Until 1883, more than three quarters of the world's paper was made from Hemp fibre.
In Elizabethan times, farmers were fined for not growing Hemp.
80% of English wood pulp is imported, destroying the forests and their delicate eco-systems in Canada and Scandinavia.
A Hemp crop produces nearly 4 ( four) times as much raw fibre as an equivalent-sized tree plantation.
Trees take approximately 20 years to mature. Hemp takes 4 months.
Hemp needs no pesticides because it is unpalatable to insects.
Hemp needs no herbicides because it grows too quickly for any weed to compete.
Hemp cloth repels up to 95% of UV rays when woven into a tight construction.
Hemp is more water absorbent than cotton and has 3 times the tensile strength.HAVE YOU SEENWWW.HEMPPLASTIC.COM
Hemp paper does not need chlorine bleach, which heavily pollutes rives near wood-pulp paper mills.
Environmentally-sound Hemp paper is stronger, finer and longer-lasting than wood-based papers.
Hemp paper is used for bank notes and archives.
"You would have to smoke at least a field of this stuff to even get a smile" said Mr. Scott.
"The earliest-known woven fabric was apparently of Hemp, which began to be worked in the eighth millennium ( 8,000-7,000 BC)" say Columbia History of the world 1981. HAVE YOU HEARDWWW.HEMPMUSIC.COM
For more than a thousand years before the time of Christ until 1883 AD, Cannabis/Hemp was our planet's largest agricultural crop and most important industry for thousands upon thousands of products and enterprises, producing the overall majority of the earth's fibre, fabric, lighting oil, paper, incense and medicines, as well as being a primary source of protein for humans and animals alike.
The war between America and Great Britain in 1812 was mainly about access to Russian Hemp.
Napoleon's principle reason for tragically invading Russia in 1812 was also due to Russian Hemp supplies!
Hemp uses the sun more efficiently than virtually any other plant on the planet.
Hemp can grow in virtually any climate and soil condition, and is excellent for reclaiming otherwise-unusable land.
The word 'linen', until the early 1800s meant any coarse fabrics made from Hemp or flax.
Cannabis oil was mentioned by name in the Bible. Apparently, etymologists at Hebrew University, Jerusalem confirmed that 'kineboisin' (also spelled 'kannabosm") referred to cannabis used in a holy ointment. See Exodus 30:23. N.B. King James mistranslated the word as 'calamus' in his version.
Hempseed oil is said to burn the brightest of all lamp oils, and has been used since the days of Abraham. Scythians used to purify and cleanse themselves with Hemp oil, which made their skin "shining and clean".
Much of the world's paper was made from Hemp until about 1850. Since the 1900s, all newspapers and most books and magazines were printed on wood-pulp paper. Cheap throwaway paper, fitting in with a disposable economy.
Our forests, what is left of them, are being cut down 3 times as fast as they can grow.
Hemp offers a valuable and sustainable fuel of the future, "growing oil wells". Hemp has an output equivalent to around 1000 gallons of methanol per acre year (10 tons Biomass/acre, each yielding 100 gal. methanol/ton). Methanol used today is mainly made from natural gas, a fossil fuel. Methanol is currently being studied as a primary fuel for automobiles, hopefully reducing CO2 levels.
Henry Ford dreamed that someday automobiles would be grown from the soil. The Ford motor company, after years of research produced an automobile with a plastic body. Its tough body used a mixture of 70% cellulose fibres from Hemp. The plastic withstood blows 10 times as great as steel could without denting! Its weight was also 2/3 that of a regular car, producing better economy. Henry Ford was forced to use petroleum due to Hemp prohibition. His plans to fuel his fleet of vehicles with plant-power also failed due to Alcohol prohibition at the time.
Green Rizla papers are made from Hemp! Visit our hemp paper page for the interesting facts about how it is made.
Hemp seed does not contain the anti-nutrient trypsin inhibitors as found in soy milk.
Hanf in German, Canamo in Spanish, Chanvre in French, Konoplya in Russian, Kender in Hungarian, Tal Ma in Chinese, Hemp is fully international!
Remember Chief Seattle's reply to the president of the united states plea to buy land: "Whatever befalls the Earth, befalls the sons of the Earth. Man did not weave The Web of Life, he is merely a strannd in it. Whatever he does to The Web, he does to himself. Even the White Man ... cannot be exempt from this common destiny".
And I will raise up for them a plant of renown, and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land, neither bear the reproach of the heathen anymore. – Ezekiel 34:29 – Geneva Study Bible (A. D. 1599)
Q.Is hemp the same as marijuana? A. No. Both hemp and marijuana come from the Cannabis Sativa plant. However, they are completely different with respect to stalk size, growing practices and most importantly, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content. THC, which comes from the flowering tops, is the active ingredient in marijuana and contributes to marijuana’s medicinal value as well as its mood altering effects. The hemp plant, on the other hand, is harvested solely for its seed and stalk, not its low-THC flowers. THC values in marijuana run about 15-20%, while THC values in industrial hemp are usually standardized at 0.3%.
Q.Why Choose Hemp Food Products for Health? A. Hemp oil is a rich source of Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs) - Omega 6 linoleic , Omega 3 alpha linolenic and Gamma Linolenic acid (GLA) that are important for optimum health in the body. EFAs cannot be produced by the body itself and are vital for the structure and functions of tissues in the body. Essential fatty acids can also be obtained from eating hemp seeds, which are also a rich source (approx. 25%) of high quality protein, containing all 9 essential amino acids. Omega 3, 6 and GLA in hemp oil are present in a biochemically optimal ratio of 2.5:1 respectively. It is the presence of these fatty acids in this particular ratio that helps improve skin conditions such as eczema, psoriasis and acne. Hemp oil may also benefit other inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, osteoporosis, Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. Hemp oil also contains GLA, the active component in Evening Primrose Oil, which may be successful in the treatment of eczema, PMT, menopause and arthritis. Regular adult users report that their skin becomes softer, nails and hair stronger and thicker after only a few weeks of 1-2 tablespoons per day.
Q.How much hemp oil do I need to take to gain health benefits? A. Suggested dosages as follows: Adults: 1 to 2 tablespoons a day preferably with food Babies under 14 months: 1 - 2 teaspoons a day with food Small children over 14 months should take 2 - 4 teaspoons a day The skin will become soft, smooth and velvety when optimum benefit is reached.
A. No. Hemp seed oil should not be used for frying. It can be heated at low temperatures of not more than 150C for no more than 15 mins. Gentle stir frying is preferable. At high temperatures unhealthy by-products acids are formed known as trans-fatty acids.
A. Hemp foods have been used for centuries to benefit medical conditions ranging from skin disorders to cardiovascular disease. As hemp is lactose and gluten-free Hemp Foods products will be of particular interest to anyone on a lactose-free, dairy-free, vegan, low-sugar, low fat, and wheat-free diets. HFIA advises that anyone suffering from allergies or disease of any kind would benefit from consulting a state registered dietician, qualified nutritionist with Bsc. degree or a registered naturopath.
A. The (3:1) ratio of the Essential Fatty Acids, three parts linoleic acid (Omega 6) to one part alpha-linolenic acid (Omega 3) in hemp seed oil is favorable for the human diet because it matches the nutritional requirements of our bodies. Too much of one will cause a deficiency of the other. Flax oil, despite its higher Omega 3 content, has a less favorable ratio (1:5). Long-term exclusive use of flax oil can lead to a deficiency of Omega 6, producing symptoms like dry skin, papery skin and joint pain.Unlike hemp oil, flax oil does not contain Gamma-Linolenic Acid (GLA), a derivative of Omega 6, and an important triple- unsaturated fatty acid vital for human metabolism. Hemp Oil may be successful in the treatment of eczema, pre-menstrual tension and arthritis.
A. Although hemp seed is a nut, the anaphylaxis society has no reported cases of hemp seed or hemp seed oil causing reactions to people with nut allergies. It is important to note that traces of peanut and other nuts may occur in the manufacturing process and therefore anyone with a peanut or nut allergy should take care to read the product labels for suitability.
A.Yes. Hemp seed and hemp seed oil is safe for babies. Dosages will be smaller for children and babies than for adults. (see dosage information below). You cannot overdose on hempseed oil. If you are not sure we recommend you contact your medical practitioner to clarify any information you intend to put into practice.
A. To maintain good health Hemp can also be eaten as a food product and used in cooking as an addition to a nutritional supplement. It is a delicious alternative wherever olive oil is used. It can be used for salad dressings, poured on pasta, baked potatoes and vegetables.
A. No. Hemp seeds will not make you high. Typically hemp seeds contain less than 0.03% tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which is the psychoactive substance found in the hemp plant'sdistant relative - "marijuana". Hemp Foods Organic Oil and capsules contain 0% THC due to a recently improved seed cleaning process.
A. EFAs can be damaged by exposure to light, heat and air, which is why HFIA products are rigorously produced by cold pressing in a nitrogen flushed and oxygen-free environment. Hemp oil should be stored in the fridge once opened. It can also be frozen for longer periods of storage. It comes in a dark bottle because it keeps better if not exposed to light. Once opened, it is best consumed within 1-3 months. It will keep fresh for over a year if frozen. (Please see full storage conditions on back of bottle)
A. Visit www.hempmusic.com and buy Fields of Green that includes the first ever commercial hemp plastic product. Also available in the new hemp products shop.
Q.Is it true that George Washington and Thomas Jefferson used to grow hemp? A. Yes! In fact, both grew hemp on their plantations. Thomas Jefferson once remarked that hemp's economic value and capacity for outfitting the Navy made hemp "of first necessity to the wealth and protection of the country". George Washington once wrote "make the most of the hemp seed and sow it everywhere". For more than 200 years in Early America, it was legal to pay your taxes with hemp. During critical material shortage periods, it became illegal not to grow hemp, with a penalty of jail.
Q.Can you smoke hemp? A. No. The THC level in hemp is too low to provide any effect. Hemp products are made from the fibrous stalk and seed, whereas marijuana is made from the flowering tops. Even hemp’s flowering tops are so low in THC that to obtain the amount of THC found in marijuana, one would have to smoke a ‘joint’ the size of a telephone pole and then only get a headache!
Q.Can you fail a drug test by eating hemp oil or putting it on your skin? A. No. You would have to drink 1/2 cup of pure hemp oil per day for several days, just to register near the cutoff level of 50 ppb THC in urine testing. As for putting it on your skin, even it you took a bath in pure hemp oil, it would have no effect. For the science on this, please visit www.Votehemp.com and ckick on "the issues."
Q.Is there a market for hemp? A. Yes, a fast growing one at that! In 1993 worldwide retail sales for hemp products were $5 million. In 2000, worldwide retail sales were $150 million, including $80-90 million in the U.S. alone. Nevertheless, this is a tiny market compared to its potential and these statistics do not account for the widespread use of hemp as a raw material for industrial applications such as purchases by auto makers. As the world’s population grows, increasing strain will be put on non-renewable resources such as forests and mineral deposits. The demand for renewable materials by consumers, industry and government will grow out of necessity. Hemp is as good or better than any other alternative for a given application and its quality, durability, efficiency or healthfulness speaks for itself.
For the latest figures, request the free hemp industry report (box at top right of this page)
Today’s hemp market is constrained by legal restrictions, transporation costs and inefficient machinery. However, the main problem confronting hemp is the lack of public awareness of its myriad benefits. Naturally, this is tied to economics and incentive for investment in campaigns to educate the public. This website seeks to help fill the gap in public awareness. If you have read this far, you are one of the messengers; please email the address for this site to everyone you know: www.hemp.co.uk. For more information, contact us.
A brief rundown of hemp markets at the begining of the millennium (for a more up to date version, see The Hemp Industry Facts – another free report from www.hemp.co.uk)
Textiles: This is a very promising market. A significant number of entrepreneurial hemp clothing companies have already succeeded in the natural and organic boutique markets, while major designers like Armani, Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren have been using hemp fabric in their collections for department stores and signature collections. As well, hemp fabrics have begun to invade the home furnishings market. Currently, the cotton industry is experiencing serious problems with crop insect infestation and increasing use of expensive and harmful chemicals to fight such threats. Processing technologies for bast fibers such as hemp are not as advanced as those for cotton, so the markets are smaller at the moment. However, research on improving this situation is being conducted around the world and an advance in the technology could spell a surge in global demand for hemp textiles.
Food: Hemp's success in the marketplace is visible in the human and animal feed sectors. Hemp oil, vegetable burgers, chutneys, pastas, salad dressings, flours etc. can be found on natural and organic as well as exclusive supermarket shelves. In addition, hemp has been used as a high protein feed supplement for cows and chickens. There is even a hemp-fed organic beef ranch in Kentucky. Consumers have already sent the message to food companies; they want better nutrition and cleaner ingredients. This market is growing rapidly and hemp is succeeding as this market flourishes.
Plastics: Hemp is used to re-inforce regular plastics. The hemp content of such materials is approximately 50%. Hemp's long fibre and specialised matrix ensure the resultant material is stronger and lighter than regular materials. Of course the 50% hemp fibres are a replacement for some 50% of the oil based plastics used today. They are also a first step as 100% biodegradeable hemp plastics are now available in various forms. The first hemp plastic product to be commercially produced was a 'high fly' hemp frisbee, leading to a CD and DVD tray produced in 2004. More information at www.hempplastic.com. You may also purchase a relaxation music CD based on 100% hemp (biodegradeable) didgeridoo, harp and flute, packed in a hemp cd tray holder using a hemp paper insert direct from www.hempmusic.com or the new hemp products shop.
Cosmetics: Hemp oil used in cosmetics is another bright spot for market potential. Hemp's essential fatty acid profile is key to hemp oil working well in a variety of cosmetic applications. Well known companies like Revlon, Dr. Bronners, Jason's, Kiss My Face, Supre, The Body Shop, Hemp Hemp Hooray, Higher Nature and Alterna have been successful with their lines of hemp oil based cosmetics and hair care products, while smaller, entrepreneurial concerns have flourished with soaps, lip balms, moisturizers and more. There is no end to the personal care products that can be made with hemp seed oil which is competitive with other high grade oils. You can now buy hemp oil cosmetics and bodycare products.
