Archaeologists have discovered from the sites where prehistoric hunters and gatherers lived, to ancient China and Viking ships, that cannabis has been used across the world for ages. In the video above “Cannabis History & American Betrayal” helps provide insight into an American Betrayal of enormous proportions.
Cannabis use originated thousands of years ago in Asia, and has since found its way to many regions of the world, eventually spreading to the Americas and the United States.
For the most part, it was widely used for medicine and spiritual purposes, during pre-modern times. For example, the Vikings and medieval Germans used cannabis for relieving pain during childbirth and even for toothaches.
CBD aka Cannabidiol from Hemp has been shown to help with a variety of medical conditions including PTSD, Depression, Chronic Pain & more.
Fast Forward to the Current State of Cannabis
In the last five years, eight states have legalized recreational marijuana. To many, continued progress seems certain. But pot was on a similar trajectory forty years ago, only to encounter a fierce backlash. In Grass Roots, historian Emily Dufton tells the remarkable story of marijuana’s crooked path from acceptance to demonization and back again, and of the thousands of grassroots activists who made changing marijuana laws their life’s work.
During the 1970’s, pro-pot campaigners with roots in the counterculture secured the drug’s decriminalization in a dozen states. Soon, though, concerned parents began to mobilize; finding a champion in Nancy Reagan, they transformed pot into a national scourge and helped to pave the way for an aggressive war on drugs. Chastened marijuana advocates retooled their message, promoting pot as a medical necessity and eventually declaring legalization a matter of racial justice. For the moment, these activists are succeeding–but marijuana’s history suggests how swiftly another counterrevolution could unfold.
One of the most important relationships that human beings have with plants is changing our consciousness–consider the plants that give us coffee, tea, chocolate, and nicotine. Sacred Bliss challenges traditional attitudes about cannabis by tracing its essential role in the spiritual and curative traditions of Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and the Americas from prehistory to the present day. In highlighting the continued use of cannabis around the globe, Sacred Bliss offers compelling evidence of cannabis as an entheogen used for thousands of years to evoke peak-experiences, or moments of expanded perception or spiritual awareness.
Today, the growing utilization of medical cannabis to alleviate the pain and symptoms of physical illness raises the possibility of using cannabis to treat the mind along with the body. By engaging sacred and secular texts from around the world, Sacred Bliss demonstrates that throughout religious history, cannabis has offered access to increased imagination and creativity, heightened perspective and insight, and deeper levels of thought.
