We’re continuing our marijuana facts and mini-refresher – or newbie – course in weed this week. We seriously can’t get enough of these fun weeds facts.

Marijuana Facts You Should Know

As we’ve mentioned a few times before, marijuana myths, not marijuana facts, have been perpetuated in the United States by politics and misguided economics for decades.  And why is that?

Cannabis sativa grows wild in humid climates in many, many different parts of the world.  Marijuana, in case you’re new here, comes from cannabis sativa. Marijuana is the dried, shredded leaf-flower mixture of cannabis sativa.

It’s a plant. And this plant’s cultivation and uses have varied for centuries. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson both grew cannabis. It was widely available, back in the day, for industrial use, recreational use, therapeutic use, as medicine and by prescription. Until about a century ago.

Marijuana Ban

California was the first state to ban marijuana.  That’s right. As this killer Huffington Post piece points out, it was called “locoweed” and banned by the Board of Pharmacy in California in 1913. Several campaigns by politicians and religious groups made claims that marijuana use was responsible for teenagers losing their minds. This propaganda suggested strongly that marijuana users could lose their minds and would probably then go murder their families.  Crazy, right?

The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937, passed by Congress, ultimately outlawed cannabis.  In 1970 Congress passed the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, which effectively classified marijuana as a Schedule 1 substance and outlawed it at a federal level.

We know what went down after that.  And we’re still eagerly watching things unfold.