Cannabis has become legal to consume in 18 US states in recent years. There’s no doubt that cannabis consumption is slowly becoming mainstream in the US and worldwide.
With that said, there’s still a lot of ignorance about the cannabis plant. Are you interested in learning some marijuana facts? If so, read on and check out five interesting facts about cannabis.
1. Cannabis Seeds Are in the Doomsday Vault
The Doomsday Vault is a facility in Norway where a huge variety of seeds are kept in storage. In the event of a global catastrophe such as a nuclear war, scientists will use seed samples stored in the vault to ensure no plants go extinct.
Scientists have thousands of different cannabis seeds in the vault. The seeds are frozen to make sure they’ll still be able to germinate for many years to come.
2. The Cannabis Plant Has Been Used for Thousands of Years
While you might think cannabis consumption started in the 1960s, the reality is quite different. Humans have been using the cannabis plant for various purposes for thousands of years. In fact, there is so much historical evidence of cannabis use that it’s challenging to establish precisely when humans first started using it. For example, there is a lot of evidence that humans used cannabis in Ancient China for things like rope and textiles.
3. The First Online Sale Was Cannabis
These days, it’s possible to do almost all of your shopping on the internet. You might be surprised to learn that the first e-commerce transaction in history was a cannabis sale. Reportedly, students from Stanford University used ARPANET (an early form of the internet) to purchase cannabis from students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
These days there is a huge range of online cannabis shops, for example, the Harvest House of Cannabis.
4. It Isn’t Legal in the Netherlands
While popular wisdom about cannabis consumption states that cannabis is totally legal in the Netherlands, this is actually untrue. Even though brick-and-mortar cannabis stores exist in the Netherlands, selling cannabis remains illegal. The stores are allowed to exist because the government has a policy of tolerating these kinds of shops.
This means you can run a cannabis shop without worrying about being prosecuted. With that said, cannabis growing operations are still shut down by the Dutch police.
5. It’s Totally Legal in Uraguay
Since cannabis consumption is technically illegal in the Netherlands, this makes Uraguy the first country on earth to totally legalize cannabis. In Uraguay, it’s perfectly legal to grow, sell or consume cannabis. Before you start booking your trip, there’s one caveat – only citizens of Uraguy are permitted to buy. This means it’s still forbidden for you to indulge as a tourist.
The Evolution of Cannabis
As you can see from these marijuana facts, the cannabis plant has a long and interesting history. With countries such as Germany considering full legalization, it seems that the future looks bright for cannabis smokers around the world. If you want to learn more about some other cannabis-related topics, take a look at some of our other blog posts.