History
METACOSMIC PRIMORDIAL ETERNITY
13.7 billion years ago – The light and matter of our known Universe precipitate from a singularity of unimaginable energy density.
4.6 billion years ago – Our Sun begins fusing hydrogen into helium, birthing its light into our solar system.
4.5 billion years ago – Our Earth coalesces from the protoplanetary disk of our solar system.
4 billion years ago – Unicellular life emerges on Earth (Prokaryota).
2 billion years ago – Nucleic unicellular life evolves on Earth (Eukaryota).
800 million years ago – Plant life evolves on Earth.
27.8 million years ago – Cannabis sativa evolves from the common ancestor it shares with Hops (Humulus lupulus) with center of origin in the northeastern Tibetan Plateau, based on fossil pollen dating and mutagenesis simulations.
1.8 - 1.2 million years ago – Cannabis has spread into Europe, based on fossil pollen dating.
300,000 years ago – Anatomically-modern human beings emerge on Earth.
100,000 - 50,000 years ago – Earliest archaeological records of our human ancestors and neanderthals using plants for food, and seemingly for medicine and ritual as well.
8200 BC – Earliest archaeological record of human Cannabis use, when it is utilized in some manner by the Jomon culture of Okinoshima (Oki Islands, Japan).
5000 BC – Cannabis is being used for fiber in China.
3000 BC – Cannabis is considered one of 120 “noble”, “upper” or “first class” therapeutic herbs by the mythological herbalist-emperor Shennong (Yan Emperor) in China, recorded millennia later when the classic Chinese medical compendium Shennong Bencao Ching, named after him, was compiled.
2500 BC – Cannabis is being used by the “Catacomb Culture” of the Pontic-Caspian steppe (North of Caspian Sea).
1800 BC – Cannabis is being used in Ancient Sumeria and Akkadia.
1600 BC – Atharva Veda describes Cannabis, “bhanga”, as “joy-giver” and “bringer of freedom” in India, including it in the rare order of Divine plants:
"To the five kingdoms of the plants which Soma rules as Lord we speak. Darbha [a grass], Bhanga [Cannabis], Yavah [barley], Sahas [translated as "mighty power" or "unknown herb"], may these deliver us from woe." - Atharva Veda, Book XI, Chapter 6, Verse 15
The multifaceted use of Cannabis in India has continued uninterrupted to the present day.
1534 BC – Cannabis is being used in Egypt as mentioned in the Ebers Papyrus.
700 BC – Cannabis is being burnt ritualistically on the "altar of incense" in Judahite shrines, as found by THC, CBD and CBN residues detected at Tel Arad.
This supports some modern translations of "Cannabis" for the original Hebrew term “kaneh bosem”, specified in Exodus 30:23 as one of five ingredients in the Holy Anointing Oil of the Jewish and Christian Bibles. It was historically translated from the Hebrew Torah as sweet, aromatic, or fragrant "calamus", "cane", or "reed". It is rendered either as - "calamus" by the Septuagint translation into Greek (3rd Century BC) and the Vulgate translation into Latin (4th Century CE), upon which two translations many modern Christian Bibles are based - or as "cane" or "reed" in most remaining Bibles derived from the Masoretic Text. This may have originally been done to mystify such Holy Oil's primary entheogen in deference to the admonitions of Exodus 30:32-33.
600 BC – Cannabis ritualistic use is described during the Persian ascendancy of the Zoroastrian Zend-Avesta.
500 BC – Cannabis is being burnt ritualistically in China, as found by THC and CBD residues detected in funerary braziers in the eastern Pamirs.
450 BC – Herodotus writes of Cannabis being used ceremonially for euphoric effect in Eurasia by both the Scythians and the Massagetae.
Turn of the Millennium – If Cannabis is the “kaneh bosem” ingredient in Exodus 30:23, then Jesus and his disciples may have been applying its therapeutic powers:
“And they [the disciples] … anointed with oil many who were sick, and they were healed.” - Mark 6:13
1st Century CE – Dioscorides describes uses of Cannabis in his Materia Medica (Greek).
1st Century CE – Pliny the Elder describes uses of Cannabis (Roman).
2nd Century CE – Galen describes uses of Cannabis (Greco-Roman).
2nd Century CE – Uses of Cannabis described in the Egyptian Demotic-scripted Fayyum Medical Book.
2nd - 3rd Centuries CE – Hua Tuo, founder of Chinese surgery, utilizes Cannabis with wine as anesthetic.
