Hemp History

8000 BC - Present

Hemp is the ancient, eco-friendly fiber of the future. For over 5,000 years, hemp has been used for textiles, paper, building materials, fuel, food and personal care products. Hemp can be grown with little or no toxic chemical fertilizers, herbicides or pesticides. Today hemp is grown all over the world. The crop is used to make over 25,000 consumer products. From hemp apparel and accessories to housewares and hempseed oil cosmetics, hemp is an eco-shopper's dream.

8000BC

Civilization, agriculture and hemp textile industries begin in Europe and Asia.

3727BC

Cannabis called a "superior" herb in the world's first medical text, Shen Nung's Pen Ts'ao, in China.

1500BC

Cannabis-using Scythians sweep through Europe and Asia, settle down everywhere, and invent the scythe.

500BC

Gautama Buddah survives by eating hempseed.

450BC

Herodotus records Scythians and Thracians as consuming cannabis and making fine linens of hemp.

300BC

Carthage and Rome struggle for political and commercial power over hemp and spice trade routes in Mediterranean.

100BC

Paper made from hemp and mulberry is invented in China.

100AD

Roman surgeon Dioscorides names the plant cannabis sativa and describes various medicinal uses. Pliny tells of industrial uses and writes a manual on farming hemp.

500AD

First botanical drawing of hemp in Constantinopolitanus

600AD

Germans, Franks, Vikings, etc. all use hemp fibre.

1000AD

The English word 'hempe' first listed in a dictionary.

1150AD

Moslems use hemp to start Europe's first paper mill. Most paper is made from hemp for the next 700 years.

1492AD

Hempen sails, caulking and rigging ignite age of discovery and help Columbus and his ships reach America.

1545

Hemp agriculture crosses the continent overland to Chile.

1564

King Phillip of Spain orders hemp grown throughout his empire, from modern-day Argentina to Oregon.

16th-17th Century

Dutch achieve Golden Age through hemp commerce. Explorers find 'wilde hempe' in North America.

1619

Virginia colony makes hemp cultivation mandatory, followed by most other colonies. Europe pays hemp bounties.

1631

Hemp used as money throughout American colonies.

1776

American 'Declaration of Independence' drafted on hemp paper.

1791

President Washington sets duties on hemp to encourage domestic industry; Jefferson calls hemp "a necessity", and urges farmers to grow hemp instead of tobacco.

1801

Certain premiums offered to encourage the cultivation of hemp in Upper and Lower Canada.

1800's

Australia survives two prolonged famines by eating virtually nothing but hemp seed for protein and hemp leaves for roughage.

1850's

Petrochemical age begins. Toxic sulfite and chlorine processes make paper from trees, steamships replace sails, tropical fibres introduced.

1930's

New machines invented to break hemp, process the fibre, and convert pulp or hurds into paper, plastics, etc. - Racist fears of Mexicans, Asians, and African Americans leads to outcry for cannabis to be outlawed.

1935

Compressed agricultural fibreboard invented in Sweden.

1937

Marijuana Tax Act forbids hemp farming in the US. -Dupont files patent for nylon.

1938

Canada prohibits production of hemp under Opium And Narcotics Control Act.

1941

Henry Ford makes car fabricated and fueled by hemp.

1943

Hemp For Victory program urges farmers to grow hemp.

1955

Hemp farming again banned.

1961

The Canadian Narcotics Control Act(CNCA) allowed Cannabis to be grown, at the discretion ofthe Health Minister, for research purposes only.

1992

Australia licences hemp farming.

1993

England eases restriction on hemp farming. News media declare hemp clothes and cannabis leaf logo hottest new fashion.

1994

Under the CNCA, one license was granted to a Canadian company, Hempline Inc., to grow hemp experimentally in Canada under the strict supervision of the authorities.

1996

The Canadian federal government passed Bill C8 stating that mature hemp stalks are exemptfrom the list of controlled substances.

1998

The Canadian government legalizes the commercial growth of industrial hemp.