History of hemp

The Chanvre is one of the first plants domesticated by the man, with the Neolithic era, probably in Asia. It then accompanied migrations and conquests to be spread on all the continents.

Neolithic era

The geographic origin of the Chanvre is not certain: plains of the Central Asia in the sector of the Lake Baïkal for some, average area of the Yellow River in China for others, or Indian buttresses of the the Himalayas. The oldest archaeological traces of its use by the man were found in China, in one of the hearths of the agricultural revolution Neolithic. Excavations of the Neolithic site of Xianrendong (in the Jiangxi), gone back to 8000 av. J. - C. thus delivered Céramique, some pot S decorated with spiral fibers of hemp. It would be thus about one of the first Plante S domesticated by the man, probably all at the same time for its solid fibers, its nutritive oleaginous seeds and the medicinal properties of its resin.

Antiquity

The oldest tradition of a medical use of the Cannabis seems also Chinese: the plant belongs to the three hundred sixty-five remedies of vegetable origin described in the oldest treaty of Pharmacopée of humanity found to date. The Shen nung PEN Ts' ao king ( Treated medicinal plants of the emperor Shen Nung ), 2737 av. J. - C. does not give a precise therapeutic indication, at least in its original version: Antalgic, Antiemetic, Laxative, etc It is amusing to note that it is with this same emperor Shen Nung that the legend allots the discovery of another psychotropic Plante of which the use is widespread today on all the continents, the The.

In ancient Egypt, one also finds a hard copy of the use medicinal of hemp. Thus the Papyrus Ebers (written 1500 years front J-C) mentions the use of oil of Chènevis to look after the vaginal ignitions (formula n°821, p.96, lines 7-8).

The cannabis was well-known Scythes, if one believes the Greek historian of it Hérodote (450 av. J. - C.), which describes a meeting of collective fumigation involving the hilarity of the participants. Professor Serguei Ivanovich Rudenko, Russian archeologist, confirmed the current use of the cannabis by the Scythians with the discovery in 1929 on the site of Pazyryk of a bronze cauldron filled with carbonized seeds of hemp, as well as clothing of hemp and metal censers. These wandering tribes, which did not practice agriculture, probably played a part in the diffusion of hemp, through their migrations in the Eurasian steppes. Hemp is indeed a Plante rudérale, which colonizes the anthropized habitats (disturbed by the man). It is ecologically adapted to the open mediums (thus sunny), on the ground rich in nitrogen (because of the dejections of the herds), characteristic of the accesses of campings.

Since the Antiquity, the Germanic people also cultivated hemp, at least for its fibers - used for the manufacture of Vêtement S and cord S for the Bateau X. Thus, at Eisenberg in the Thuringe, of the archaeological excavations put at the day of sowings of hemp beside Poterie S going back to 5500 av. J. - C. the discovery of oldest the Pipe of the world in tombs dating from the Bronze Age (1500 av. J. - C.), to Bad Abbach (Bavaria) tends to prove that the absorption of psychotropic in the form of smoke inhaled in Europe quite former to is discovered Nouveau World. That is not enough therefore affirming that the cannabis was smoked by the old German ones. One knows on the other hand that, before the promulgation of the “law of purity” Reinheitsgebot , in 1516, influenced by the regulations of the moniale Hildegarde de Bingen - which had entichée Houblon - many were the aromatic and psychotropic plants which served to reinforce the taste and the effects of the Bière S of the Antiquité and the Moyen-âge, and to improve the shelf life of it. The cannabis is highly likely to have formed part of it, at the sides of other magic plants “ ” local: Achillée cream slice, Ryegrass enivrante, myrtle of the marshes, lédon of the marshes, Marjoram, water clover, Armoise, germandrée, Broom with brushes, Jusquiame, sage of wood…

In the Roman Empire, one finds the trace of hemp in several writings, like those of Pline old the. This one devotes to it a paragraph in its Natural history (XIX deliver treating culture of the flax and horticulture) where it gives invaluable councils as regards varietal choice, date of sowing, harvest, etc Dioscoride evokes hemp for its part “which makes come to the front from the eyes of the phantoms and illusions pleasant and pleasant. ”, while Galien warns against this plant: “Some eat seeds fried with sugar refineries. I call sugar refinery the foods been used for the dessert to incite to drink. The seeds bring a feeling of heat and if consumed in great quantities, affect the head by sending hot and toxic vapors to him”. At the 2nd century, the Romans will introduce the culture of hemp as a Gaulle with that of the Seigle, the Gesse and the Vesce. The archaeological excavation of the villa of Saint-Romain de Jalionas (Isere) puts thus up to date several surfaces of Rouissage of hemp. The seedling of hemp must indeed undergo a partial decomposition so that pectic cement and the woody fibers disunite fibers of Cellulose. The immersion of the feet in water makes it possible to accelerate this process. Others archaeological discoveries, as well in the area of Marseilles as in South-west (Al Lice site in the Batch) however let suppose that hemp was cultivated and used as a Gaulle well before the romanisation.