Building Materials: The market potential for hemp in building materials for home, industry and automotive is gigantic. Proof of this is the established and rapidly growing market for alternative fibers such as kenaf, straw and other natural materials used by industry. Once hemp can be grown on a large, economically competitive scale, manufacturers will see that it outperforms other natural fibers due to its length and strength. The number of industrial applications for non-wood fibers is growing every day and hemp is the premier alternative source. To date, niche markets have been successfully developed in England and France for hemp to act as a replacement or additive to packaging, fiberboard, cement and even animal bedding. Latest developments are in sustainable in-fill panels that may be used on a small or large scale. Read more information on hemp building.
Solvents/Cleaners: The market for natural cleaners has been in evidence for many years. Now industry is realizing what consumers have known all along; that a good cleaning job does not necessarily require chemicals. That means a rapidly growing natural cleaning market. Currently, some European companies are producing hemp oil based cleaners. Hemp oil detergents can be used in commercial grade laundries and dishwashers, as well as to clean engines and bodies of trains, automobiles and airplanes. Hemp based general purpose cleaners are effective alternatives for all household cleaning applications.
Paper: Currently, hemp paper, along with all non-wood based paper, is confined to the specialty and environmental niches. Low wood prices, subsidized by our government, and economies of scale issues prevent a low-cost hemp paper alternative. Hemp competes well in these niches and its use will grow as alternative paper markets begin to overtake the conventional ones over the next decade or two.
Fuel: Currently, existing structures for energy delivery are so cost efficient that biomass conversion to fuel is not economically feasible. However, this is expected to change as the world rethinks its energy policies and energy shortages continue. At the moment, there are a number of companies worldwide who are researching and doing test applications of biomass fuel who have taken an interest in hemp. The use of hemp in biomass will parallel the use of other biomass crops as we discover the huge potential of our farms to deliver our energy needs.
Q.What are the U.S. restrictions governing hemp? A. U.S. laws effectively prohibit the growing of industrial hemp and have done so since 1937. While it is not illegal to grow per se, federally imposed logistical restrictions such as high walls, barbed wire fences, armed guards, alarms, etc. make hemp growing economically unfeasible. On the other hand, importation of hemp raw materials and products such as fiber, oil, apparel and paper are legal. At the time of this writing, hemp bills are pending or have passed in several state legislatures. If signed into law by the governors of these states, the only impediment to growing hemp in the U.S. will be the strong protests of the federal government- a classic states vs. federal rights case. Hemp is now grown legally in Canada in a similar way to that of Europe.
Q.What are the Australian restrictions governing hemp? A. Australian laws allow growing of industrial hemp in most states, including Queensland, Tasmania, Victoria and to a limited extent in NSW, SA and WA. Licenses are generally required to grow hemp that must be of a low THC (drug) variety.
Q.What are the European restrictions governing hemp? A. In the UK and mainland Europe it has been legal to grow industrial hemp now for many years. In fact, the European hemp industry has had a head start on the rest of the world. Licenses are still required to grow hemp of a low THC (drug) variety. Hemp is mainly being grown to supply Automotive industries and horse bedding markets, though seed for industrial oil and cosmetics is also growing, as is food, plastics and garden mulch.
The history of how hemp became prohibited is an interesting and sobering case of powerful business-government-media alliances. Essentially, U.S. Government restrictions placed on hemp cultivation were a direct result of a sustained lobbying effort by influential petroleum and timber interests who saw hemp as a threat to their business. Combined with a massive media campaign to discredit hemp by associating it with marijuana and demonizing the latter, the effort was a success, altering the course of U.S. industry for the balance of the century.
Here’s the story:
In the mid 1930’s, technology for hemp fiber was reaching a technical and economical apex. The recent invention of the hemp decorticator, a machine akin to the cotton gin, would strip the outer fibers quickly and easily, allowing hemp to be processed more efficiently and on a larger scale than ever before.
At this time, DuPont Corporation had just patented processes for making plastics from oil and coal, as well as a new sulfate process for making paper from wood pulp- processes that sixty years hence would account for 80% of the company’s products. Vertically integrated Hearst Paper Manufacturing Division, Kimberly Clark, St. Regis and other large timber, paper and newspaper holding companies had ties to vast forest resources. Hemp rope, hemp paper, hemp cellulose (plastics), hemp fiberboard, etc. was clearly a threat to these interests.
Twenty years earlier, William Randolph Hearst, who owned large tracts of timber for his newspaper operations, was angry at the seizure of 800,000 acres of prime Mexican timberland by Pancho Villa’s army. Hearst engaged his newspaper resources to paint the image of the lazy, marijuana smoking Mexican, later extending the unflattering imagery to Negroes. For two decades, the public was exposed to sensationalist journalism that called marijuana "the devil’s weed" and "assassin of youth", attributing to the plant an array of violent crimes as well as flaunting of white authority. Up until that time, the Northern Mexican colloquialism, marijuana, was not in common use. "Hemp" for industrial use, "cannabis" for medicinal use. After years of printing stories about "marijuana", the distinction between the two as well as the benefits of each had been effectively erased in the public’s mind.
The U.S. Secretary of the Treasury in the 1930’s was Andrew Mellon. Mellon, the owner of Mellon bank, happened to be the banker to DuPont Corporation, a company considered, even then, to be a prime client. In 1931, Andrew Mellon appointed Harry Anslinger, who would later marry Mellon’s niece, to head the newly reorganized Federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs or FBN (later evolving into the Drug Enforcement Agency or DEA).
Anslinger, once Assistant U.S. Commissioner on Prohibition, spent two years in secret drafting "Marijuana Tax Act", a bill that sought to establish prohibition through taxation. The bill, which made no distinction between hemp and cannabis, referring only to "marijuana", would not ban hemp or cannabis outright, but instead seek to prohibit its production by levying a tax on producers, distributors and manufacturers.
In 1937, the bill was submitted to the House Ways and Means Committee —the only committee that can send bills to the House floor without being subject to debate by other committees such as food and drug, agriculture, textiles, etc. The Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee at the time was Robert L. Doughton, a DuPont ally.
The federal testimony entered into record by Anslinger and the FBN was based primarily on the same press clippings from the sensationalist journalism promulgated by Hearst’s newspapers. Opposition from the American Medical Association, the National Oil Seed Institute and various hemp producers came too late because the bill had been prepared in secret.
DuPont’s 1937 Annual Report urged continued investment in new, but not yet accepted petrochemical products. The report anticipated "radical changes" from the "revenue raising power of government…converted into an instrument for forcing acceptance of sudden new ideas of industrial and social reorganization", an allusion to using taxation as a tool to influence social and industrial policy.
Q.Is it true that U.S. farmers were encouraged to grow hemp in World War II after hemp had been prohibited in 1937? A. Interestingly enough, in 1942 the U.S. Government did a complete reversal of policy when the Japanese took over the U.S. hemp supply in the Phillipines. Uncle Sam produced a movie called "Hemp for Victory" which instructed the farmer how to grow and harvest hemp (including how to become certified as a "Producer of Marihuana") and played on patriotic sentiments. After the war, the program was eliminated and never discussed again.
Q.What other countries grow hemp? A. Hemp is grown today in 31 different countries. Almost every major industrialized nation permits hemp farming: Canada, Britain, France, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Australia, South Africa, to name a few. In Eastern Europe, former Soviet Union and China, they never stopped growing hemp. These countries produce the supply of hemp imported into the U.S.
Q.Do those countries have laws against marijuana? A. Yes. All the aforementioned countries make a distinction between hemp and marijuana. They have not experienced problems with enforcement due to hemp cultivation.
Q.Why don’t we simply make the same distinction in the U.S.? A. Because our state and local law enforcement agencies have lobbied the Office of National Drug Control Policy with complaints that they would have too much trouble distinguishing the fields of hemp from the fields of marijuana. Also, perhaps, because these same law enforcement agencies receive $9,000,000 in federal funds to eradicate marijuana under the Cannabis Eradication Program. According to the government’s own records, the Cannabis Eradication Program is ineffective in eradicating marijuana: 95 to 98 percent of what is destroyed is low THC "feral" or wild hemp.
Q.Could a marijuana grower disguise his crop by planting in a hemp field? A. No. Any marijuana grower knows that the hemp would cross-pollinate with the marijuana plant and the marijuana’s street value would be severely diminished. In fact, hemp pollen is so airborne that it would be unwise to plant marijuana within many miles of a hemp field. Also, since hemp stalks are grown close together to maximize fiber and seed production and marijuana stalks grow two feet apart to maximize flowers, any marijuana plant would be crushed or suffocated by the hemp leaf cover.
Q.Can hemp be used in medicine? A. Hemp oil contains many healing and regenerative properties and may be eaten or applied topically to restore vital organs as well as heal various skin conditions. The essential fatty acids in hemp oil are critical in warding off various age related diseases. The therapeutic uses of hemp oil should not be confused with the therapeutic uses of medical marijuana. Currently, marijuana for medical purposes such as treatment or relief for asthma, glaucoma, nausea, anorexia, tumors, epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclorosis, muscular dystrophy, migraines, etc. is now legal in seven U.S. States, deepening the absurdity of laws that prohibit growing hemp seed for oil in those same states.
Q.Can hemp really save the world? A. Nature has provided tools to enable us to live better. We must shift our perspective, change our industrial processes, alter our consumption habits and learn to live sustainably. Hemp can help effect this change better than any other renewable resource. Judging by history, dramatic shifts in thinking have been rare or unsuccessful. At the dawn of the third millenium, the stakes could not get much higher; the survival of the human race and our way of life as we know it. Only if we get the facts and act on our knowledge can nature help humans save ourselves from ourselves.
What is the story about Hemp, Cannabis and Jesus?
Here are some referenced articles I have found that maybe of interest to you..
23.10.2010
Researchers in the United States say the oil used in the early days of the Christian church contained a cannabis extract called kaneh-bosem. The article does not question the validity of the miracles reported in the Bible but rather examines whether the early Christian Church may have made use of substances with an active medical effect.
Jesus Christ and his apostles may have used a cannabis-based anointing oil to help cure people with crippling diseases, it has been claimed.
Researchers in the United States say the oil used in the early days of the Christian church contained a cannabis extract called kaneh-bosem.
They suggest the extract, which is absorbed into the body when placed on the skin, could have helped cure people with a variety of physical and mental problems.
The medical use of cannabis during that time is supported by archaeological records
Chris Bennet The author of the article, published in the US drugs magazine High Times, says his findings are based on a study of scriptural texts. ''The medical use of cannabis during that time is supported by archaeological records'' Chris Bennet
Wide use
The article does not question the validity of the miracles reported in the Bible but rather examines whether the early Christian Church may have made use of substances with an active medical effect.
It does not rule out the role played by blind faith in Christ.
Chris Bennett said cannabis was widely used at the time to heal the sick.
''The medical use of cannabis during that time is supported by archaeological records.''
He said the ancient anointing oil contained high levels of cannabis extract.
The holy anointing oil, as described in the original Hebrew version of the recipe in Exodus, contained over six pounds of keneh-bosum - a substance identified by respected etymology, linguists anthropologists, botanists and other researchers as cannabis extracted into about six quarts of olive oil along with a variety of other fragrant herbs.
''The ancient annointed ones were literally drenched in this potent mixture.''
Miracles
Mr Bennett suggested the drug may have played a role in some healing miracles carried out by Jesus and his disciples.
He wrote: In the ancient world, diseases such as epilepsy were attributed to demonic possession.
To cure somebody of such an illness, even with the aid of certain herbs was considered exorcism or miraculous healing.
Jesus often becomes the final hope for the pharmacologically impaired
JesusJournal.com Interestingly, cannabis has been shown to be effective in the treatment of not only epilepsy but many of the other ailments that Jesus and the disciples healed people of such as skin diseases, eye problems and menstrual problems.
'' Jesus often becomes the final hope for the pharmacologically impaired'' JesusJournal.com
Mr Bennett said the findings suggested that it was unchristian to persecute people who used cannabis.
If cannabis was one of the main ingredients of the ancient Christian anointing oil, as history indicates, and receiving this oil is what made Jesus the Christ and his followers Christians, then persecuting those who use cannabis could be considered anti-Christ.
However, Christian groups in the United States have rejected Mr Bennett's claims.
They have insisted that the arguments made in the article are lame.
In a response to the article published on JesusJournal.com, critics said: ''As many of us know firsthand, Jesus often becomes the final hope for the pharmacologically impaired.''
John Cunyus, the author of a book on Christian healing, said: ''Well, the Bible does say that St. Stephen was stoned... but perhaps not in that sense!''
Jesus and the use of Cannabis based oil...
The word Cannabis derives from the Hebrew word Kaneh-Bosem which literally translates 'Fragrant Cane' and is known to have been an integral part of healing rituals during the time of Jesus and considered a holy sacrament by the ancient wise ones. Jesus did in fact use the same herb as his ancient semitic ancestors, and which is still used by people around the world for its enlightening and healing properties. Jesus used cannabis based oils to heal eye and skin diseases and his very name derives from being anointed with cannabis enriched holy oil.
The Greek title "Christ" is the translation of the Hebrew word Messiah, which in English becomes "The Anointed". The Messiah was recognized as such by his being anointed with the holy anointing oil, the use of which was restricted to the instillation of Hebrew priests and kings.
"Anointing was common among kings of Israel. It was the sign and symbol of royalty. The word 'Messiah' signifies the 'Anointed One', and none of the kings of Israel were styled the Messiah unless anointed."
