Napoleon Didn’t Smoke Cannabis, But His Soldiers Did
It is disheartening that with millions of cannabis users across the U.S., there still exists a negative stigma about use of the plant.
Many view users as “drug addicts” or “lazy” and unproductive. Where did these ideas come from, especially considering that written history attributes the plant’s use to several of history’s most notable civilizations and dates consumption back to at least 3000 B.C.?
Some studies suggest that cannabis had been casually grown, traded, sold and used even earlier.
The empires of Rome, Babylon, Egypt, Greece, China, and Korea in addition to many well-researched tribal groups have documented the use of cannabis, and in the case of China, its use goes back at least 5000 years.
With such widespread historical use, ganja, the Hindu word for marijuana, affectionately known in the United States as ‘weed,’ should be a well-accepted, minor, inconsequential facet of human life in the west.
However, the number of people in the United States imprisoned due to possession or use of marijuana tells us its use is anything but inconsequential.
I decided to look for occurrences of the first known bans on cannabis use. In doing so, I discovered that in 1378, the Emir of the Joneima in Arabia, Soudoun Sheikouni, put…