In China, the time of the Western Han, at the 3rd century the large surgeon Hua Tuo carries out operations under Anesthésie by using the Indien hemp. The Chinese term for anesthesia (麻醉: má zuì ) is composed besides of the ideogram which indicates hemp, follow-up of that which means intoxication.

The cannabis would be mentioned in the Bible, for example in the book of the Exodus, (30: 22-31) the Eternal orders in Moïse to manufacture a holy oil with “five hundred sicles of Myrrhe, of that which runs itself; half, is two hundred and fifty sicles, of aromatic Cinnamone, two hundred and fifty sicles of aromatic reed ”. This last ingredient ( kaneh bosm in Hebrew) could be hemp… The proof of the medicinal use of the cannabis to the the Middle East was made in 1993 when a team of archeologists discovered in Beit Shemesh, between Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv a tomb containing the skeleton of approximately a 14 year old young girl. Roman parts made it possible to go back this tomb at the 4th century to our era. The pelvic area contained the skeleton of a fetus in the long term, of too important size to allow a delivery by the natural ways. A carbonized residue found on the abdomen of the young girl revealed with the spectographic analysis to contain delta-6-tétrahydrocannabinol, a stable component of the cannabis. The authors of the discovery supposed that these ashes came from the combustion of cannabis in a container, managed with the young girl like inhaling to facilitate the childbirth.

The Middle Ages

To the the Middle Ages, the emperor Charlemagne strongly will encourage the culture of hemp. It is then about a strategic food product, guarantees prosperity, because of the many permitted uses by its fiber: clothing, ropes, veils.
At the same time, the Arab S learn from prisoners of war Chinese the trade secret of the Papier, after the battles of Atlah. This one is obtained starting from bark of Mûrier and fibers of hemp.
Une second wave of diffusion of the culture of hemp will thus accompany the Arab invasions, in North Africa, then in Spain, France, Sicily. The Arabs indeed improved the technique of manufacture of Papier starting from hemp, paper which is used as means of diffusion of the Arab manuscripts, of which the Coran, but also of many texts of scientific range (mathematical, astronomy, medicine, etc), arts person or philosophical. They install their mills with paper in Andalusia at the beginning of the 11th century. The Arab and Persian medical treaties describe in a detailed way the action of hemp and its therapeutic potential.
L' German abbess Hildegarde de Bingen (1098-1179) cultivates some in the garden of the convent, at the sides of other simple, under the name of " Cannabus ". She recommends her use to fight nauseas (antiemetic) and against the pains with the stomach.
At the same time (1090) Hassan Ibn Sabah establishes its districts in the fortress of Alamut, at the North-West of current Iran and sets up a warlike order. This order is equipped with a crack corps made up men entirely devoted to his cause and ready to die for it. Marco Polo, mentions “ some breuvaige with drinking, by the means of which ilz eftoient incontinent disturb of their efperit, & venoient to sleep deeply ”, for the conditioning of the fedayins. Several authors of XIXième and the 21st century took as a starting point this account in their works, taking again or disputing the linguistic assumption which would make derive the assassin term from Arabic “haschischiyoun” or “haschaschin” (grass eaters), and would sign the use of the Indien hemp by this sect ismaëlienne.
C' is out of ground of Islam which is enacted the first prohibition concerning the cannabis: in 1378, the emir Soudoun Sheikouni prohibits the culture of the cannabis in Egypt, to Joneima, and condemns those taken consuming some to have the torn off teeth.

Rebirth

With the Rebirth, the Église attacks the Sorcellerie while being pressed on the courts of the Inquisition. The pope Innocent VIII indeed compares sorcery to a Hérésie. The papal bubble Summis Desiderantis Affectibus , in 1484, gives hemp for a sacrament of the Sabbath of Satan. This decision will contribute to marginalize an ancestral popular knowledge as regards medicinal plants. But the same year is printed the first illustrated edition of the Herbarius pseudo-Apulée , in which hemp appears. Paracelse also describes the plant in several of its work. And several famous German herbaria, which had with Otto Brunfels, Hieronymus Glass of bier and Leonhart Fuchs contain boards dedicated to hemp. François Rabelais, in his Tiers Book describes on the humorous mode a marvellous plant which resembles to mistake there with hemp: Pantagruélion. In India, Bhavamishra describes in its medical treaties the properties and the preparations containing opium and of cannabis.