The ancient recipe for this anointing oil, recorded in the Old Testament book of Exodus (30: 22-23) included over nine pounds of flowering cannabis tops, Hebrew "kaneh-bosem"( pluralized ; singular is kaneh-bos), extracted into a hind (about 6.5 litres) of olive oil, along with a variety of other herbs and spices. The ancient chosen ones were literally drenched in this potent cannabis holy oil.
"Knowledge and healing were two aspects of the same life-force. If to be rubbed with the 'Holy Plant' was to receive divine knowledge, it was also to be cured of every sickness. James suggests that anyone of the Christian community who was sick should call to the elders to anoint him with oil in the name of Jesus The Twelve are sent out among their fellow-men casting out demons and anointing the sick with oil (Mark 6:13)."
Jesus used Marijuana
As doubtful as the following hypothesis might first seem to the reader, I might as well boldly state my case right from the start: either Jesus used marijuana or he was not the Christ. The very word "Christ", by the implication of its linguistic origins and true meaning, gives us the most profound evidence that Jesus did in fact use the same herb as his ancient semitic ancestors, and which is still used by people around the world for its enlightening and healing properties.
The Greek title "Christ" is the translation of the Hebrew word Messiah, which in English becomes "The Anointed" D. The Messiah was recognized as such by his being anointed with the holy anointing oil, the use of which was restricted to the instillation of Hebrew priests and kings (See CC#5). If Jesus was not initiated in this fashion then he was not the Christ, and had no official claim to the title.
D The title "Messiah" is much older than Christianity, as all the ancient kings of Israel are referred to as the "Messiah". "Christos - Anointed One, a title of many Middle-Eastern sacrificial gods: Attis, Adonis, Tammuz, Osiris. . ." 12
The ancient recipe for this anointing oil, recorded in the Old Testament book of Exodus (30: 22-23) included over nine pounds of flowering cannabis tops, Hebrew "kaneh-bosm" B, extracted into a hind (about 6.5 litres) of olive oil, along with a variety of other herbs and spices. The ancient chosen ones were literally drenched in this potent cannabis holy oil.
B The "m" is a pronounced plural, and the singular kaneh-bos sounds remarkably similar to the modern cannabis. Although often mistranslated as "calamus", the word has been translated as "fragrant-cane" in most modern bibles, and specifically designates the fragrant flowering tops of cannabis.
From the time of Moses until that of the later prophet Samuel, the holy anointing oil was used by the shamanic Levite priesthood to receive the "revelations of the Lord". At the dawn of the age of Kings, Samuel extended the use of the anointing oil to the Hebraic monarchs by anointing Saul (and later David) as "Messiah-king". These kings lead their people with the benefit of insights achieved through using the holy anointing oil to become "possessed with the spirit of the Lord."
"Anointing was common among kings of Israel. It was the sign and symbol of royalty. The word 'Messiah' signifies the 'Anointed One', and none of the kings of Israel were styled the Messiah unless anointed."1 The title was clearly only given to those "having the crown of God's unction upon them" (Leviticus 21:12).
After the fall of the Jewish kingdoms, and the bloody purges following the forged discovery of the Book of theLaw (1 Kings 23), the cannabis holy oil was prohibited as associated with pagan worship. Yet it seems that certain sects retained the topical entheogen, and continued to practice the older religion, silently awaiting the return of a Messiah-king in the line of David.
The ministry of Jesus marked the return of the Jewish Messiah-kings, and thus the re-emergence of the holy oil. Jesus was called the Christ because he violated the Old Testament taboo on the cannabis oil and distributed it freely for initiation rites and to heal the sick and wounded.
Although there is some evidence of Jesus' use of this Judaic cannabis oil in the traditional New Testament, we get a clearer picture of its importance when we also look at surviving Gnostic documents. The term Gnostic, meaning "knowledge", refers to a variety of early Christian sects which had extremely different beliefs about both Jesus and his teachings than those which have come down to us through modern Christianity.
Other Christian Sources
For the first four hundred years after Jesus' birth, the term "Christian" was used to describe a wide variety of sects and a large volume of different documents. Through the acceptance of one of the more ascetic branches of Christianity by the Roman ruling class, Christianity eventually became the state religion of its former persecutors.
In an effort to unify the faith into a controllable mass, the newly formed Roman Catholic Church held a number of councils. These councils prohibited not only pagans, but also differing Christian sects, and edited a wealth of Christian literature down to the few meager documents which have survived as the modern New Testament. Z
Z The New Testament in its present form was composed and edited between 367-397AD, about twelve generations after the events in question.
In an attempt to save their manuscripts from the editorial flames of the Roman Catholic Church, certain Christians, now considered Gnostic heretics, hid copies of their scrolls in caves. One of these ancient hiding places was rediscovered in our own century, and the large collection of early Christian documents was named the Nag Hamadi Library,2 after the Egyptian area where it was found. Prior to this discovery, what little was known of the Gnostics came from a few fragmentary texts, and the many polemics written against them by the founders of the Catholic Church.
There is no reason to consider these ancient Gnostic documents as less accurate portrayals of the life and teachings of Jesus than the New Testament accounts. In a sense, the rediscovery of the Nag Hamadi Library marks the resurrection of a more historical Jesus, an ecstatic rebel sage who preached enlightenment through rituals involving magical plants, and who is more analogous to the Indian Shiva, or the Greek Dionysus, than the pious ascetic that has come down to us through the Bible's New Testament.
The Anointed One
Contrary to the depiction given in the New Testament gospels of Matthew and Luke, Jesus was likely not born as the Messiah. He received this title through his initiation by John the Baptist, and so it is not surprising that both Mark and John are conspicuously absent of the virgin-birth mythology, and begin their stories of Jesus' short career with his initiation by John.
Although their version of Jesus' baptism by John describes it as involving submersion under water, the term "baptism" has connotations of "initiation", and Gnostic scriptures indicate that the original rite was performed in conjunction with the kaneh-bosm anointing rite, "the annointing taking place either before or after the baptismal ceremony."3 Some Gnostic texts also specifically state that Jesus recieved the title Christ "because of the anointing,"4 not because of a water baptism.
Conceivably, the washing off of the oil with water would have been a means to begin the termination of ritual and the oil's effects.
The description of the after-effects of the rite clearly indicates that Jesus underwent an intense psychological experience, more than one would recieve from a simple submersion in water.
K The reference to a dove may have connotations of the Goddess tradition, which was continued by the Gnostics, who paid special attention to Sophia, Goddess of Wisdom. In earlier times the dove was sacred to Astarts, Aphrodite, Ishtar and other forms of the Goddess. "Gnostic Christians said Sophia was incarnate in the dove. . . that descended on Jesus at his baptism to impregnate his mind."12
Jesus came from Nazareth Galilee and was baptised by John in the Jordan. As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending upon him like a dove. K And a voice came from heaven "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased." At once the Spirit sent him out into the desert, and he was in the desert for forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with wild animals, and angels attended him. (Mark 1: 9-13)
It should be noted that the vision and words described were seen and heard only by Jesus, as it specifically states that "he saw".
The role played by John the Baptist, as priest and prophet, is very similiar to that of the Old Testament prophet Samuel. Just as Samuel's annointing of Saul and David marked them as Messiah-king, so did Jesus' initiation by John make him the Christ.
In the events after Jesus' vision and his overwhelmed recluse into the desert, there are clear parallels with the story of the prophet Samuel's initiation of Saul with the cannabis-rich holy ointment, and Saul's ensuing madness in the form of possession by the Spirit, and wandering off to make nabi (act in a frenzied ecstatic manner) (1 Samuel 10).
The tale of Saul's possession by the spirit is an example of how the ancients interpreted the effects of cannabis and other entheogens. What we perceive as being "high" or "stoned" the ancients called "possessed by the Spirit of the Lord."
"As a result of the spiritual 'anointing' Jesus expected to be different; and he was different. The prophecies had said that the Messiah would recieve from God wisdom and insight, the power to heal and to subjugate evil. The faith of Jesus was so strong that he did not question that these capacities had now been conferred upon him." 6
The entheogenic effect of the cannabis annointing oil would have immensely magnified both Jesus' own expectations, and the ensuing experience with John.
J The same proclamation is stated of the Anointed One, or King in Psalm 2: 7.
In some authorative texts of the Gospel according to Luke, after the Baptism the voice of God declares, "This day I have begotten thee." JThis indicates that the event of Jesus' encounter with John marks the true beginnings of Jesus' mission and his acknowledgement as the Messiah.
The importance of the anointing, and Jesus' own acknowledgement of it, is again exemplified in the gospel of Luke.
According to the New Testament Jesus began his ministry in Nazareth, by reading the following passage from the scroll of Isaiah and proclaiming, "today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing" (Luke 4:16)
The Spirit of Yahweh God is upon me, because Yahweh has anointed me to bring good tidings to the afflicted; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound... (Isaiah 61:1-2)
The Anointed Ones
Unlike the shamanistic priests and kings of earlier generations, Jesus did not follow the strict Old Testament taboos that limited the holy cannabis oils use to Yahweh's chosen few (Exodus 30:33), but broke tradition and began to liberally use it in both healing and initiation rites.
Through this open distribution the singular Christ, "the Anointed", was extended to become the plural term "Christians", that is, those who had been smeared or anointed. "By rubbing on this divine unction. . . obtained from certain special herbs or plants, they believed they were donning the panoply of God."7
L A similar claim was made about hashish by the medieval Sufi poet Fuzuli, who recorded in his treatise Bang and Wine, the story of Basra, a disciple whose sheik felt that he had reached the ultimate degree of perfection through the consumption of hashish, and that he was no longer in need of further guidance. This story led to Fuzuli's proclamation that "hashish is the perfect being. . . for the seeker of the mystical experience." In many ways the Sufi movement can be seen as the phoenix which rose from the ashes of the earlier Gnostics.
As the New Testament's John explains:
. . . you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. . . . the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit - just as it has taught you, remain in him." (1 John 2: 27). L
". . . the Christian, the 'smeared or anointed one', received 'knowledge of all things' by his 'anointing from the Holy One' (1 John 2: 20). Thereafter he had need of no other teacher and remained forevermore endowed with all knowledge (v. 27).
M ie: Kaneh Bosm, documented as cannabis.5
"Whatever the full ingredients of the Christian unction may have been, they would certainly have included the aromatic gums and spices of the traditional Israelite anointing oil: myrrh, aromatic cane,M cinnamon, and cassia. . . Under certain enclosed conditions a mixture of these substances rubbed on the skin could produce the kind of intoxicating belief in self-omniscience referred to in the New Testament."8 N
N This quote is from scholar John Allegro, whose work I drew from for this article. Allegro was a great scholar of both the bible and ancient languages, and his work broke a lot of ground. Allegro was also the only human secularist on the original team of scholars involved in the translation of the Dead Sea Scrolls, so he came to his views through more unbiased anthropological thinking than that of his more "faithful" co-researchers. In The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross, Allegro translated the kaneh-bosm reference in Exodus as "aromatic cane", and I have quoted him here on how the anointing oil "could produce a kind of intoxicating belief in self-omniscience." Yet Allegro failed to make the rightful connection with cannabis, seeing instead another plant drug at use, the amanita muscaria mushroom. His writings reveal he was extremely prejudiced against cannabis, even going so far with his etymological arguments as to suggest that the Greek term "kannabis" somehow referred to a mushroom. Allegro never smoked marijuana, but his own observations of what he referred to as "the 'pot'-smokers of today, the weary dotards who wander listlessly round our cities and universities," caused him to discount any possible use of cannabis as a means of achieving spiritual ecstasy.
The Incomplete Baptism
In the first few centuries AD, Christian Gnostic groups such as the Archontics, Valentians and Sethians rejected water baptism as superfluous, referring to it as an "incomplete baptism".9 In the tractate, the Testimony of Truth, water Baptism is rejected with a reference to the fact that Jesus baptized none of his disciples.3
Being "anointed with unutterable anointing", the so-called "sealings" recorded in the Gnostic texts, can be seen as a very literal event. "There is water in water, there is fire in chrism." (Gospel of Philip).
"The anointing with oil was the introduction of the candidate into unfading bliss, thus becoming a Christ." 10
"The oil as a sign of the gift of the Spirit was quite natural within a semetic framework, and therefore the ceremony is probably very early. . . In time the biblical meaning became obscured." 13
The survivng Gnostic descriptions of the effects of the anointing rite make it very clear that the holy oil had intense psycho-active properties, which prepared the recipient for entrance into "unfading bliss". In some Gnostic texts like the Pistis Sophia and the Books of Jeu, the "spiritual ointment" is a prerequisite for entry into the highest mystery. 10
In the Gospel of Philip it is written that the initiates of the empty rite of Baptism:
"go down into the water and come up without having received anything. . . The anointing (chrisma) is superior to baptism. For from the anointing we were called 'anointed ones' (Christians), not because of the baptism. And Christ also was [so] named because of the anointing, for the Father anointed the son, and the son anointed the apostles, and the apostles anointed us. [Therefore] he who has been anointed has the All. He has the resurrection, the light. . . the Holy Spirit. . . [If] one receives this unction, this person is no longer a Christian but a Christ."
Similarly, the Gospel of Truth records that Jesus specifically came into their midst so that he:
"might anoint them with the ointment. The ointment is the mercy of the Father. . . those whom he has anointed are the ones who have become perfect."
The apocryphal book, The Acts of Thomas, refers to the ointment's entheogenic effects as being specifically derived from a certain plant:
Holy oil, given us for sanctification, hidden mystery in which the cross was shown us, you are the unfolder of the hidden parts. You are the humiliator of stubborn deeds. You are the one who shows the hidden treasures. You are the plant of kindness. Let your power come by this [unction].
Gnostic Mysteries
The Gnostics had many levels of initiation, and the mysteries of these different grades were not written down like the more esoteric surviving texts were, but were given verbally at special ceremonies. Elements like the recipe of the obviously psychoactive holy oil were guarded with the closest secrecy, and were known only by the sect's most trusted initiates. This was a standard mystery school method, as "magic revealed is magic lost", and such secrets could only be entrusted to the group's most loyal members.
