A history of Cannabis from ‘marijuana’ to ‘dope’

Abstract

460 British Journal of School Nursing November 2011 Vol 6 No 9 The plant Cannabis has been harvested for thousands of years as hemp. Hemp is a useful plant, which produces woody stems yielding a fibre that can be made into cloth and rope and the word cannabis comes from the Greek word for hemp. The plant is indigenous to Central and South Asia and evidence of cannabis use has been found in archaeological sites dating back many centuries across the world. Evidence of the use of hemp to create cloth or rope has been found in an ancient site in Taiwan dating back to the Stone Age. Clay pots were found that have markings on them suggesting that twisted fibres were used as decoration while the clay was still wet: the twisted fibre is thought to be hemp (Hanson, 2011). Before the discovery of silks and cotton, clothing made from hemp was commonplace throughout south and central Asia. With the expansion of the Roman Empire, the use of hemp became widespread across Europe with evidence of hemp rope fragments found in Scotland dating back to AD 80 (Booth, 2003).