12 Things You Didn’t Know About Cannabis
Even if you consider yourself a “weed nerd,” there’s a lot of interesting trivia about cannabis that will probably surprise you. Check out this list of entertaining cannabis facts and see how many you know!
Henry Ford’s designed a car that was not only built to run on hemp but was partially built from hemp as well. His invention was more fuel-efficient, flexible and earth-friendly than cars built from steel. Unfortunately, the car didn’t pan out and the formula for his agricultural plastic panels was lost.
Hemp is cannabis containing less than 1% THC.
Marijuana only became illegal in the United States during 1937.
Betsy Ross’ first American flag was made from hemp.
In 2010, police made arrests for marijuana at a staggering rate of 1 every 37 SECONDS. Most of these arrests were not kingpins or high-level dealers but average citizens possessing small amounts of cannabis. In some states, black people are almost 10X more likely to be arrested for cannabis although blacks and whites use it at the same rates. Go ask the ACLU.
There has never been a recorded death from a cannabis overdose. You’d have to smoke 1500lbs of weed in under 15 minutes. Do not try.
Cannabis can grow anywhere from 1-2 inches to 6 inches per day in ideal growth conditions.
During the Indian and Nepalese festival of Holi, celebrants consume a drink called bhang which contains cannabis. The religious rite of drinking bhang is thought to cleanse sins, unite one with Shiva and avoid the miseries of hell in the future life. Sounds legit.
Rastafari in Jamaica use cannabis in long-stemmed water pipes called “chalices” during ceremonies to bring them closer to God and have a more open mind during community discussions.
Stanford students in the early 1970s did the first online drug deal using ARPANET (an early form of the Internet) to sell cannabis to friends at MIT.
An unlucky man by the name of Samuel Caldwell was the first person convicted of selling cannabis under the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937. He was sentenced to four years of hard labor, served every day and died the year after he was released. All for two joints.
According to NASA, who’s apparently in charge of getting insects high on drugs, found that spiders exposed to marijuana were easily distracted and often gave up building their webs before they were done.
Now you know more about cannabis than you did before!