"Gnostic treatises did not reveal the whole matter. . . the final revelation was only communicated by word of mouth in the body, and by vision out of the body."10
"It is certain that Gnostic texts even in cultic matters favour a metaphorical symbolic manner of speaking and. . . clearly avoided communicating precise details about their 'mysteries'."3
In 130-200AD, the Catholic Church Father Irenaeus accused the Gnostics of initiating members with "secret sacraments". In his discussion of Gnostic texts which dealt with the anointing rite, he stated that they were written in an archaic manner, "to baffle even more those who are being initiated." 14
We can add to Ireneaus's comments that the Gnostics likely wrote in such a concealing fashion to "baffle" their persecutors, like Ireneus, whom they feared would find out the source behind the secret power of their anointing oil.
Mysteries of the Faith
Such a hidden reference to other psychoactive plants can be seen in "the mystery of the five trees", which were used by Jesus in complicated shamanistic initiation rituals. They are described in what is possibly the oldest Christian text in existence O, The Gospel of Thomas:
"...there are five trees for you in Paradise... Whoever becomes acquainted with them will not experience death."
O The Gospel of Thomas has an estimated date of composition as early as 40-100 AD, and likely predates the earliest New Testament Gospel, Mark, which is thought to have been written around 60 AD.
In the Gnostic view, "not experiencing death" meant reaching a certain state of interior purification or enlightenment, at which point the initiate would "rise from the dead" and "never grew old and became immortal." That is to say, he rose from ignorance and blindness, gained possession of the unbroken consciousness of his spiritual ego, and as such realized that he was a part of a larger Cosmic whole, which continued on long after the disappearance of the material body. Jesus referred to attaining this "higher" state of consciousness, as "entering the kingdom of heaven".
The attainment of this Gnostic state can be compared to the goal of yoga, (which itself means "union"), where the successful devotee obtains "a radical switch in consciousness obliterating the sense of individuation." 15
As with the similar goal of yoga union, the "kingdom of heaven" state was not attained instantaneously, but required years of vigorous training. Like certain older branches of yoga, a variety of psychoactive plants were used as aids to facilitate the devotee in attaining this "higher" state.
Although the Gnostic give us some detailed descriptions of these esoteric Christian teachings, it is interesting to note that they are also alluded to in New Testament accounts by Jesus himself:
"To you has been given the secret of the Kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables: so that they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand. . . " (Mark 4:11)
The Treasure of Light and the Mystery of the Five Trees
At the turn of the present century Professor GRS Mead summarized a German translation of a surviving Gnostic text, the "Second Book of Ieou". 16 P The text describes Jesus bidding male and female disciples to join him so that he can reveal to them the great mystery of the Treasure of Light.
P One of the few that managed to survive the Catholic Church's editorial flames, without being hidden with the Nag Hamadi codexes.
In order to accomplish this, the candidates have to be initiated by three Baptisms: The Baptism of Water, the Baptism of Fire, and the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, "and thereafter the Mystery of the Spiritual Chrism [anointing]."10
Jesus tells his followers that the master-mysteries of the Treasure of Light are involved with the mystery of the Five Trees, which may mean having knowledge of the magical plants that were used in the ceremony.
All of these mysteries Jesus promises to give to His disciples, that they may be called "Children of the Fullness (Pleroma) perfected in all mysteries." The Master then gathers His disciples, and sets forth a place of offering, placing one wine-jar on the right and on the left, and strews certain berries and spices round the vessels; He then puts a certain plant in their mouths, and another plant in their hands, and ranges them in order round the sacrifice.10
Continuing with the ritual, Jesus gives the disciples cups, along with other articles, and seals their foreheads with a magical diagram. Then, like shamanistic and magical ceremonies the world over, he turns his disciples to the four corners of the world, with their feet together in an attitude of prayer, and then offers a prayer which is prefixed with an invocation, and continues with a number of purifications and into the Baptism of Fire.
In this rite vine-branches are used; they are strewn with various materials of incense. The Eucharist is prepared...8
Q This offering of "fragrant-incense" to the Virgin of Light is reminiscent of the Old Testament offerings of kaneh-bosm incense to the Queen of Heaven (1 Kings 3:3). The Goddess played a paramount role in Gnostic theology.
The prayer [this time, is to] the Virgin of Light. . . Q the judge; she it is who gives the Water of the Baptism of Fire. A wonder is asked for in "the fire of this fragrant incense", and it is brought about by the agency of Zorokothora.R What the nature of the wonder was, is not stated. Jesus baptizes the disciples, gives them of the eucharistic sacrifice, and seals their foreheads with the seal of the Virgin of Light.
Next follows the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. In this rite both the wine-jars and vine-branches are used. A wonder again takes place, but is not further specified. After this we have the Mystery of Withdrawing the Evil of the Rulers, which consists of an elaborate incense-offering.
R The title Zorokothora is likely derived from Zoroaster, an ancient Persian prophet-shaman. Centuries before the Christian age the Zoroastrian Magi were known for their use of "bhanga" (cannabis), as well as a primordial entheogenic drink known as "haoma" or "soma", now widely identified as anamita muscaria, or fly agaric mushroom. The Zoroastrians had a great influence on Jewish culture during the years of Persian rule. The concept of heaven and hell (conspicuously absent from the Old Testament) is derived from Zoroastrianism. Jesus' apparent knowledge of Zoroaster, and Zoroastrian sacraments, hints that perhaps amanita was identified with the entheogenic "wonder" filled "five trees" which Jesus used in his shamanistic initiation ceremonies. One of the more significant and widespread Gnostic sects, the Manicheans, were known to use anamita mushrooms, and worshipped Jesus right alongside Zoroaster. The Manicheans survived into the twelfth century in parts of Europe and China, and performed ceremonies similar to the one which Jesus is described as presiding over.
The "wonder" in the incense which so perplexed Mead was presumably a reference to its undescribable psychoactive effects. It's also likely that the other undefined "wonder" indicates the magical properties of the different plants used in the ceremony.
It would seem to follow that the identity of the different plants, vines, and berries described in the excerpts were identified to the participants as the Mystery of the Five Trees.
At this time we can only speculate what other plants were used in the ceremony. The account of mandrake in Genesis 30: 14-16 and in Solomon's Song of Songs 7: 13, (which seems to indicate its addition to the holy anointing oil), clearly document the long term interest the Hebrews had with these seemingly magical plant angels.
That the use and knowledge of such plants could have been passed down by certain "heretical" branches of the faith such as the Gnostics seems self evident. The addition of such a powerful hallucinatory drug such as mandrake (or belladonna, which was also popular in the Middle East at that time) would help to explain some of the extreme experiences related to the holy anointings and baptisms described in the Gnostic literature. S
S Recipes for medieval witches' "flying ointments" contain cannabis, mandrake, belladonna and other entheogens, and the out-of-body experiences attributed to the Gnostics have many parallels with the Witches Sabat, as do aspects of their cosmology.
The Leaves of the Tree are for the Healing of the Nations
Cannabis is likely the most useful plant medicine in existence, and it has been used to treat a wide variety of ailments throughout history. Few readers will not be aware of the international fight taking place at this time, to get the sick and dying access to the amazing healing and curative powers of the cannabis plant's leaves and flowers.
As such, it should not be surprising to find that there are numerous references to the early Christians healing with the anointing oil, giving further indication that Jesus and his apostles had begun to freely dispense the sacred kaneh-bosm anointing oil, which had previously been under a strictly enforced prohibition, restricting its use to the Hebrew priests and kings.
Knowledge of cannabis' healing powers may account for some of Jesus' healing "miracles".T The Acts of Thomas specifically invokes the healing quality of the sacred plant into the holy oil: "You are the plant of kindness. Let your power come. . . and heal by this unction."
The Acts of Peter and the Twelve Apostles demonstrates Jesus' own view of the importance of this rite, when he gives the disciples an "unguent box" and a "pouch full of medicine" with instructions to go into the City of Habitation, and heal the sick. He tells them you must heal "the bodies first" before you can "heal the heart".
T Like other ancient historians, Biblical authors had a tendency to magnify historical events and make them appear miraculous. The earliest gospel is thought to have been recorded about 60 years after the crucifixion, and such a text cannot be regarded as an accurate, contemporary historical account. With time, imagination and fancy have a tendency to obscure memory. Yet it seems possible that many of the New Testament accounts could have at their basis logically explainable events, which became shortened and glorified into the unexplained miracles of the New Testament Gospels.
"Knowledge and healing were two aspects of the same life-force. If to be rubbed with the 'Holy Plant' was to receive divine knowledge, it was also to be cured of every sickness. James suggests that anyone of the Christian community who was sick should call to the elders to anoint him with oil in the name of Jesus The Twelve are sent out among their fellow-men casting out demons and anointing the sick with oil (Mark 6:13)."8
At the time of Christ, no differentiation was made between medical treatment and exorcism or miracles, all three were interrelated. To cure someone of a disease or to relieve them of an injury was paramount to exorcising the tormenting spirit, or miraculously healing them.
Thus it is not so surprising to find that the anointing oil expelled demons and gave protection against them, correspondingly it cured and dispelled the "sickness" of the soul and body. Exorcism (literally "driving out") was performed by means of anointing. The ancient magical texts provide abundant evidence for this application of oil.3
The oldest New Testament Gospel, clearly verifies this use of the holy oil early on in Jesus' controversial ministry:
And they cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them. (Mark 6:13)
cleanse the lepers
One of Jesus' most well known miracles is his healing of lepers, which appears in the first three New Testament Gospels. The term translated as leprosy can actually refer to any number of skin diseases, usually systemic infectious lesions or extreme allergic reactions.
Due to its topical anti-bacterial properties, cannabis has been used to treat a variety of skin diseases such as pruritis, also known as atopic dermatitis, an inflammatory skin disorder. The symptoms of pruritis are severe itching, "and patches of inflamed skin, especially on the hands, face, neck legs, and genitals,"17 a description that sounds startlingly similar to the skin disease described in Leviticus 13, called tsara'ath. It is usually translated in the Old Testament as leprosy, but has been noted by a number of scholars to be more likely a reference to a severe form of pruritis rather than true leprosy (Hansen's disease).
In relation to Jesus' curing of the lepers (Matthew 8,10,11 Mark 1, Luke 5,7,17), we could have an example of a disease expelled through the use of the cannabis "holy oil". Besides the anti-bacterial properties of cannabis oil, cannabis has been said to be effective in treating sufferers of Pruritis even when administered through smoking!17
A 1960 study in Czechoslovakia concluded that "cannabidiociolic acid, a product of the unripe hemp plant, has bacteriocidal properties." 18 The Czech researchers "found that cannabis extracts containing cannabidiolic acid produced impressive antibacterial effects on a number of micro-organisms, including strains of staphylococcus that resist penicillin and other antibiotics.U
U Evidence of cannabis ointment's topical healing abilities can also be seen in its use as a treatment for the modern "sexual leprosy" of herpes. Sufferers of cold sores and genital herpes have reported succesful treatments by soaking cannabis leaves and flowers in rubbing alcohol and then dabbing the greenish solution on the site of a potential herpetic sore outbreak. "They say it prevents blistering and makes sores disappear in a day or two."17 Direct contact with THC killed herpes virus in a 1990 research study at the University of South Florida.19
"The Czech researchers successfully treated a variety of conditions, including ear infections, with cannabis lotions and ointments. Topical application of cannabis relieved pain and prevented infection in second-degree burns. . . "17
heal the wounded
The Gnostic Gospel of Philip makes direct reference to how the holy oil "healed the wounds", and not suprisingly we find that cannabis was used in salves and ointments for burns and wounds throughout the middle-ages. Cannabis resin was also used for other topical applications, especially in relieving the pain of worn and crippled joints.
The Acts of Thomas specifically states "Thou holy oil given unto us for sanctification. . . thou art the straightener of the crooked limbs." This medicinal quality of cannabis oil could account for the miraculous healings of cripples attributed to Jesus and his disciples.
"Cannabis is a topical analgesic. Until 1937, virtually all corn plasters, muscle ointments, and [cystic] fibrosis poultices were made from or with cannabis extracts."19
A common and effective home remedy for rheumatism in South America was to heat cannabis in water with alcohol, and rub the solution into the affected areas. In the middle of the 19th century Dr WB O'Shaughnessy claimed to have successfully treated rheumatism (along with other maladies), with "half grain doses of cannabis resin" given orally. 20
cast out demons
In the ancient world and up until medieval times, the disease now known as epilepsy was commonly considered to be demonic possession, and its victims were outcasts from society. Here again, we could have an explanation for events of demonic exorcism (as in Mark 5, Luke 8), and the demon's expulsion by the use of cannabis.
Dr Lester Grinspoon and other medical marijuana advocates have offered testimonials from modern epilepsy sufferers, who have noted the profound effects of natural marijuana in controlling their seizures. Dr Grinspoon also points to the positive results of cannabis and synthetic cannabidiol in the treatment of epilepsy obtained in a 1975 report, 21 and again in a 1980 study which concluded "for some patients cannabidiol combined with standard antileptics may be useful in controlling seizures. Whether cannabidiol alone, in large doses, would be helpful is not known." 22
Other ailments of spasmodic muscular contractions such as Dystonias, which results in abnormal movements and postures, have been beneficially treated with the administration of cannabis.17
Another of the miracles attributed to Jesus was the healing of a woman from chronic menstruation (Luke 8:43-48). Again we find that cannabis has been used for the treatment of such ailments, as the US Dispensary of 1854 listed cannabis extract as a remedy for "uterine hemorrhage", as well as other maladies. V
V "The complaints to which it has been specifically recommended are neuralgia, gout, tetanus, hydrophobia, epidemic cholera, convulsions, chorea, hysteria, mental depression, insanity." (US Dispensatory of 1854). 24
Although the Biblical story of Jesus' cure of the menstruating woman describes this event as a faith healing which results from the woman touching Jesus' robe, and him feeling the "power" go out from him, an actual remedy seems more likely. That such a medicinal remedy could be considered a miracle is not at all far-fetched.