3rd Century CE – Cannabis use is committed to writing in the Shennong Bencao Ching (Shennong’s Materia Medica, China).
550 CE – Uses of Cannabis described in the Syriac Book of Medicines.
8th Century CE – Jabir ibn Hayyan describes uses of Cannabis in Iraq.
850 CE – Ibn Sahl is compounding Cannabis for his herbal preparations in Persia.
9th Century CE – Uses of Cannabis described in the Olde English Herbarium.
9th Century CE – Ibn al-Baytar describes uses of Cannabis in Egypt.
900 CE – Al-Razi describes uses of Cannabis in his Hawi in Persia.
10th Century CE – Anglo-Saxon Lacnunga describes uses of Cannabis.
10th Century CE – Ishaq ibn Sulayman describes uses of Cannabis in Egypt.
1000 CE – Al-Mayusi describes uses of Cannabis in his Kitab al-Malaki in Persia.
1000 CE – Avicenna (Ibn Sina) describes uses of Cannabis in his Canon of Medicine in Persia.
12th Century – Moses Maimonides (Moussa bin Maimun) describes uses of Cannabis in his Materia Medica in Egypt.
12th Century – Sheshet Benveniste describes uses of Cannabis in Spain.
1158 – Polymath, sibyl and abbess Hildegard von Bingen describes uses of Cannabis in Germany.
13th Century – The Codex Vindobonensis 93 of the Herbarius complex describes uses of Cannabis (Italy).
13th Century – Al-Malik al-Ashraf (Ibn Rasul) describes uses of Cannabis in Yemen.
14th Century – First recorded Cannabis prohibition, by Soudoun Sheikoni in Arabia.
1570 – Feckenham describes uses of Cannabis in his Book of Sovereign Medicines in England.
1596 – Li Shizhen describes uses of Cannabis in China.
1830 – Theodor Ludwig Nees von Esenbeck and Carl Ebermaier describe uses of Cannabis in Germany.
1839 – William O’Shaughnessy discovers the many uses of Cannabis while working in India, whose seminal 1843 publication On the Preparations of the Indian Hemp, or Gunjah sets off a “Cannabis revolution” in European and Western medicine.
1843 - Early 1900’s – Inspired by O’Shaughnessy’s discovery and 1843 publication, dozens of eminent doctors and writers in Europe and the Americas publish about their experiences of the actions and successful uses of Cannabis:
1851 – Cannabis and its extract (via alcohol) are listed for the first time in the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) 3rd edition. The breadth and detail of the USP listing for Cannabis would expand considerably over the following 90 years.
1850’s - 1930’s – Cannabis preparations are produced and sold across the USA and Europe by leading companies like American Druggists Syndicate, Boericke & Taffel, Burroughs-Wellcome, E. Fougera, Eli Lilly, Frank S. Best, H.H. Hill, H.K. Mufford, Lloyd Brothers, Merck, Parke & Davis, S.B. Penick, Sharp & Dohme, and Tilden.
1896 – Cannabinol (CBN) is the first cannabinoid to be identified and isolated by Wood, Spivey and Easterfield, using charas resin from Cannabis grown near the banks of the Yamuna River in Northern India.
1879 - 1923 – Prohibition of Cannabis begins in various territories such as Egypt, Morocco, Greece, the District of Columbia in the USA, Jamaica, South Africa, the UK, New Zealand and Canada.
1937 – "Marihuana Tax Act" is passed in USA against the recommendation of the American Medical Association, effectively criminalizing all forms of cannabis and beginning a 75-year prohibition of Cannabis in the USA.
1940 – Cannabidiol (CBD) is identified and isolated from Cannabis by Adams, Hunt and Clark.
1942 – Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is identified and isolated from Cannabis by Wollner, Matchett, Levine and Loewe.
1942 – Due to US regulations effectively prohibiting the plant, Cannabis and its manifold preparations are removed from the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) 12th edition after being listed for 91 years.
1964 – Isolation and synthesis of THC by Gaoni and Mechoulam.
Late 1960’s - Onwards – A revolutionary wave of clinical research on Cannabis and its uses begins, which remains unabated and only further accelerates today.
1940’s - 1980’s – CANNACEA founders and colleagues emerge on Earth.
1972 – Netherlands decriminalizes Cannabis personal use.
1985 – US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves THC for use as a drug.
1990 – CB1 receptor identified and cloned.
