From China to India, then to North Africa and to Europe, marijuana has traveled all over the world. Eventually it had found its way across the ocean when it was brought over to the New World in the second part of the 16^th century. Marijuana was used not only as a drug – recreational or medicinal – but also as a great source of fiber. It did not last for long since the commercial world is always changing, so eventually hemp was replaced by cotton – it could be sold for more money than its predecessor. That had changed, but marijuana was still being used as a medicine – in the late 1800s it was prescribed for various conditions such as rheumatism, nausea, labor pains, etc. It was not the most popular treatment at the time because cocaine and opiates were also prescribed for similar conditions, and, let us face it – the effects of those drugs are much more potent than the effects from pot. Sometimes those drugs were prescribed together.

The Prohibition of 1920s made marijuana more popular as a recreational drug – it started out with jazz musicians and people in show business, and little by little spread out to be used in the middle and upper social classes. Instead of bars (that were prohibited to serve alcohol) people were hanging out in “tea pads” – marijuana clubs that did not bother authorities because cannabis was legal and people smoking it did not make a nuisance of themselves and were not disturbing surroundings as those who were drunk with alcohol.