I recently saw an article that said marijuana was utilized by people in Biblical times. Is this possibly true? Also. just why exactly was Marijuana made illegal in America?
Thank You
It’s possible that something akin to intoxicating plants were grown and/or used by people in Biblical times & places. The Bible doesn’t mention it, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.
IANAPothead, so I don’t know if marijuana ever grew in that part of the world.
The Bible doesn’t mention anything intoxicating other than alcohol.
As to why marijuana was made illegal in the U.S. - you’re likely to get a hundred answers, all dealing with such things as racism, hysteria, and a conspiracy by the Dow chemical corporation.
AFAIK marijuana is a new world plant.
What does Marijuana and Dow Chemical Corporation have in common with one another?
Cannabis is native to the Old World. Herodotus described the Scythians getting high off it. AFAWK the Scythians were the first to use it.
Any discussion of why pot is illegal will drift into Great Debates pretty quickly, as HeyHomie has ably demonstrated.
As for its use in Biblical times, well, of course it was. It didn’t evolve in the Common Era. But was it used in the Middle East during that time? Erowid hosts a document made in 1972 by the US National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse that documents the history of the weed in question.
Native to China, it was used for ropemaking and such in its homeland but we have no reason to think anyone smoked it (well, at least not back then). In India, however, people had discovered the intoxicating effects circa 1000 BCE. It was in use in Persia by 700 BCE, and the Middle East was a small step from there. By the time of Mohammed (c. 530-632 CE), cannabis was widely known and it came to replace alcohol (forbidden to Muslims) as a widespread intoxicant.
So, was Jesus in a position to spark a bowl? Probably, I’d say. Trade in the ancient world, especially among cultures as powerful and advanced as ancient Persia and Rome, was widespread, and it’s hard to keep a good bud secret.
This little nugget didn’t come straight from the pages of High Times, did it?
Partly
I remember reading somewhere that religious law scholars in the Ottoman Empire made a fatwa that hashish was permissible for Muslims, since it wasn’t “wine” and the Qur’an only forbids wine.* But I haven’t been able to find a reference for this. Anybody?
*This was a minority opinion, since most fatwas class all intoxicants, including hashish, under the definition of forbidden, being analogous to wine. The Ottomans were different in using the narrowest definition of “wine.”
In that case, all I can say is to consider the source. High Times isn’t exactly a paragon of journalistic virtue. They have an obvious agenda and their “reporting” is just as biased and shoddy as the mainstream media that they purport to refute.
Perhaps referring to drug use among actors, Jesus said that only those without sin should stone the cast. Does that suggest a redeeming quality in dealing dope? 
I can see a movie script in the works now:
Jesus on Mount:
Jesus (to crowd): “Blessed are the dudes who pick their seeds…”
Kinda reminds me of a song by King Missile “Jesus was way cool”
I first heard this from a comedian here in England named Mark Thomas, only his phrasing was funnier. I recommend him. Although it does not specify the plant it gives full permission for it’s use. At least in my mind.
Not only is skinning-up permitted, it’s commanded !
Regarding Dow Chemical vs. marijuana:
What would you do were I to tell you that there is this miracle fiber. It can be woven into cloth as soft as silk and the finest linen. It can be woven into cloth stouter than the toughest canvas. It can form the basis for durable and long-lasting paper of many types. It can be spun into ropes strong enough for nearly any commercial use and many industrial uses. Furthermore, the fiber is 100% natural, plant origin, and the plant grows like a weed with very little need for any sort of pesticide application to protect it–thus, it’s also environmentally friendly. There are some unwanted resins in the plant, but these can be easily removed with alcohols that do not damage the fiber and do not create complex toxic pollutants.
This fiber is hemp. Its parent plant is marijuana.
Now, according to the conspiracy theory, Dow was behind the ban on marijuana because hemp is the only natural fiber that could have competed against Dow’s nylon. Thus, Dow used its money and influence whipped up anti-Black and anti-Hispanic racist frenzy to drive the ban on marijuana.
Time to put another feather in my tinfoil hat.
First of all, the conspiracy theory involves Du Pont, not Dow Chemical. Second, Cecil has already made hash of the “hemp is a miracle fiber” argument.
I’d still like to know more about the OP. Surely there would have been some record of marijuana or hashish being bought or sold, or mention made somewhere of people using the drug, if it was present in the Roman Empire. We have lots of merchant records don’t we. And people certainly wrote about the social uses/abuses of wine. There has to be some earliest reference to smoked intoxicants (opiates, if not marijuana) in Europe and the Near East. I’d like to know what it is.
Also… how did it get from ancient Scythia to modern Mexico?
I’ve read speculation that marijuana seeds were brought to the New World by African slaves.
If you don’t like a quote from High Times, you’ll have a stroke at this page. Nor would I vouch for every statement there.
But it does have a useful fact that puts the marijuana-was-made-illegal-to-help-DuPont’s-nylon claim into perspective:
There had been a campaign for decades against drugs of all types in addition to the alcohol prohibition movement. The culmination of state laws in a national Marijuana Act exactly parallels the way that the majority of counties in the U.S. went legally dry before Prohibition was passed on a national level.
If you never ever believe in a conspiracy theory, you are guaranteed to be right at least 99.9% of the time and that’s enough for any mortal. Heck, it’s better than Cecil manages.