A (brief) history of cannabis in the UK

Whether or not for fibre, meals or medication, hashish has been part of life for 1000’s of years. The stigma round it, nevertheless, is comparatively new.

Learn on for an summary of the historical past of hashish within the UK.

People and hashish have had a symbiotic relationship for the reason that thawing of the Ice Age. Hashish has been cultivated for fibre, food, medicine, spiritual functions, and leisure amusement for round 12,000 years, spreading throughout Eurasia to virtually each nook of the world via exploration, migration and commerce.

The historical past of hashish within the UK is prolonged and sophisticated, spanning from the Bronze Age to Queen Victoria’s menstrual treatment and past. 

The unlawful standing of hashish within the UK is a comparatively current phenomenon, with prohibition being extra about political prejudices somewhat than any inherent detrimental property of the plant itself. Even our newly instated King Charles has acknowledged the advantages of the hashish plant. Relating to historic significance, hashish may arguably be a extra necessary crop to the UK — each due to its materials and medicinal makes use of all through historical past — than tea or tobacco.

 

Early historical past: Bronze Age fibres to Mediaeval natural treatments 

 

  • 850 BC (ish): Hashish may have been farmed within the UK as early because the Bronze Age. Within the Nineteen Nineties, archeologists stumbled throughout proof of hemp fibres amongst a hoard of Bronze Age weaponry and different objects at a web site in St Andrews, Scotland. 
  • 301 AD: Roman Britain cultivated hashish for rope, sailcloth and different necessary supplies. The Edict of Diocletian (revealed in 301 AD), a report of products and providers produced and traded in Roman Britain, cites hemp fibre used to make rope and sailcloth. Hashish fibres and seeds have been discovered at quite a few Roman-era websites throughout the UK, notably York and Hull.
  • 400 AD (ish): The Anglo-Saxons invaded the British Isles round and, just like the Romans, farmed hemp for fibre to create cords, sails, fishing nets, clothing and extra. Romans additionally probably pressed the seeds for oil. 
  • 476 – 1450 AD: Sturdy proof means that hemp farming for fibre manufacturing continued — and expanded — all through mediaeval England. The standard hemp trade was centred close to Hampshire (named after hemp), and areas throughout the UK with ‘Hemp’ or ‘Hamp’ within the identify have been hubs of hemp manufacturing. Information from the mediaeval interval point out hashish was an necessary medical and therapeutic instrument, and was used as an anaesthetic and to deal with circumstances together with gout, weight loss, urinary infections and birthing points (amongst others). Areas in Scotland, notably monastic communities, grew hashish for each fibre and medicinal functions. The well-known Abbess Hildegard von Bingen (1098 to 1179 AD) wrote extensively concerning the constructive (and detrimental) bodily and psychological results of hashish in “Physica”.  Whereas she was German and never primarily based within the UK, her affect on a spread of subjects — from artwork and philosophy to medication — probably influenced the monasteries of Scotland. 

“It’s light and worthwhile to the abdomen, taking away a little bit of its mucus. It’s simple to digest, diminishes unhealthy humors, and fortifies good humors. Nonetheless, if one who’s weak within the head, and has a vacant mind eats hemp, it simply afflicts his head. It doesn’t hurt one who has a wholesome head and full mind,” – Excerpt from Physica

 

  • 1484: Using hashish as a drugs was primarily demonised by the Papal Bull of Harmless VIII which equated herbalists — a lot of whom have been practising within the British Isles — to witches and declared hemp-based therapies ‘an unholy sacrament of satanic rituals’.

The Elizabethan Period: Hashish cultivation within the UK reaches its peak

 

  • 1533: Because the significance of England’s supreme seafaring navy grew, so did the demand of hemp fibre for ropes, sails, uniforms, and quite a few different supplies necessary to the Crown. King Henry VIII ordered farmers to dedicate a share of their land to rising hemp, or they might face a positive.
  • 1563 – late 1500s: Queen Elizabeth I prolonged King Henry VIII’s decree and elevated the penance to £5 for not complying. At this level nevertheless, farmers have been reportedly sick of rising the plant, because the processing of hemp for fibre (also called ‘retting’) left ‘foul odours’, and farmers may reportedly earn extra money by rising a spread of different crops. Thus started a decline in hemp farming within the UK.
  • 1597: Regardless of being related to demonic herbalism, hashish’ medicinal benefits have been featured within the publication Natural of John Gerard.

“[It] consumeth wind and drieth up seed [semen]” – Excerpt from Natural of John Gerard

 

  • Early 1600s: British colonies in Canada and Virginia started to develop hemp.
  • 1653: Hashish’ many medicinal makes use of — together with as an antiseptic, anti-inflammatory and antispasmodic — have been included in a model of the London Faculty of Physicians’ Pharmacopoeia revealed by botanist, herbalist and physicist Nicholas Culpeper.

