Once championed as a wondrous healing tool and robust industrial fibre, cannabis went on to be labelled as a danger to society to be avoided at all costs.
Many Eastern cultures have been harvesting the medicinal and industrial properties of this plant for thousands of years – long before it first came to the UK.
The earliest documented use of the cannabis plant for medicinal purposes dates back to 2800 BC when it was listed in Emperor Shen Nung’s pharmacopoeia.
It is believed that the plant was utilised for its durable fibre to make textiles and ropes, but there are no sources that confirm or deny the use of cannabis for its psychoactive properties.
It declared that those with land must dedicate a quarter of an acre for every 60 acres to grow hemp, or they would face a fine.
Aside from the industrial uses of hemp, it is also believed that cannabis was used for its medicinal and more recreational, psychoactive purposes in Elizabethan England.
He met with Robert Hooke in 1689 to obtain a sample of the plant, which Hooke called the “intoxicating leaf and seed” that was “accounted wholesome, though for a time it takes away the memory and the understanding”.
The two strains differ in their cannabinoid content and physiological effects on the body; industrial hemp, in particular, is a class of Cannabis sativa with low levels of the psychoactive compound, THC.
The medicinal use of cannabis was more well-documented from the 19th century, the plant was even used by Queen Victoria to relieve her menstrual cramps.
Soon, much of the machinery used to make hemp fibre was shipped abroad, and local hemp textile production was lost.
In 1901, a Royal Commission concluded that cannabis is relatively harmless and not worth prohibiting, but the political events that followed completely disregarded this statement.
By 1920, the UK had made opium and cocaine illegal, but cannabis was not considered dangerous enough to be added to the list.
By 1950, there were more prosecutions for cannabis in the UK than for opium and other manufactured drugs combined.
The United Nations Single Convention on Narcotics Drugs treaty was organised in 1961; cannabis was said to have the same risk to public health as opiates and cocaine, and the World Health Organisation claimed that it had ‘no medical value’.
The UK soon followed in the footsteps of the US in their approach to drug policy; cannabis was classified as a Class B drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 – it became illegal to grow, produce, possess, or supply cannabis.
But, in 2009, fears of a link between cannabis use and psychosis prompted the government to move the drug back into class B.
At the time, there was an ironic parallel happening between the UK government clamping down on drug laws and the progressions of cannabis in modern medicine.
Then, in November 2018, the UK government changed legislation to permit the prescription of cannabis.
Despite the historic use of cannabis for its industrial, spiritual, and medicinal properties, it is struggling to shake its reputation as an illegal psychoactive drug.
She is a huge advocate for mental health, and her degree has opened her eyes to the therapeutic wonders of cannabinoids and psychedelics.