Although far beyond the breadth or intent of this article to document, cannabis has also been used successfully to treat glaucoma, arthritis, depression and mood disorders, migraines and chronic pain.
Archaeological Evidence
In an earlier article the use of cannabis among the Jews prior to the Christian period was documented, and a recent archeological dig in Bet Shemesh near Jerusalem has confirmed that cannabis medicine was in use in the area up until the fourth century. Thus it would seem to stand to reason that it was used for these purposes throughout the intervening Christian period.
In the case of the Bet Shemesh dig, the cannabis had been used as an aid in child bearing, both as a healing balm and an inhalant. Scientists commenting on the find noted that cannabis was used as a medicine as early as the 16th century BC, in Egypt. 24
This find garnered some attention, as can be seen from the Associated Press article, "Hashish evidence is 1,600 years old", that appeared in Vancouver newspaper The Province, on June 2, 1992:
Archaeologists have found hard evidence that hashish was used as a medicine 1,600 years ago, the Israel Antiquities Authority said yesterday.
Archaeologists uncovered organic remains of a substance containing hashish, grasses and fruit on the abdominal area of a teenage female's skeleton that dates back to the fourth century, the antiquities authority said in a statement.
Anthropologist Joel Zias said that although researchers knew hashish had been used as a medicine, this is the first archeological evidence. (Associated Press 1992).
Although the idea that Jesus and his disciples used a healing cannabis ointment may seem far-fetched at first, when weighed against the popular alternative (one that is held by millions of believers) that Jesus performed his healing miracles magically, through the power invested in him by the omnipotent Lord of the Universe, the case for ancient accounts of medicinal cannabis seems a far more likely explanation.
Indeed, it was through the dawning of the Spirit, provided by the entheogenic and healing anointing oil, that the early followers of Jesus came to consider themselves Christians, or Anointed-Ones! Ironically, many modern day Christians zealously persecute marijuana culture, unaware that the name of their faith makes reference to a psychoactive topical ointment that was rich in cannabis.
Adapted from Sex, Drugs, Violence and the Bible: The Pagan Origins of the Judaic and Christian Traditions (Volume 2, The New Testament and Related Literature). By Chris Bennett and Neil McQueen.
References
TW Doane, Bible Myths and their Parallels in Other Religions. First published in 1882, republished in 1985 by Health Research.
Kurt Rudolph, Gnosis: The Nature and History of Gnosticism. Harper, San Francisco, 1987.
Gospel of Philip.
Sula Benet, Early Diffusions and Folk Uses of Hemp. (Reprinted in Cannabis and Culture, Vera Rubin, Ed. The Hague: Moutan, 1975.)
Sula Benet (as Sara Benetowa) Tracing One Word Through Different Languages. (1936). (Reprinted in The Book of Grass, 1967.)
Weston La Barre, Culture in Context; Selected Writings of Weston La Barre. Duke University Press, 1980
Dr Hugh Schonfield, The Passover Plot. Bantam Books, 1967.
John Allegro, The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Christian Myth. 1980.
John Allegro, The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross. Paper Jacks, 1970.
The Paraphrase of Shem.
GRS Mead, Fragments of a Faith Forgotten: Some Short Sketches Among the Gnostics of the First Two Centuries. Theosophical Publishing Society, London and Benares, 1900
Cailin Matthews, Sophia, Goddess of Wisdom. The Aquarian Press (an imprint of Harper Collins Publishers), 1992.
Barbara G Walker, The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets. Harper Collins, 1983
Henry Chadwick, The Early Church. Pelican Books, 1967.
Elaine Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels. Random House, 1979.
George Feurstein, Encyclopedic Dictionary of Yoga. Paragon House, 1990.
Codex Brucianus, an 1892 German translation by Dr Carl Schmidt. (quoted by Chris Bennett, Osburn & Osburn, Green Gold the Tree of Life: Marijuana in Magic and Religion. Access Unlimited, 1995.)
Dr Lester Grinspoon and James Bakalar, Marihuana: The Forbidden Medicine. Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1993.
Todd Mikuriya, MD, Ed, Marijuana Medical Papers. Medi-Comp Press, 1973.
Jack Herer, The Emperor Wears No Clothes; Hemp and the Marijuana Conspiracy. Queen of Clubs Publishing, 1985-95.
WB O'Shaughnessy, On the Preparation of Indian Hemp (1839). (Reprinted in Marijuana Medical Papers, Todd Mikuriya, MD, Ed. Medi-Comp Press, 1973.
Consroe, Wood and Buchsbaum, "Anticonvulsant Nature of Marihuana Smoking", Journal of the American Medical Association 234 1975: 306-307.
Cunha, Carlini, Pereira, et al, "Chronic Administration of Cannabidiol to Healthy Volunteers and Epileptic Patients", Pharmacology 21, 1980: 175-185.
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Ernest Abel, Marihuana, The First Twelve Thousand Years. Plenum Press, 1980.
The use of marijuana historically has been used by people of the church as a form of meditation, burned as incence etc. Yes it is a very high possibility that Jesus smoked marajuana. BUT the plant that was used in his time was much less potent than what is used today. The plant has been cultivated over the years to make the effects stronger.
The Ethiopian Coptic Church (Christians) used/use it a lot, as did the early Christian sect the Essenes, who were Jews, also used it.
In ancient times cannabis was widely cultivated throughout the Middle East. It grows like a weed and provides nourishing seed, which is also a good source of fiber used to make rope.
Carl A.P. Ruck, Professor of Classical Studies, at Boston University (a graduate of both Harvard and Yale) writes in The Apples of Apollo: Pagan and Christian Mysteries of the Eucharist, with Clark Heinrich and Blaise Daniel Staples (2000) that the Jesus refers to himself as a "drug man" and provides evidence to back up this statement in the book.
The entheogenic origins of Christianity are supported by an ever growing array of evidence and a scholarly body of work (references: John Allegro, The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross; Jan Irvin, The Holy Mushroom: Evidence of Mushrooms in Judeo-Christianity; John Rush, Failed God; et.al.)
The Nectar of Delight The Early History of Cannabis
Tradition in India maintains that the gods sent man the Hemp plant so that he might attain delight, courage, and have heightened sexual desires. When nectar or Amrita dropped down from heaven, _Cannabis_ sprouted from it. Another story tells how, when the gods, helped by demons, churned the milk ocean to obtain Amrita, one of the resulting nectars was _Cannabis_. It was consecrated to Shiva and was Indra's favorite drink. After the churning of the ocean, demons attempted to gain control of Amrita, but the gods were able to prevent this seizure, giving _Cannabis_ the name Vijaya ("victory") to commemorate their success. Ever since, this plant of the gods has been held in India to bestow supernatural powers on its users.
The partnership of _Cannabis_ and man has existed now probably for ten thousand years -- since the discovery of agriculture in the Old World. One of our old cultivars, _Cannabis_ has been a five-purpose plant: as a source of hempen fibers; for its oil; for its akenes or "seeds," consumed by man for food; for its narcotic properties; and therapeutically to treat a wide spectrum of ills in folk medicine and in modern pharmacopoeias.
Mainly because of its various uses, _Cannabis_ has been taken to many regions around the world. Unusual things hapen to plants after long association with man and agriculture. They are grown in new and strange environments and often have opportunities to hybridize that are not offered in their native habitats. They escape from cultivation and frequently become aggressive weeds. They may be changed through human selection for characteristics associated with a specific use. Many cultivated plants are so changed from their ancestral types that it is not possible to unravel their evolutionary history. Such is not the case, however, with _Cannabis_. Yet, despite its long history as a major crop plant, _Cannabis_ is still characterized more by what is not known about its biology than what is known.
The botanical classification of _Cannabis_ has long been uncertain. Botanists have not agreed on the family to which _Cannabis_ belongs: early investigators put it in the Nettle family (Urticaceae); later it was accommodated in the Fig family (Moraceae); the general trend today is to assign it to a special family, Cannabaceae, in which only _Cannabis_ and _Humulus_, the genus of Hops, are members. There has even been disagreement as to how many species of _Cannabis_ exist: whether the genus comprises one highly variable species or several distinct species. Evidence now strongly indicates that three species can be recognized: _C. indica_, _C. ruderalia_, and _C. sativa_. These species are distinguished by different growth habits, characters of the akenes, and especially by major differences in structure of the wood. Although all species possess cannabinols, there may possibly be significant chemical differences, but the evidence is not yet available.
We cannot know now which of the several uses of _Cannabis_ was earliest. Since plant uses normally proceed from the simpler to the more complex, one might presume that its useful fibers first attracted man's attention. Indeed remains of hempen fibers have been found in the earliest archaeological sites in the cradles of Asiatic civilization: evidence of fiber in China dating from 4000 B.C. and hempen rope and thread from Turkestan from 3000 B.C. Stone beaters for pounding hemp fiber and impressions of hempen cord baked into pottery have been found in ancient sites in Taiwan. Hempen fabrics have been found in Turkish sites of the late eighth century B.C., and there is a questionable specimen of Hemp in an Egyptian tomb dated between three and four thousand years ago.
** Here is a passage about a picture map shown in the text, but not written into the article itself:
The original home of _Cannabis_ is thought to be central Asia, but it has spread around the globe with the exception of Artic regions and areas of wet tropical forests. _Cannabis_ spread at a very early date to Africa (except for the humid tropics) and was quickly accepted into native pharmacopoeias. The Spaniards took it to Mexico and Peru, the French to Canada, the English to North America. It had been introduced into northern Europe in Viking times. It was probably the Scythians who took it first to China.
**
The Indian vedas sang of _Cannabis_ as one of the divine nectars, able to give man anything from good health and long life to visions of the gods. The Zend-Avesta of 600 B.C. mentions an intoxicating resin, and the Assyrians used _Cannabis_ as an incense as early as the ninth century B.C.
Inscriptions from the Chou dynasty in China, dated 700-500 B.C., have a "negative" connotation that accompanies the ancient character for Cannabis, _Ma_, implying its stupefying properties. Since this idea obviously predated writing, the Pen Tsao Ching, written in A.C. 100 but going back to a legendary emperor, Shen-Nung, 2000 B.C., may be taken as evidence that the Chinese knew and probably used the hallucinogenic properties at very early dates. It was said that _Ma-fen_ ("Hemp fruit") "if taken to excess, will produce hallucinations [literally, `seeing devils']. If taken over a long term, it makes one communicate with spirits and lightens one's body." A Taoist priest wrote in the fifth century B.C. that _Cannabis_ was employed by "necromancers, in combination with Ginseng, to set forward time and reveal future events."
In these early periods, use of _Cannabis_ as an hallucinogen was undoubtedly associated with Chinese shamanism, but by the time of European contact 1500 years later, shamanism had fallen into decline, and the use of the plant for inebriation seems to have ceased and had been forgotten. Its value in Chine then was primarily as a fiber source. There was, however, a continuous record of Hemp cultivation in China from Neolithic times, and it has been suggested that _Cannabis_ may have originated in China, not in central Asia.
About 500 B.C. the Greek writer Herodotus described a marvelous bath of the Scythians, aggressive horsemen who swept out of the Transcaucasus eastward and westward. He reported that "they make a booth by fixing in the ground three sticks inclined toward one another, and stretching around them woollen pelts which they arragne so as to fit as close as possible: inside the booth a dish is placed upon the ground into which they put a number of red hot stones and then add some Hemp seed...immediately it smokes and gives out such a vapor as no Grecian vapor bath can exceed; the Scyths, delighted, shout for joy...." Only recently, archaeologists have excavated frozen Scythian tombs in central Asia, dated between 500 and 300 B.C., and have found tripods and pelts, braziers and charcoal with remains of _Cannabis_ leaves and fruit. It has generally been accepted that _Cannabis_ originated in central Asia and that it was the Scythians who spread it westward to Europe.
While the Greeks and Romans may not generally have taken _Cannabis_ for inebriation, there are indications that they were aware of the psychoactive effects of the drug. Democritus reported that it was occasionally drunk with wine and myrrh to produce visionary states, and Galen, about A.D. 200, wrote that it was sometimes customary to give Hemp to guests to promote hilarity and enjoyment.
_Cannabis_ arrived in Europe from the north. In classical Greece and Rome, it was not cultivated as a fiber plant. Fiber for ropes and sails, however, was available to the Romans from Gaul as early as the third century B.C. The Roman writer Lucilius mentioned it in 120 B.C. Pliny the Elder outlined the preparation and grades of hempen fibers in the first century A.C., and hempen rope was found in a Roman site in England dated A.D. 140-180. Whether the Vikings used Hemp rope or not is not known, but palynological evidence indicates that Hemp cultivation had a tremendous increment in England from the early Anglo-Saxon period to late Saxon and Norman times -- from 400 to 1100.
Henry VIII fostered the cultivation of Hemp in England. The maritime supremacy of England during Elizabethan times greatly increased the demand. Hemp cultivation began in the British colonies in the New World: first in Canada in 1606, then in Virginia in 1611; the Pilgrims took the crop to New England in 1632. In pre-Revolutionary North America, Hemp was employed even for making work clothes. Hemp was introduced quite independently into Spanish colonies in America: Chile, 1545; Peru, 1554.
There is no doubt that hempen fiber production represents an early use of _Cannabis_, but perhaps consumption of its edible akenes as food predated the discovery of the useful fiber. These akenes are very nutritious, and it is difficult to imagine that early man, constantly searching for food, would have missed this opportunity. Archaeological finds of Hemp akenes in Germany, dated with reservation at 500 B.C., indicate the nutritional use of these plant products. From early times to the present, Hemp akenes have been used as food in eastern Europe, and in the United States as a major ingredient of bird food. The folk-medicinal value of Hemp -- frequently indistinguishable from its hallucinogenic properties -- may even be its earliest role as an economic plant. The earliest record of the medicinal use of the plant is that of the Chinese emperor-herbalist Shen-Nung who, five thousand years ago, recommended _Cannabis_ for malaria, beri-beri, constipation, rheumatic pains, absent-mindedness, and female disorders. Hoa-Glio, another ancient Chinese herbalist, recommended a mixture of Hemp resin and wine as an analgesic during surgery.