Modern times

With XVIIe and 18th centuries, the European powers dispute naval supremacy and the control of the strategic points of passage, whereas the intercontinental maritime exchanges are in full rise. The ships are then propelled by the only force of the wind. Hemp is used to manufacture the ropes, the cables, the ladders and the stays, as well as the veils. “A ship of intermediate size uses 60 to 80 tons of hemp in the form of ropes and 6 to 8 tons in the form of veil, per annum. ”, the qualified schoolteacher belongs to history Serge Allegret. Hemp thus has for this period the place of a strategic material, as well as coal when the steam engines or oil appear today. In France, Colbert creates in 1666 the royal rope manufacture associated with the arsenal of Rochefort on Mer, and completes an important work to make safe the supply national hemp. The navy Dutchwoman and English is equipped with veils woven in the Netherlands starting from hemp of excellent quality produces in Livonie (current Baltic States). Thanks to the technique of weaving with only one wire, the fabrics obtained are more powerful (solids, light and flexible).

Diderot and of Alembert in their Encyclopédie details the culture and the work of hemp, and mentions its psychotropic properties: “Hemp is cultivated, like fiber plant, in a great number of countries. All its parts exhale a strong odor, extremely unpleasant, and the emanations which emerge from the chènevières cause giddinesses, dazzlings, in a word a kind of intoxication. Lastly, sheets of the VAr. indica is useful, in the East, with the preparation of the hachich . ”.

Hemp would have been present at the Americas before the Colonisation: Jacques Cartier pays to have seen some, in its newspaper of voyage. The archeologist Bill Fitzgerald discovered in Moriston in Ontario of 500 years the old pipes, container of the resin traces of cannabis. Always it is that the European colonists undertook the culture of hemp with large scales. George Washington, first president of the United States of America, cultivated some on its plantation, as its newspaper testifies some. In 1794, it gives the following instruction to its men: “Take as much as possible seeds of Indien hemp and sow everywhere. ” ( Make the most off the Indian hemp seed and sow it everywhere ). With the Canada also, several measurements are taken to support the development of this industry: subsidies, tax incentives, distribution of seeds to the farmers in 1801…

Contemporary time

Victim of an attempted murder by an Egyptian in a state of cannabic intoxication, during the Countryside of Egypt, Bonaparte enacts on October 8th, 1800 a decree prohibiting in all Egypt the use of the hachisch.

In the the anglophone Caribbean, the psychotropic use of the cannabis would be according to certain authors a consequence of the Abolition of slavery in 1833. This one would have been imported with Indian labor intended to replace the former black slaves in the plantations of Canne to sugar. Labor which took along in its luggage of seeds of Indien hemp. The name given to the Indians was collie and, today still, the Rasta S use, amongst other things, the term coolie weed to evoke the cannabis.

Engravings on Cuivre of the 19th century show that the banks of the the Rhine were, at the time, covered with large fields of hemp.

In 1844, Théophile Gautier and the doctor Jacques-Joseph Moreau found the Club of Hashischins. Dedicated being studied of the cannabis, he will be attended by many French artists.

At the 19th century, the cannabis was used in Occident for its medicinal virtues (see medicinal Plante), in the form of dyeing (extracted alcoholic). It is the Irish doctor William Brooke O' Shaughnessy which presented it like drug after a nine years stay to the Indies, in 1841. The Cannabis was thus prescribed with the queen Victoria to relieve her menstrual pains. The alcoholic extract of cannabis was also marketed with the the United States. In the old woman Europe as in the United States, this dyeing was one of the Médicament S most sold by the dispensaries of Pharmacie. But, at the end of the 19th century, its success started to decline, following the appearance and at the height success of other drugs such as the Aspirine. The teenager Ernst Jünger falls by chance in 1920 on a vestige from this time, in the shape of a vase of Porcelaine being marked “Extr. Cannabis”. He tells his unhappy experiment (which one would describe today as Bad trip ) in its test Approche, drugs and intoxication .

Another surprising anecdote, of the cigarettiers launch at the end of the 19th century on the market Europeans several marks of Cigarette S to the cannabis, while exploiting the image " Eastern " plant: Arabische Nächte (Arab Nights) (9% of cannabis), Harem (9%), etc

The Mexicains also cultivate it and begin the export of the celebrities flowered towards the Texas as of 1910. It is to the Mexicans besides that one owes the use of the word marijuana which, in the beginning, indicated a Cigarette bad quality.

