp paper. It wasn't. The signed copy is on parchment, which is animal skin. Some drafts may have been on hemp-based paper, which was common at the time, but the famous document isn't.
1937: The tax that killed a crop
In the 1930s, Harry Anslinger, head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, led a campaign against "marihuana." The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 didn't technically ban the plant, but the paperwork and taxes made growing it nearly impossible. Hemp farming collapsed along with recreational use.
1942: Hemp for Victory
Then World War II cut off overseas fiber supplies. The U.S. Department of Agriculture released a short film called Hemp for Victory urging farmers to plant hemp for the war effort, and thousands of acres went in. After the war, the fields disappeared again.
2018: Back on the farm
The 2018 Farm Bill removed hemp, defined as cannabis with no more than 0.3% THC, from the federal list of controlled substances. Nearly 400 years after Jamestown's order, American farmers could legally grow it again.
mrb0ng's take: the plant built the ships that built the country. The least we can do is give it a nice piece of glass. Start with the Bong of 2027 lineup.