1992 – Discovery of the first endocannabinoid “Anandamide” (AEA, arachidonoyl ethanolamide).
1993 – CB2 receptor identified and cloned.
1995 – Discovery of the second endocannabinoid “2-AG” (2-arachidonoyl glycerol).
1996 – California passes the “Compassionate Use Act of 1996” (Proposition 215) legalizing doctor-prescribed medical uses of Cannabis.
Early 2000’s – Inspired by the resurgence and success of Cannabis therapeutics in Western mainstream, CANNACEA founders begin compiling scientific and clinical research on Cannabis.
2001 – Canada becomes first country to establish a Medical Cannabis law, leading a wave that now sees over 40 countries doing the same.
2012 – CANNACEA founders begin experimenting with extraction, delivery, and formulation methods for full spectrum oral phytocannabinoid preparations.
2013 – Realm of Caring Foundation is established, initiating a new wave of awareness about CBD-rich low-THC Hemp in the USA and globally.
December 2013 – Uruguay becomes first country to legalize Cannabis in all forms, joined as of this writing by Canada, Georgia and South Africa.
February 7, 2014 – Agricultural Act of 2014 officially allows for limited cultivation of Hemp (≤ 0.3% THC) in the USA “for purposes of research conducted under an agricultural pilot program or other agricultural or academic research.”
2016 – Using Hemp grown under license from Colorado’s Department of Agriculture, CANNACEA founders develop Tagrid’s 100 Full Spectrum formulation prototype that revolutionizes their mother Tagrid's wellness (thank Life!).
2017 – Recognizing the importance yet unavailability of holistic, science-based certified organic full spectrum hemp oils of ultimate quality and efficacy, CANNACEA is founded. It takes another 4 dedicated years of research, development, testing, planning, hemp farm and supply chain qualification, certification, design and production for our vision to be realized.
December 20, 2018 – Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 officially reinstates Hemp as a legal agricultural commodity in the USA, so long as the source Cannabis sativa plants, as well as the products derived from them, contain no more than 0.3% THC by dried weight.
Winter 2021 – CANNACEA is officially launched with Tagrid’s 100 and Activated 40 Full Spectrum Hemp Oils.
References
- O'Shaughnessy, WB (1843). On the Preparations of the Indian Hemp, or Gunjah: Cannabis Indica Their Effects on the Animal System in Health, and their Utility in the Treatment of Tetanus and other Convulsive Diseases. Provincial Medical Journal and Retrospect of the Medical Sciences 5(123): 363–369.
- Donovan, M (1845). On the physical and medicinal qualities of Indian hemp (Cannabis indica); With observations on the best mode of administration, and cases illustrative of its powers. Dublin Journal of Medical Science 26(368–402): 459–461.
- Touw, M (1981). The religious and medicinal uses of Cannabis in China, India and Tibet. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs 13(1): 23-34.
- Russo, EB (2007). History of cannabis and its preparations in saga, science, and sobriquet. Chemical Biodiversity 4(8): 1614-1648.
- Clarke, R, Merlin, M (2013). Cannabis: Evolution and Ethnobotany. University of California Press.
- Henry, AG et al. (2014). Plant foods and the dietary ecology of Neanderthals and early modern humans. Journal of Human Evolution 69: 44-54.
- Russo, EB (2014). The pharmacological history of Cannabis. In: Handbook of Cannabinoids., edited by Pertwee, R. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.
- Hand, A et al. (2016). History of medical cannabis. Journal of Pain Management 9(4): 387-394.
- Russo, EB (2017). History of Cannabis as Medicine: Nineteenth Century Irish Physicians and Correlations of Their Observations to Modern Research. In: Cannabis sativa L. - Botany and Biotechnology, edited by: Chandra, S, Lata, H, ElSohly, M. Springer, Cham.
- McPartland, JM, Hegman, W (2018). Cannabis utilization and diffusion patterns in prehistoric Europe: a critical analysis of archaeological evidence. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 27: 627–634.
- McPartland, JM (2018). Cannabis Systematics at the Levels of Family, Genus, and Species. Cannabis and cannabinoid research 3(1): 203–212.
- Ren, M et al. (2019). The origins of cannabis smoking: Chemical residue evidence from the first millennium BCE in the Pamirs. Science Advances 5(6): 1-8.
- Arie, E et al. (2020). Cannabis and Frankincense at the Judahite Shrine of Arad. Journal of the Institute of Archaeology of T.A. University 47: 5-28.