Where Did Weed Come From? The Origin and History of Cannabis

Cannabis comes from Central Asia, where it grew wild long before humans started cultivating it in the Neolithic and carrying it east to China and west into Europe. Nobody really “discovered” weed: the oldest written medical references are Chinese, traditionally dated to around 2737 BCE, and for more than 5,000 years people have used it for fun, for relaxation and meditation, and to treat illnesses or ease all kinds of ailments. It’s a plant with a long, messy and controversial history.

For a while, some people claimed that weed originated in Mesoamerica, but that turned out to be little more than an urban legend. Its real paper trail starts with those ancient Chinese medical texts dated to around 2737 BCE.

Even if cannabis isn't from the Americas, it sure made a splash there. In Mexico, for example, it has gone from textile and medical uses to recreational smoking, from being sold freely to being banned under political and social pressure, then tolerated and, more recently, decriminalized for both recreational and medical use. Argentina, where we're based, is a different story: legal use is tied to medical and therapeutic purposes only. At least for now.

Where does cannabis really come from?

The plant is native to the arid region southeast of the Caspian Sea. It belongs to the Cannabaceae family, whose roots some estimates trace back around 100 million years. The long relationship between weed and people started with early humans, who slowly figured out which plants were edible and which had healing properties and, after a lot of trial and error, began cultivating them in the Neolithic.

That's how cannabis spread from its original wild range to the places where people lived. Obviously, there's no way to know who the first cannabis user was, but some authors argue that the dawn of humanity is tied to the start of cannabis use and that it played a role in our evolution — after all, our own bodies have an endocannabinoid system.

So the short version: the cannabis plant is native to Central Asia, was first cultivated in the Neolithic (7000–3000 BCE) and spread east (to China) and later west (to Europe). It reached Europe during the Neolithic and made it to the continent's far western edge later on.

Later, in the Chalcolithic (the Copper Age), it spread further across Europe, reaching the Atlantic coast (Kerbors, France) and the south of the Iberian Peninsula. During the Iron Age, cannabis was widely used in the funeral ceremonies of the Hallstatt aristocracy.

How cannabis spread with the Indo-Europeans

The plant kept traveling. Plenty of pollen studies show cannabis growing in northern Greece and northern Italy, as well as the western Mediterranean, since the Neolithic.

Archaeologists have found Yamnaya culture braziers with cannabis used in religious rituals, which strongly suggests Indo-European tribes helped spread the plant between 4000 and 1000 BCE. Later on, hybrid cultures expanded even further thanks to the horse and the cart, and cannabis seeds went along for the ride.

Cannabis in one of the oldest illustrated books

In the early Middle Ages, in the 6th century, the Constantinopolitanus was produced — a botany book with a drawing of the cannabis plant (the oldest known book illustration of it). Around the same time, the physician Aetius of Amida wrote a 16-volume medical encyclopedia, the Tetrabiblon, which also includes cannabis.

Cannabis in religious history

Religion shaped its story too. From the 7th to the 14th century it was used in the Islamic world, until hashish started getting branded as something for Sufis and assassins. Something similar happened in Europe from the 5th century on, as Christianity cracked down on entheogens (substances used to induce spiritual experiences), seen as tools of Satan's followers. Cannabis was used in so-called witches' ointments, and a 1484 papal bull by Innocent VIII is often said to have banned it outright.

But it didn't disappear, because its main use was fiber — for clothing and for ships' ropes. The paper used to make books, for example, was made from hemp. People also ate it in the form of hemp seeds, and some apothecaries and doctors used it as medicine.

The 19th century: cannabis hits the pharmacy

The plant's characteristics didn't fit well with the demands of the Industrial Revolution, so no harvesting machinery that could cut labor costs was developed until well into the 20th century.

Even so, starting in the second half of the 19th century, cannabis made its way into every European pharmacopoeia, with zero pushback from health authorities. But in the late 1800s, synthetic drugs like aspirin, chloral hydrate and barbiturates — chemically more stable than cannabis, and therefore more predictable — sped up its decline as a pharmaceutical product. Finally, the 1925 Geneva Convention kicked off international control of cannabis.

Cannabis culture and global prohibition

Worldwide prohibition was locked in with the United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs in 1961. The goal was to wipe out cannabis use worldwide within 25 years.

The ironic part: three years later, in 1964, Israeli chemists Raphael Mechoulam and Yehiel Gaoni isolated the main active compound in cannabis, tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. That showed it belonged to a new class of compounds, structurally different from other substances, and with real therapeutic potential.

Fast-forward to 2013, when Uruguay became the first country to legalize the sale, distribution and cultivation of cannabis. In 2018, Canada became the second country in the world to legalize recreational weed.