It was in ancient India that this "gift of the gods" found excessive use in folk medicine. It was believed to quicken the mind, prolong life, improve judgment, lower fevers, induce sleep, cure dysentery. Because of its psychoactive properties it was more highly valued than medicienes with only physical activity. Several systems of Indian medicine esteemed _Cannabis_. The medical work _Sushruta_ claimed that it claimed leprosy. The _Bharaprakasha_ of about A.D. 1600 described it as antiphlegmatic, digestive, bile affecting, pungent, and astringent, prescribing it to stimulate the appetite, improve digestion, and better the voice. The spectrum of medicinal uses in India covered control of dandruff and relief of headache, mania, insomnia, venereal disease, whooping cough, earaches, and tuberculosis!
The fame of _Cannabis_ as a medicine spread with the plant. In parts of Africa, it was valued in treating dysentery, malaria, anthrax, and fevers. Even today the Hotentots and Mfengu claim its efficacy in treating snake bites, and Sotho women induce partial stupefaction by smoking Hemp before childbirth.
Although _Cannabis_ seems not to have been employed in medieval Europe as an hallucinogen, it was highly valued in medicine and its therapeutic uses can be traced back to early classical physicians such as Dioscorides and Galen. Medieval herbalists distinguished "manured hempe" (cultivated) from "bastard hempe" (weedy), recommending the latter "against nodes and wennes and other hard tumors," the former for a host of uses from curing cough to jaundice. They cautioned, however, that in excess it might cause sterility, that "it drieth up... the seeds of generation" in men "and the milke of women's breasts." An interesting use in the sixteenth century -- source of the name Angler's Weed in England -- was locally important: "poured into the holes of earthworms [it] will draw them forth and...fisherman and anglers have use this feate to baite their hooks."
The value of _Cannabis_ in folk medicine has clearly been closely tied with its euphoric and hallucinogenic properties, knowledge of which may be as old as its use as a source of fiber. Primitive man, trying all sorts of plant materials as food, must have known the ecstatic hallucinatory effects of Hemp, an intoxication introducing him to an other-worldly plant leading to religious beliefs. Thus the plant early was viewed as a special gift of the gods, a sacred medium for communion with the spirit world.
Although _Cannabis_ today is the most widely employed of the hallucinogens, its use purely as a narcotic, except in Asia, appears not to be ancient. In classical times its euphoric properties were, however, recognized. In Thebes, Hemp was made into a drink said to have opium-like properties. Galen reported that cakes with Hemp, if eaten to excess, were intoxicating. The use as an inebriant seems to have been spread east and west by barbarian hordes of central Asia, especially the Scythians, who had a profound cultural influence on early Greece and eastern Europe. And knowledge of the intoxicating effects of Hemp goes far back in Indian history, as indicated by the deep mythological and spiritual beliefs about the plant. One preparation, Bhang, was so sacred that it was thought to deter evil, bring luck, and cleanse man of sin. Those treading upon the leaves of this holy plant would suffer harm or disaster, and sacred oaths were sealed over Hemp. The favorite drink of Indra, god of the firmament, was made from _Cannabis_, and the Hindu god Shiva commanded that the word Bhangi must be chanted repeatedly during sowing, weeding, and harvesting of the holy plant. Knowledge and use of the intoxicating properties eventually spread to Asia Minor. Hemp was employed as an incense in Assyria in the first millennium B.C., suggesting its use as an inebriant. While there is no direct mention of Hemp in the Bible, several obscure passages may refer tangentially to the effects of _Cannabis_ resin or Hashish.
It is perhaps in the Himalayas of India and the Tibetan plateau that _Cannabis_ preparations assumed their greatest hallucinogenic importance in religious contexts. Bhang is a mild preparation: dried leaves or flowering shoots are pounded with spices into a paste and consumed as candy -- known as _maajun_ -- or in tea form. Ganja is made from the resin-rich dried pistillate flowering tops of cultivated plants which are pressed into a compacted mass and kept under pressure for several days to induce chemical changes; most Ganja is smoked, often with Tobacco. Charas consists of the resin itself, a brownish mass which is employed generally in smoking mixtures.
The Tibetans considered _Cannabis_ sacred. A Mahayana Buddhist tradition maintains that during the six steps of asceticism leading to his enlightenment, Buddha lived on one Hemp seed a day. He is often depicted with "Soma leaves" in his begging bowl and the mysterious god-narcotic Soma has occasionally been identified with Hemp. In Tantric Buddhism of the Himalayas of Tibet, _Cannabis_ plays a very significant role in the meditative ritual used to facilitate deep meditation and heigten awareness. Both medicinal and recreational secular use of Hemp is likewise so common now in this region that the plant is taken from granted as an everyday necessity.
Folklore maintains that the use of Hemp was introduced to Persia by an Indian pilgrim during the reign of Khrusu (A.D. 531-579), but it is known that the Assyrians used Hemp as an incense during the first millennium B.C. Although at first prohibited among Islamic peoples, Hashish spread widely west throughout Asia Minor. In 1378, authorities tried to extirpate Hemp from Arabian territory by the imposition of harsh punishments. As early as 1271, the eating of Hemp was so well known that Marco Polo described its consumption in the secret order of Hashishins, who used the narcotic to experience the rewards in store for them in the afterlife. _Cannabis_ extended early and widely from Asia Minor into Africe, partly under the pressure of Islamic influence, but the use of Hemp transcends Mohammedan areas. It is widely believed that Hemp was introduced also with slaves from Malaya. Commonly known in Africa as Kif or Dagga, the plant has entered into primitive native cultures in social and religious contexts. The hotentots, Bushmen, and Kaffirs used Hemp for centuries as a medicine and as an intoxicant. In an ancient tribal ceremony in the Zambesi Valley, participants inhaled vapors from a pile of smoldering Hemp; later, reed tubes and pipes were employed, and the plant material was burned on an altar. The Kasai tribes of the Congo have revived an old Riamba cult in which Hemp, replacing ancient fetishes and symbols, was elevated to a god -- a protector against physical and spiritual harm. Treaties are sealed with puffs of smoke from calabash pipes. Hemp-smoking and Hashish-snuffing cults exists in many parts of east Africa, especially near Lake Victoria.
Hemp has spread to many areas of the New World, but with few exceptions the plant has not penetrated significantly into many native American religious beliefs and ceremonies. There are, however, exceptions such as its use under the name Rosa Maria, by the Tepecano Indians of northwest Mexico who occasionally employ Hemp whem Peyote is not available. It has recently been learned that Indians in the Mexican states of Veracruz, Hidalgo, and Puebla practice a communal curing ceremony with a plant called Santa Rosa, identified as _Cannabis sativa_, which is considered both a plant and a sacred intercessor with the Virgin. Although the ceremony is based mainly on Christian elements, the plant is worshiped as an earth diety and is thought to be alive and to represent a part of the heart of God. The participants in this cult believe that the plant can be dangerous and that it can assume the form of a man's soul, make him ill, enrage him, and even cause death. Sixty years ago, when Mexican laborers introduced the smoking of Marihuana to the United States, it spread across the south, and by the early 1920s, its use was established in New Orleans, confined primarily among the poor and minority groups. The continued spread of the custom in the United States and Europe has resulted in a still unresolved controversy.
_Cannabis sativa_ was officially in the United States Pharmacopoeia until 1937, recommended for a wide variety of disorders, especially as a mild sedative. It is no longer an official drug, although research in the medical potential of some of the cannabinolic constituents or their semi-synthetic analogues is at present very active, particularly in relation to the side-effects of cancer therapy.
The psychoactive effects of _Cannabis_ preparations vary widely, depending on dosage, the preparation and the type of plant used, the method of administration, personality of the user, and social and cultural background. Perhaps the most frequent characterisitic is a dreamy state. Long forgotten events are often recalled and thoughts occur in unrelated sequences. Perception of time, and occasionally of space, is altered. Visual and auditory hallucinations follow the use of large doses. Euphoria, excitement, inner happiness -- often with hilarity and laughter -- are typical. In some cases, a final mood of depression may be experienced. While behavior is sometimes impulsive, violence or aggression is seldom induced.
In relatively recent years, the use of _Cannabis_ as an intoxicant has spread widely in Western society -- especially in the United States and Europe -- and has caused apprehension in law-making and law-enforcing circles and has created social and health problems. There is still little, if any, agreement on the magnitude of these problems or on their solution. Opinion appears to be pulled in two directions: that the use of _Cannabis_ is an extreme social, moral, and health danger that must be stamped out, or that it is an innocuous, pleasant pastime that should be legalized. It may be some time before all the truths concerning the use in our times and society of this ancient drug are fully known. Since an understanding of the history and attitudes of peoples who have long used the plant may play a part in furthering our handling of the situation in modern society, it behooves us to consider the role of _Cannabis_ in man's past and to learn what lessons it can teach us: whether to maintain wise restraint in our urbanized, industrialized life or to free it for general use. For it appears that _Cannabis_ may be with us for a long time.
Picture excerpts: This miniature is from a fifteenth-century manuscript of Marco Polo's travels depicts the Persian nobleman Al-Hassan ibn-al-Sabbah, who was known as the Old Man of the Mountain, enjoying the artificial paradise of Hashish eaters. His followers, known as _ashishins_, consumed large amounts of _Cannabis_ resin to increase their courage as they slaughtered and plundered on behalf of their leader. The words _assassin_ and _hashish_ were derived from the name of this band.
The Cuna Indians of Panama use _Cannabis_ as a sacred herb. This mola of applique work depicts a Cuna council meeting. An orator is shown adressing two headmen, who lounge in their hammocks and listen judiciously; one smokes a pipe as he swings. Spectators wander in and out, and one man is seen napping on a bench.
The Cora Indians of the Sierra Madre Occidental of Mexico smoke _Cannabis_ in the course of their sacred ceremonies. Rarely is an introduced foreign plant adopted and use in indigenous religious ceremonies, but it seems that the Cora of Mexico and the Cuna of Panama have taken up the ritual smoking of _Cannabis_, notwithstanding the fact that, in both areas, it was brought in by the early Europeans.
In the nineteenth century, a select group of European artists and writers turned to psychoactive agents in an attempt to achieve what has come to be regarded as "mind-expansion" or "mind-alteration." Many people, such as the French poet Baudelaire, believed that creative ability could be greatly enhanced by the use of _Cannabis_. In fact, Baudelaire wrote vivid descriptions of his personal experiences under the influence of _Cannabis_. At the upper left is Gustave Dore's painting _Composition on the Death of Gerard de Nerval_, inspired probably by the use of _Cannabis_ and Opium. At the upper right is a contemporary American cartoon humorously epitomizing the recurrence of this belief (it shows caveman around a fire, one saying "Hey, what is this stuff? It makes everything I think seem profound."). It was not only among the French _literati_ that psychoactive substances raised expectations. In 1845, the French psychiatrist Moreau de Tours published his investigation of Hashish in a fundamental scientific monograph _Du hachisch et de l'alienation mentale_. Moreau de Tours's scientific study was on the effects of _Cannabis_. He explored the use of this hallucinogen in Egypt and the Near East and experimented personally with it and other psychoactive plant substances. He concluded that the effects resemble certain mental disorders and suggested that they might be used to induce model psychoses.
This marvelous experience often occurs as if it were the effect of a superior and invisible power acting on the person from without....This delightful and singular state...gives no advance warning. It is as unexpected as a ghost, an intermittent haunting from which we must draw, if we are wise, the certainty of a better existence. This acuteness of though, this enthusiasm of the senses and the spirit must have appeared to man through the ages as the first blessing. _Les Paradis Artificiels_ Charles Baudelaire
The Scythian-Israel-Cannabis connection (+news and updates!)
(Appendix II to the work known as Cannabis Chassidis, recently adapted into a book)
Crucial to the history of World Cannabis Distribution were the Scythians. Cannabis Historian Chris Bennet describes:
The Scythians were a barbaric group of pre-Common Era nomadic tribes who are a fascinating example of an ancient cannabis using group. The Scythians played a very important part in the Ancient World from the seventh to first century BC. They were expert horsemen, and were one of the earliest peoples to master the art of riding and using horse-drawn covered wagons. This early high mobility is probably why most scholars credit them with the spread of cannabis knowledge throughout the ancient world. Indeed, the Scythian people travelled and settled extensively throughout Europe, the Mediterranean, Central Asia, and Russia, bringing their knowledge of the spiritual and practical uses for cannabis with them .
Who were these Scythians? Where did they come from? They seem to be Persian/Aryan, according to modern historical evidences , but some say…
While the house of Judah remained in the Promised Land for a time, many have puzzled over the fate and future of the ten tribes of Israel. Where did they go? While the Bible foretold that the tribes of Israel would scatter, literally, to all four directions (Genesis 28:14), the remainder of this article is devoted to connecting many of the exiled tribes of Israel to one largely ignored confederation of tribes which emerged afterward in the region of South Russia: the Scythians. ”
Genesis 48:16 records that Jacob (called “Israel”) blessed Ephraim and Manasseh with these words: “Let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac.” This blessing affirms that these two tribes will bear the name of Isaac upon them throughout history. This had occurred already before the ten tribes were sent into exile.
A prophecy in Amos 7:16 refers to the ten tribes of Israel (i.e. the “house of Israel” in verse 10) as “the house of Isaac.” In ancient times, vowels were not written, so the consonants of Isaac’s name would be “S-C” or “S-K” (dependent on the language in which the word appeared). Applying the prophetic clue in Genesis 21:12, we need to look for the exiled ten tribes of Israel by locating tribes which have Isaac’s name attached to them.