Victorian period: medication match for a Queen 

 

  • 1830s: Scotsman William Brooke O’Shaunghnessy found the medicinal properties of hashish whereas finding out in India. O’Shaunghnessy was influential in bringing ‘Indian hemp’ (Hashish indica) to the UK as a drugs for a spread of illnesses. 
  • Mid-late 1800s: As the recognition of Hashish indica as a drugs elevated, it grew to become an everyday staple of physicians and medical practitioners. For the primary time, hashish was out there in tinctures, capsules and extracts.
  • 1890: Queen Victoria’s private doctor, Sir Russell Reynolds, was a agency believer in hashish medication and prescribed hashish for the Queen’s menstrual cramps. 
  • 1894: After in depth commentary of hashish use in India, the India Hemp Medication Fee really helpful that hashish must be taxed and controlled somewhat than prohibited, citing ‘how little harm society has hitherto sustained from hemp medicine’. The Indian Hemp Medication Fee Report concludes that Hashish has quite a lot of constructive medical, emotional and social advantages.
  • 1899: British pharmacologist Walter Ernest Dixon revealed a paper on ‘the pharmacology of Hashish indica’, the place he not solely describes hashish as a ‘meals accent’, however was additionally one of many first to level out how smoking hashish can elicit extra instant results than various consumption strategies. 

“In instances the place an instantaneous impact is desired the drug must be smoked, the fumes being drawn via water. In suits of despair, psychological fatigue, nervous headache, and exhaustion a number of inhalations produce an virtually instant impact, the sense of despair, headache, feeling of fatigue disappear and the topic is enabled to proceed his work, feeling refreshed and soothed” – excerpt from The pharmacology of Hashish indica

 

  • Late 1800s: Regardless of extra recognition from the medical neighborhood round the advantages of hashish, it was nonetheless not broadly used within the nineteenth century. Across the identical time, a stigma started to kind in opposition to its use. That is usually linked to colonial prejudices and normal racism in opposition to native populations and the way they have been perceived to eat or use hashish. 

Demon drug: getting into the trendy period of hashish prohibition

 

  • 1923: The League of Nations known as for tighter controls over hashish use. Britain, nevertheless, requested for extra proof earlier than any controls have been imposed, primarily as a result of constructive findings of the India Hemp Medication Fee.
  • 1928: The Harmful Medication Act grew to become regulation, making leisure hashish use unlawful in Nice Britain. Regardless of hashish nonetheless being medically authorized, docs reportedly misplaced curiosity in prescribing hashish because it grew to become more and more considered as a harmful drug somewhat than a useful medication.
  • 1952: The primary UK ‘hashish bust’ occurred on the Quantity 11 Membership, Soho.
  • 1967: Keith Richards and Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones have been caught with hashish and sentenced to jail for marijuana possession. The identical 12 months, greater than 3,000 individuals joined a mass ‘Smoke-In’ at London’s Hyde Park. 
  • 1968 – 1969: A committee arrange by the Dwelling Workplace concluded that hashish is no more harmful than alcohol or tobacco and really helpful that restrictions on use must be lifted. They weren’t. As an alternative, the 1969 Misuse of Medication Act in England instated a most of 5 years’ imprisonment for hashish possession.
  • Nineteen Seventies: Reputation of Bob Marley and Rastafarian artists within the UK highlights a religious, spiritual use of hashish.
  • 1971 and 1979: An Advisory Council on the Misuse of Medication [ACMD] was created to information authorities coverage. In 1979, the Council recommended decreasing the classification of hashish to class C beneath the Misuse of Medication Act. The federal government didn’t abide by the advice.
  • 1980 and 1991: Over 20,000 hashish convictions have been handed out within the UK in 1980. The quantity greater than doubled in 1991, reaching 42,209.
  • 1992: The Dwelling Workplace lifted restrictions on hemp cultivation and Hemcore grew to become the primary British firm to legally develop industrial hemp.
  • 1993 and 1998: Dwelling Secretary Michael Howard elevated most fines for possession from £500 to £2,500, emphasising the ‘prison’ nature of hashish. 4 years later, The Impartial on Sunday newspaper launched a ‘decriminalise hashish’ marketing campaign.
  • 1998: When visiting a daycare Prince Charles requested a lady affected by MS whether or not she had tried hashish to assist ease ache attributable to her situation. He reportedly mentioned one thing alongside the traces of, “I perceive that beneath strict medical supervision, it is without doubt one of the greatest issues for it.”
  • 2001 – 2009: Dwelling Secretary David Blunkett moved hashish from Class B to Class C, making possession a non-arrestable offence. In 2004, this was formalised into regulation. In 2009, it went again to being Class B beneath the reasoning that it was extra dangerous to the physique than beforehand thought. 
  • 2018: Medical hashish was legalised within the UK following two excessive profile media campaigns which centred round youngsters with life-threatening epileptic seizures who had skilled important enhancements from hashish.
  • 2022: A cohort of conservative police commissioners known as for hashish to be reclassified as a Class A drug, calling it simply as dangerous as cocaine and citing the ‘gateway drug’ argument. In response to a Dwelling Workplace supply, Dwelling Secretary Suella Braverman was ‘receptive’ to the reclassification.

Cannabis by Nellie

Primarily based on findings within the e-book, Cannabis: Evolution and Ethnobotany by Mark Merlin and Robert Connell Clarke, in addition to extra historic and up to date sources. 

 

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