In the United States, during the Years 1920 and 1930, the cannabis invades the black-market, becoming very popular. Vis-a-vis this growing success, but especially in a context of failure of the policy of Prohibition of the alcohol, the lobby Puritain is interested in the cannabis and the authorities set up campaigns known as sensitizing with slogans such as Marijuana is Devil on bottom of ignited devil. The police force of the narcotics of the New-Orleans charges to the consumers 60 % of the crimes committed in the city. It is about a true company of Propagande, which will find allies in the lobby of the industry of cotton, in that chemistry and part of the press, whose owners have forest interests important (between-others the press baron Randolph Hearst). This countryside will support its sales leaflet on the ambient Racisme, by combining the dislike of the " negro " , of their music (the Blues and jazz) and the devastations phantasms of cannabis (fatal madness, degeneration, etc). The newspapers take up and spread the idea that Violence and cannabis is bound, through the country and, in 1937, a law founds the tax of the production, the trade like the industrial and medical use, it is the Marihuana Tax Act .

The increase in the rest of the world in the production and the traffic in cannabis are then alarming and several governments other than that of the United States worry. Thus as of 1925, the international convention of Geneva is accepted by the majority of the countries of the world being committed fighting against the drug trafficking. Among them, the Turkey and the Egypt want to already include the cannabis in convention, advancing that its consumption is at the base of human debility.

Competed with in its textile use by exotic fibers (Jute, Sisal, Kenaf), and by synthetic fibers (Nylon), competed with in paper industry by wood, hemp declines quickly during first half of the 20th century. In France, for example, 176.000 hectares are emblavés in 1840. In 1939, the acreage is not any more but of 3.400 hectares. During the Second world war, the US government starts again the production of fibers of hemp and carries out even a propaganda film entitled Hemp for Victory (hemp for the Victoire). At the time of the Unloading of Normandy, Rangers ordered by the lieutenant-colonel James E. Cap were equipped with hooks and cords of hemp to climb cliffs of the Pointe of Hoc. “The cords of hemp weighed down by moisture appeared unusable”.

Although it was probably used like occasional Drogue during its history, it is in the United States, among the scene Jazz of the Années 1950 that one sees it becoming popular, with the Beat generation. With a strong increase in its use during the Années 1960 will follow. Harry Anslinger, instigator of the federal system of fight against drug makes supervise and drive many artists likely to consume some: Count Basie, Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, the members of NBC Orchestrated, Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, Thelonius Monk, Louis Armstrong, etc In Western Europe, the explosion of the popularity of the cannabis coincides with the movement Hippie: the drug taking then becomes synonymous with dispute of the middle-class company.

In the Years 1960, the Inra and the FNPC (National federation of the producers of hemp) start a program of varietal selection to put at the point monoïques cultivars and low content of THC. This work makes it possible to start again the culture of the agricultural hemp in several European countries, because they raise the technical obstacle of the important sexual dimorphism of this plant, as well as the objections in connection with the psychotropic use.

In 1964, a laboratory israëlien directed by professor Raphael Mechoulam insulates THC, person in charge of the major part of the psychotropic effects of the cannabis.

From 1971, the EEC financially encourages the culture of hemp by the farmers for the production of fibers, within the framework of the common organization of market (OCM) bearing on the flax and hemp.

In 1976, after several years of tolerance of company of retail sale of cannabis, the authorities of the Netherlands issue officially the decriminalisation of the sale for personal use, framed by a system of licenses. One of the objectives of the policy Dutchwoman is to prevent that the consumers of cannabis do not come into contact, via the retailers of street, with other illicit products (opiated, cocaine, etc).

The Reggae, popularized by Bob Marley, strongly contributes to the notoriety of the entertaining cannabis in the Années 1980 and the fact that this musical current is universally known today contributes to make radiate the cannabis in spite of an unfavourable legislation of the majority of the countries.

The rise of the environmental concerns, since the end of the 20th century, tends to stimulate the development of dies hemp, in fields as varied as the textile, the habitat, the food, the bio-fuels… Between 1996 and 1999, the acreages in hemp in the EU more than doubled, spending 13,7 to 32,3 thousands of hectares, mainly because of Spain.

2005 mark a major turning in the history of the therapeutic cannabis since, with the easing of the legislation of certain countries - in particular the Canada and the the United Kingdom -, the medical regulation of THC being authorized, of the pharmaceutical laboratories for the first time bought officially cannabis with the Morocco - country evaluated by UNO like the principal exporter.

See too

Hemp

Cannabis
Hemp cultivated
medical Cannabis

Catalog of films

Fatty , history of a prohibition , Ron Mann, Canada, 2000,35mm, coul. + n/b, 80 min.
Kif Kif , documentary film of 26 mn on the culture of the cannabis in the area of Ketama in Morocco, carried out by Philippe Lachambre, Jacques-Henri Bidermann and Olivier Poucet, 1994.

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