Sound ridiculous? This theory is not even acknowledged on Wikipedia, but it’s got a certain popularity to it, notably endorsed by former New York mayor Ed Koch on a visit to Scotland.
The term “Scythian” came to describe a lifestyle as much as a national ancestry, and all the peoples and tribes in the steppe region came to be known as “Scythians.” The term “Saka” or “Sacae” identifies the Israelite tribes in the region as that name preserves an ancestry from the Israelite patriarch, Isaac.
Secular reports that the Black Sea Scythians avoided the use of swine for any purpose and forbid idolatrous customs substantiates Jeremiah 3:11’s record wherein God stated: “backsliding Israel hath justified herself more than treacherous Judah.”
This is dated to approximately 620 B.C., the time when the Scythians had settled into the Black Sea regions. Since Jeremiah 3 records that Israel was then located “toward the north” of Jerusalem, and the Scythians lived to the north of Jerusalem in the Black Sea region, it is apparent that the Scythians were the ten tribes of Israel addressed by God in Jeremiah 3.
The rivers emptying into the Black Sea formerly had names such as the Ister, Tyras, Borysthenes and Tanais. After the Scythians entered that region, these rivers were given new Israelite names based on the name of the Israelite tribe of Dan. The new names of these rivers were the Danube, the Dniester, the Dnieper and the Don. The Israelite tribe of Dan had a tendency to re-name geographical locations after its own tribal name (Joshua 19:47)
The British Israelite movement, which argued that the Scythians are from Israel, and the Saxons are from Scythia, and that’s why the Brittish are holy people too (as if Christ didn’t save them from that kind of thinking?), has been thoroughly savaged by a range of sciences, including geneology and linguistics, leading some to try and argue that if the Lost Tribes didn’t originate the Scythians— many gave up on civilization after the Empires started dispersing everybody, and got together with the coolest liberated tribes they could find.
Historians tell of the mighty emperor Darius, who led his troops into the steppes with the intention of subduing the Scythians and adding their territory to his empire.
The Scythians were a nomadic people, and when they learned that Darius’ forces were to descend upon them, they broke camp and began a slow retreat. They moved at such a speed that though Darius’ armies could always descry them on the horizon, they were never able to close in. For days they fled ahead of the invaders—then weeks, months, leaving all the food in their wake destroyed and all the water poisoned; they led the intruding armies in circles, into the lands of neighboring peoples who attacked them, through unbroken deserts where gaunt vultures licked bleached bones. The proud warriors, accustomed to flaunting their bravado in swift, dramatic clashes, were in despair. Darius sent a message with his fastest courier, who was barely able to deliver it to the laziest straggler of the Scythian flank:
“As your ruler,” it read, “I order you to turn and fight!”
“If you are our ruler,” came the reply, scratched carelessly into a rock face they came upon the next day, “go weep.”
Days later, after they had given up all hope, the scouts made out a line of Scythian horsemen charging forward across the plain. They were waving their swords excitedly and letting out great whoops of enthusiasm. Caught unprepared but relieved at the prospect of doing battle at last, the warriors took up their arms—only to discern, in confusion, that the Scythians were not charging their lines, but somewhat to the side of them. Looking closer, they made out that the horsemen were pursuing a rabbit. Upon this humiliation, the soldiers threatened mutiny, and Darius was forced to turn back and leave Scythia in defeat. Thus the Scythians entered history as the most unconquerable of clans by refusing to do battle
Cool folks, right? And for evidence that an Israelitic presence may have affected the Scythian culture profoundly, further excerpt from Chris Bennet’s history:
It could well be that in later times the cannabis smoke had somewhat mellowed the Scythians, and their spiritual leaders directed them towards becoming a more civilized people. The ancient Greek historian Ephorus wrote in the fourth century BC that the Scythians 'feed on mares milk and excel all men in justice'. His comments were followed in the first century BC by Strabo, who wrote that 'we regard the Scythians as the most just of men and the least prone to mischief, as also far more frugal and independent of others than we are.'
Cannabis from The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Substances by Richard Rudgley Little, Brown and Company (1998)
Although the cannabis plant is now ubiquitous, unlike other wide-spread types of hallucinogen (such as Psilocybe 'magic mushrooms' or 'Datura'), it is not native to more than one continent. Cannabis is a plant native to Central Asia that has spread all over the world and is probably the most widely used recreational and usually illegal drug in the world, being smoked from the inner cities of America and Europe to the outlying atolls of Micronesia. The plant's natural homeland is most likely in the regions north of Afghanistan and the Altai mountains of southern Siberia. Its cultural and cosmopolitan distribution is no doubt due to a combination of cultural and natural factors. As Brian Du Toit, following Darwin, puts it: 'plant distribution can be brought about by winds, currents, and similar natural forces. It can also follow animal activity and migration by becoming attached to their feet or hooves, or by being eaten by birds.' In the case of cannabis, much still remains to be discovered about both these natural forces and the cultural contacts that were equally important.
Cannabis is a dioecious plant (i.e. an individual cannabis plant is either male or female). Whilst both produce good quality fibre it is the females that are the best producers of the cannabinoids, the psychoactive compounds present in the plant, the most significant of which is delta-l-tetrahydrocannabinol, most commonly referred to in its abbreviated form, THC. Of the three cannabis species, C. sativa has a number of strains sought out by smokers, such as Acapulco Gold and Durban Poison. C. indica is said to be the most potent psychoactive species whilst C. ruderalis comes in a poor third.
It is not yet clear where cannabis was first cultivated. Perhaps the people of Central Asia did so themselves – we must not be led to too readily assume that it must have been the more 'advanced' Chinese who would necessarily have preceded their more 'backward' Central Asian neighbours of the great steppes in using and subsequently cultivating hemp as either a fibre plant or a drug. Central Asia, a vast land of deserts, steppes and oases is, despite its name, usually seen as of marginal historical influence, a kind of cultural vacuum between the great civilisations of China to the east, India to the south and the Middle East to its west. Yet, very early on, thriving trade routes passed through the region and these became known as the Silk Roads, on account of the importance of Chinese silk for both Muslim and Western merchants. It is known to archaeologists that Central Asia was an important center for the transmission of new discoveries and religious ideas from prehistoric times onwards. The hemp plant, being of major technological importance as a fibre and being one of the most influential psychoactive plants in human culture, was most likely a key trade item from a very early date. The anthropologist Weston La Barre was of the opinion that cannabis use goes as far back as the Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) period as part of a religio-shamanic complex. Certainly the use of the plant had already spread across an area stretching from Romania to China, secondly south to India and on to south-east Asia, and last, and certainly not least, to western Asia, from where it diffused to Africa, Europe and eventually the Americas.
It seems most likely that the cultivation of hemp may have originated in north-east Asia (north and north-east China and south-eastern Siberia). It is the only fibre plant of any great importance in the region and, as such, must have been eagerly sought out for its numerous technological uses. The earliest indirect evidence of hemp use is from decorated Chinese Neolithic pottery having cord impressions on it (see below for similar pottery from prehistoric Europe). Painted pottery from Honan province belonging to the Neolithic Yang-shao culture (c. 4200-3200 BC) also indicates the probably presence of cultivated hemp. Pieces of what are thought to be hemp cloth have been found on the inside of a jar belonging to a Neolithic culture at a site in the western province of Gansu (2150-1780 BC). Other probably finds of hemp fragments dated to the Chinese Neolithic period have been discovered at a site in Chekiang province. The earliest uncontroversial find of fibre cloth is from the Western Chou era. The indications are that in early China hemp seeds were also a significant foodstuff. North-east Asia is still associated with shamanism today and it was surely important throughout the North, Central and East Asia during prehistoric times. If the cannabis plant was practically important as a fibre plant to these early societies then it was probably equally important in their spiritual life. Direct and incontrovertible evidence for this comes from a later prehistoric period of southern Siberia (see below). In Chinese hemp is known as ta-ma, meaning 'great fibre' (ma being 'fibre'). In the ancient Chinese script 'ma' is supposed to represent fibres placed on a rack inside a roofed shelter. Yet this technological use for hemp does not appear to have been the only one, as Hui-Lin Li says:
that the stupefying effect of the hemp plant was commonly known from extremely early times is also indicated linguistically. The character ma very early assumed two connotations. One meaning was, 'numerous or chaotic', derived from the nature of the plant's fibers. The second connotation was one of numbness or senselessness, apparently derived from the properties of the fruits and leaves which were used as infusions for medicinal purposes … as a character it [ma] combines with other characters to form such bisyllabic words as ma-tsui, narcotic (ma and 'drunkenness'); ma-mu, numb (ma and 'wood'); and ma-p'i, paralysis (ma and 'rheumatism').
The earliest of the Chinese pharmacopoeias, the Pên Ching, dating from the first century BC but containing much material undoubtedly of older date, makes it clear that the Chinese knew the psychoactive properties of cannabis: 'To take too much makes people see demons and throw themselves about like maniacs. But if one takes it over a long period of time one can communicate with the spirits and one's own body becomes light.' The Taoists used cannabis as a hallucinogen by adding it to other ingredients in incense burners (something also done by the Assyrians). In the sixth-century AD work Wu Tsang Ching, or 'Manual of the Five Viscera', there is the following instruction for magicians: 'If you wish to command demonic apparitions to present themselves you should constantly eat the inflorescences of the hemp plant.' It was also believed that using cannabis and ginseng together gave one visionary powers to see into the future.
Despite the numerous Chinese references to cannabis it has never played a comparable role in Chinese social life to that it achieved in the Middle East and India. Hui-lin Li has suggested that the austere and somewhat puritanical system of ethics and social behaviour founded by Confucius put a stop to the widespread use of cannabis as a psychoactive substance. The often unpredictable effects of cannabis could easily result in a very un-Confucian way of behaving. Opium, says Li, with its narcotic effects, was far more socially acceptable. Whilst a superficially persuasive explanation for the marginal role of cannabis use in China, it fails to explain why alcohol – surely the most un-Confucian of all inebriants! – should have played such an important role in Chinese history. The real explanation may lie elsewhere. That cannabis may have been one of the main psychoactive substances used by the shamans of archaic China may have resulted in the decline of the habit along with the shamanism that gave its use its meaning. The other reason for its marginal place is that traditionally China has seen itself as the unmoving center and the surrounding barbarians of its northern and western borders as a volatile threat. Cannabis, as the chosen drug of many of these neighbouring peoples, would have been an unsavoury choice for many Han Chinese, who didn't wish to indulge in 'barbarian habits'. This still holds true today. In Chinese Turkestan (Xinjiang) the local Muslim peoples, mainly Uighurs, are still associated with cannabis by the Han Chinese. According to Owen Lattimore, a great traveller and expert on Central Asia, in 1937-38, 42 per cent of exports from Chinese Turkestan to India down one of the old silk routes were in the form of cannabis resin. That cannabis may have been one of the main psychoactive substances used by the shamans of archaic China may have resulted in the decline of its use as the cult of shamanism gave way to religion organised on a larger scale. Hemp does not seem to have been used to any significant degree for its psychoactive properties by the Japanese people, although hemp strands were an important symbol in betrothal and marriage (as were hemp seeds in Europe, see below). The 'gohei', a sacred rod used by Shinto priests to banish impure spirits, has traditionally been made of hemp.
In contrast to the history of hemp in China, cannabis (bhang, ganja) has been widely used in India throughout its history and down to the present day. In the ancient text Artharvaveda, cannabis is described as one of a number of herbs that 'release us from anxiety'. Various psychoactive preparations containing cannabis were sacred to the gods, particularly Shiva and Indra. One of Shiva's epithets was 'Lord of Bhang'. Cannabis has been widely used in the Tantric tradition as an aphrodisiac incorporated into ceremonial practices. Cannabis seems to have been introduced into south-east Asia around the sixteenth century. Since almost all the common terms for the plant have their etymological root in the Sanskrit word ganja (in Laos hemp is kan xa, in Vietnam can xa, in Thailand kancha or kanhcha, and in Cambodia kanhcha), it is clear that it was under Indian influence that cannabis spread into the region.
The method of use of the plant for its psychoactive effects in south-east Asia has been in for form of 'grass', i.e. the leaves, flowering tops and stalks were smoked, usually with tobacco. In Cambodia the plant is sometimes boiled and some of the resulting liquid is sprinkled on tobacco and then it is smoked. The smoking of cannabis resin in the region seems to be due to recent foreign influence. Although Cambodians are reported to be light smokers of the plant, in Thailand the problems that sometimes occur with chronic habitual smoking are traditionally treated by native medicine men who employ a certain root to wean the inveterate smoker off the drug. At least until the current 'drug problem' (introduced and caused by Western foreigners) it was common-place in Thailand to employ cannabis for its analgesic and other medical uses. An infusion of the tops was given in small quantities (to avoid intoxication) at meal times to women who had just given birth. Similar practices are reported from Cambodia (although there the hemp is an ingredient in an alcoholic decoction). Fewer medical applications for cannabis are reported from Laos which, according to the researcher Marie Alexandrine Martin, is most likely due to the ready availability of opium derivatives which are used instead. For both their psychoactive effects and flavour, hemp leaves are popular in the local cuisines of the region, being variously used in soups, curries, fish fritters and other dishes.
Hemp moved westward out of its Central Asian home at a very early date. Evidence for its use in eastern Europe as a psychoactive substance can be traced to the later part of the third millennium BC. Two archaeological finds are of particular interest. The first was found in a pit-grave burial in Romania and is an artefact known as a 'pipe cup'. This particular pipe cup and another one, roughly contemporaneous, from a north Caucasian early Bronze Age site, both contained the charred remnants of cannabis seeds. This evidence, in conjunction with other finds across Europe (such as the great number of hemp seeds found in Neolithic contexts in central Europe) has been interpreted by the Oxford archaeologist Andrew Sherratt as foreshadowing the later ritual use of cannabis. There is further prehistoric evidence that cannabis was widely used as a psychoactive substance on the steppes. Russian archaeologists have discovered large-scale Iranian fire temples in the Kara Kum desert region of western Central Asia which contain the remains of cannabis, opium and Ephedra in ritual vessels. These ancient temples are dated to the first millennium BC.
In the fifth century BC the Greek historian Herodotus wrote of the use of cannabis by the Scythian people of the Black Sea region:
On a framework of tree sticks, meeting at the top, they stretch pieces of woollen cloth. Inside this tent they put a dish with hot stones on it. Then they take some hemp seed, creep into the tent, and throw the seed on the hot stones. At once it begins to smoke, giving off a vapour unsurpassed by any vapour bath one could find in Greece. The Scythians enjoy it so much they howl with pleasure.
Amazingly, almost identical hemp-smoking equipment was found by the Russian archaeologist Rudenko at the Pazyryk site in southern Siberia at the other end of the vast stepped of Asia. Not only was the equipment the same but the dating of the site makes it contemporary with the report of Herodotus from the Black Sea area thousands of miles from Pazyryk. No clearer proof could be found to indicate that the ritual use of cannabis was widespread in prehistoric Asia and Europe.
Cannabis was also widely used in the ancient Near East. It was used by the Assyrians as a fumigation to relieve sorrow and grief, which is surely an indication of psychoactive use. Hemp was widely used in Ancient Egypt as a rope fibre. Remains of hemp have been discovered in the eighteenth-dynasty tomb of Akhenaten (Amenophis IV) at el-Amarna and cannabis pollen was found on the mummy of Rameses II (nineteenth dynasty). The suggestion that cannabis was kaneh bosm (one of the ingredients of the Holy Oil which God instructed Moses to prepare; see Exodus 30:23) has been rejected by most authorities.
Its use among the Islamic mystical order of Sufis and Dervishes has been equally controversial. Many contemporary Sufis have wanted to distance themselves from what has now become a disreputable substance to many governments. Nevertheless, bearing in mind the long tradition of cannabis use in Central Asian and Middle Eastern religious life, that the Sufis made no use of it is something difficult to believe. Sufis have been called 'the hippies of the Arab world' by Ernest Abel in an otherwise accurate book on cannabis, but this is a trite and unfounded comparison. Sufism has been a continuous mystical tradition for over a thousand years and is a spiritual path that has been followed by many of the greatest poets, thinkers and scientists of the Islamic world. The hippy movement (if indeed it is such) has been around for just over thirty years and the literary and philosophical output (let alone the scientific!) scarcely bears comparison. Certainly cannabis was, and still is, widely used for recreational purposes in Muslim countries and this was certainly the case in Arabic Egypt. The diffusion of the plant into sub-Saharan Africa seems to have been partly due to migrant communities of Muslims from the north and to Arab merchants trading along the east African coast. Although it seems difficult to believe cannabis was not, at least according to some experts, present in West Africa before the Second World War.
In a source cited by Brian Du Toit, the famous explorer David Livingstone describes the use of matokwane (cannabis) by the Makololo people:
we had ample opportunity for observing the effects of this matokwane smoking on our men. It makes them feel very strong in body, but it produces exactly the opposite effect upon the mind. Two of our finest young men became inveterate smokers, and partially idiotic. The performances of a group of matokwane smokers are somewhat grotesque; they are provided with a calabash of pure water, a split bamboo, five feet long, the great pipe, which has a large calabash of kudu's horn chamber to contain the water, through which the smoke is drawn Narghille fashion, on its way to the mouth. Each smoker takes a few whiffs, the last being an extra long one, and hands the pipe to his neighbour. He seems to swallow the fumes; for, striving against the convulsive action of the muscles of the chest and throat, he takes a mouthful of water from the calabash, waits a few seconds, and then pours water and smoke from his mouth down the groove of the bamboo, The smoke causes violent coughing in all, and in some a species of frenzy which passes away in a rapid stream of unmeaning words, or short sentences, as, 'the green grass grows', 'the fat cattle thrive', 'the fish swim'.
Potted histories of cannabis often imply that hemp's intoxicating properties were virtually unknown in Europe until the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries when travellers to Egypt and other parts of the East 'discovered the drug'. Such versions of events are built on the false premise that alcohol is and always has been the inebrient par excellence of European culture and that other substances like cannabis and opium are recent arrivals. The evidence for the use of hemp in prehistoric Europe has already been mentioned and there is no shortage of early historical references to its use throughout European history. Palaeobotanical studies have shown that hemp was cultivated (presumably as a fibre first and foremost) in eastern England by the Anglo-Saxons from AD 400 onwards. A cloth made of hemp was found in the late sixth-century tomb of the Merovingian queen Arnegunde in Paris. Its use among the Vikings is known from the discovery of plant remains at a castle in Denmark, fishing line and cloth made of hemp from Norwegian graves and cannabis seeds found in one of their ships.
Antoine Rabelais, who was the father of François Rabelais (c. 1494-1553), the famous doctor and writer of the immortal Gargantua and Pantagruel, is known to have cultivated hemp on a large scale at his property at Cinais, south-west of Chinon in France. It was perhaps in helping out on his father's property that the young Rabelais first gained knowledge of cannabis. In the aforementioned work he dedicates three chapters to hemp, which he calls 'the herb Pantagruelion'. Under King Henry VIII of England a law was passed that instructed all subjects having arable land to put aside some of it for the cultivation of hemp or flax to provide sufficient fibre for the making of rigging for ships. In England, as elsewhere in Europe, hemp was indispensable as a fibre plant; its use permeated all spheres of life. William Bulleyn (1500-76), who was related to Anne Boleyn, Henry's second wife, extolls it thus: 'no Shippe can sayle without hempe … no Plowe, or Carte, can be without ropes … the fisher and fouler muste have hempe, to make their nettes. And no archer can wante his bowe string: and the Malt man for his sackes, with it the belle is rong, to service in the Church.' The word canvas is derived from cannabis on account of its use as a fibre.
Cannabis was known by numerous names – neck weed, gallows grass (this because of its being the fibre from which the hangman's noose was made) and Welsh parsley among them. In certain parts of Britain (such as the Welsh border, Herefordshire and Oxfordshire) the seeds of the hemp plant were used in a very specific form of folk divination. In order to see a vision of her future husband a girl would have to retire alone at the witching hour to a churchyard, and whilst throwing the seeds over her left shoulder, enchant the following short rhyme:
Hempseed I sow, Hempseed, grow. He that is to marry me, Come after me and mow.
If she was lucky a spectral form of her husband-to-be mowing with his scythe would be there when she looked behind her. If she were not so fortunate she would see a coffin behind her, signifying that she would die whilst still young and unmarried. Such a use of hemp seed is known from the seventeenth century and certainly continued into the nineteenth and, perhaps, even the twentieth century. What is remarkable is the fact that very similar folk practices are also known from the Ukraine. Ukrainian girls with hemp seeds in their belts jump on a pile of hemp, crying out:
Andrei, Andrei, I plant the hemp seed on you. Will God let me know With whom I will sleep?
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Then they take off their blouses, fill their mouths with water to spit on the hemp seeds and run around their houses a magical three times. Dances involving hemp were also common in eastern Europe, sometimes in connection with magically aiding the hemp crop to grow and sometimes as part of marriage feasts and other wedding celebrations. Sula Benet sees another cultural role of hemp as having archaic roots:
[a] custom connected with the dead in parts of eastern Europe is the throwing of a handful of seeds into the fire as an offering to the dead during the harvesting of hemp – similar to the custom of the Scythians and of the Pazyryk tribes, two-and-a-half-thousand years ago. There is no doubt that some of the practices, such as funeral customs, were introduced by the Scythians during their victorious advance into southeast Russia, including the Caucasus, where they remained for centuries … hemp never lost its connection with the cult of the dead. Even today in Poland and Lithuania, and in former times also in Russia, on Christmas Eve when it is believed that the dead visit their families, a soup made of hemp seeds, called semieniatka, is served for the dead souls to savour.
As the use of hemp goes back far further into European prehistory than even the Scythian period (see above) such customs may have their ultimate origins even further back than Benet supposes.
Hemp also had a number of uses in early medicine, being used to treat gout, worms, tumours and inflammation. Nor were its psychoactive properties forgotten. Bulleyn warns that it can bring madness and it was a seventeenth-century belief that apothecaries and others that traded in cannabis often became epileptics, an effect attributed to the seeds. Although the seeds of cannabis are the last part of the plant that we would associate with psychoactive effects, this was a widespread idea in past centuries. William Turner (c. 1508-c. 1568) quotes an earlier author called Simeon Sethy (or Sethi) who wrote that: 'hemp sede if it be taken out of mesure taketh mens wittes from them.' Turner himself says it is the powder of the dried leaves that makes men 'drunk'. William Salmon, writing in 1693, says that cannabis seeds, leaves, juice, essence and decoctions were readily available in druggists' shops at the time, thus showing that cannabis was a widely used medicine.
Despite precursors such as Rabelais, sustained interest in cannabis among the literati may be said to have begun with Le Club des Haschischins. This informal club met in the privately owned baroque palace known in the 1840s as the Hôtel Pimodan at 17 quai d'Anjou on the Isle St Louis in Paris. Whilst many of its members were prominent in the artistic community (Honoré de Balzac, Alexandre Dumas, Théophile Gautier, Gérard de Nerval and Charles Baudelaire) its driving force – and supplier of the hashish in the form of a green paste (an echo of the witches' drugs which were greenish ointments) – was a psychiatrist named Jean-Jacques Moreau de Tours (1804-84). Moreau, who also experimented with the possible medical applications of Datura stramonium, is often described as the first psychiatrist interested in the use of psychoactive substances as a means of treating mental illness. In fact, even though Anthony Störck was too early to be called a psychiatrist (he published the results of his work in 1762) he conducted systematic experiments – very much in the modern style – with henbane and thorn-apple specifically to ascertain their potential in treating mental disorders.
The first cultivation of hemp in the Americas seems to have been in Nova Scotia in 1606 and it subsequently became widely grown across North America for its use as a fibre. It seems, however, that there was no awareness of its psychoactive properties until the middle of the nineteenth century. In two books published in the 1850s the popular writer Bayard Taylor wrote of his hashish experiences in Egypt in a manner not unlike that of some members of the Parisian Hashish Club. Although rarely read today, his books were, for many of his numerous readers at the time, the first they had heard about the psychoactive effects of the hemp plant. The author of The Hasheesh Eater: Being Passages from the Life of a Pythagorean (1857), Fitz Hugh Ludlow, who is often considered to be one of the best writers on the subjective effects of hashish, never reached the contemporary audience that Taylor did, despite his posthumous fame.
It was not, of course, only writers that began to spread the word. Dubious figures in the unofficial world of medicine (better known as quackery) seized upon the 'new' drug and peddled it as an aphrodisiac. Ernest Abel has unearthed what must be one of the earliest and certainly one of the best lurid headlines concerning drugs. It is from the Illustrated Police News of 2 December 1876, and next to a drawing of elegant young women lounging in a swish apartment in a state of intoxication are written the immortal words: 'SECRET DISSIPATION OF NEW YORK BELLES: INTERIOR OF A HASHEESH HELL ON FIFTH AVENUE.'
It was not just the media but also the medical profession that were becoming increasingly aware of cannabis. Although doctors used it in treating many disorders (ranging from epilepsy and hysteria to alcoholism and asthma) the demonisation of drugs that began with opium was soon to spread to other psychoactive substances, including cannabis. As the anti-opium movement was intertwined with bigotry against the Chinese so with marijuana it was to be the turn of the Mexicans and then the Blacks. In 1915 California became the first state to make it illegal to possess cannabis. By the 1920s marijuana (called muggles or moota and later mezz, sassfras or tea; marijuana cigarettes or joints were known, as they still sometimes are, as reefers) had become a major 'underground drug'.
It was the first psychoactive substance (apart from alcohol) that became a common subject in modern popular music, with jazz classics from the 1930s such as Louis Armstrong's Muggles and Cab Calloway's That Funny Reefer Man topping the bill of marijuana-inspired fare. In opposition to the positive portrayal of cannabis in the jazz scene were wildly sensational accounts – supposedly based on fact – of the intimate connection of the drug with violence (drawing on the tradition of the Assassins, an Islamic sect who were supposed to take cannabis before committing murders) and sexual promiscuity. Finally, in 1937, through the considerable persuasive powers of Harry J. Anslinger, the first commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, the Marihuana (Marijuana) Tax Act became federal law and in 1956 the drug was incorporated into the more comprehensive Narcotics Act.
Although the most well-known anti-marijuana film, Reefer Madness, was designed to shock young people with its vivid portrayal of the drug menace, it seems to have had little effect. Today it is something of a cult movie (mainly among cannabis smokers!) since its plot of moral and social decline is so utterly unconvincing and ludicrous. A less well-known film about hemp was made by the US Department of Agriculture and was entitled Hemp for Victory (1942). It was made as a propaganda film to encourage the growing of the plant for its fibre by American farmers during the Second World War as, due to the conflict, sufficient overseas supplies were unavailable. Due to the controversy surrounding the psychoactive use of cannabis the very existence of the film was later officially denied; having seen it myself I can attest to its existence.
Grifos was a name given to cannabis in the Caribbean and derives from the Spanish grifos, meaning 'crinkly', which some have seen as a description of the female plant's flower heads. The word found its way into America by its use among Puerto Ricans. In 1920s Harlem it became anglicised as 'reefers' but also continued to be known as 'griffs' or 'griff'. There are innumerable vernacular and slang names for cannabis. Among the most common are weed, blow, gear, grass, draw, smoke, shit and herb. Other terms have a more restricted use, as is the case with the name 'lamb's bread' used by Rastafarians, for whom it is a sacred psychoactive plant or entheogen. A number of medical uses for cannabis have made the whole debate about its legalisation a major issue. Cannabis is known to have real value not only in pain relief but also as a preventative medicine.
