10 Fun Facts About Cannabis 

There’s a lot more to know about cannabis than the correct way to smoke it. It’s likely the world will never completely unlock all of the secrets hidden within this miraculous plant. Over the years, however, legions of cannabis lovers, scientists, and historians have compiled an ever-growing array of cannabis facts.

Some of them are fascinating, some are funny, and some help debunk long-held myths about cannabis . Whether readers are enjoying this for a few minutes’ of entertainment or to one-up their friends the next time they gather for a smoke session, these cannabis facts aren’t to be missed.

To better understand how the famed 4.35-ton heads of Easter Island were transported from their quarry to their present locations, archaeologists recreated the moai in 2012. Theorists have proposed using log rollers or even alien assistance to finish the work, but in 2012, archaeologist Carl Lipo of California State University demonstrated that hemp rope was all that was required. The stone heads were moved 100 meters in less than an hour by connecting three hemp ropes to the statue and having a group of 18 people rock it back and forth until it “walked”.

In his book, “The Cannabis Manifesto,” Steve DeAngelo describes how indigenous Mexicans called hemp flowers, which the Spanish had brought with them to make ropes and candles, “pipiltzintzintlis,” which means “the noblest princess” in Nahuatl and which these indigenous people used for medicinal purposes during colonial times. The pipiltzintzintlis didn’t stop being sold in Mexican markets until the Spanish forbade it, at which point they hid among the populace.

To evade prosecution for their possession, DeAngelo claims that those who participated in civil disobedience and continued to use pipiltzintzintl just referred to it as “cannabis,” which in Nahuatl means “items of Mary” or religious goods

“In 1971 or 1972, Stanford students used accounts from the university’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory to conduct a business transaction with their counterparts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,” according to John Markoff’s 2005 book “What the Dormouse Said: How the 60s Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry” (MIT). The first electronic transaction, prior to Amazon and eBay, was students secretly agreeing to the sale of an unspecified quantity of cannabis via the ARPANET network. The American Department of Defense established the ARPANET, a computer network that served as the Internet’s foundation up until 1990.

The Yamnaya were nomads who came to Europe from the eastern steppe region in what is now Russia and Ukraine about 5,000 years ago. They brought metallurgy, livestock, and perhaps Indo-European languages with them. As they learned how adaptable the plant was, employing it as a source of raw materials, and medicine, and even to profit from its hallucinogenic powers, they were also in charge of starting the first transcontinental cannabis trade.

The domestication of the horse and the Yamnaya’s knowledge of the wheel enabled them to use a revolutionary invention at the time: a cart pulled by animals. This invention allowed them to travel long distances with heavy loads of supplies and led to one of the largest population movements in recorded history. As they moved around Europe, they helped make cannabis use more common.

Hemp played a significant role in Japanese ceremonial practice, both then and now. For instance, the samurai, or warrior nobility of pre-industrial Japan, demonstrated the influence of cannabis fiber in disciplines like aikido (a martial art), kyudo (archery), and chanoyu (tea ceremony). A story about an experience where ninjas (warriors) use cannabis plants to improve their jumping abilities reflects the close relationship between hemp and these old Japanese techniques. So, when they first began exercising, they planted hemp and worked hard to jump on it every day. At first, it is not difficult, but as hemp grows quickly, the ninja’s ability to jump also does. The fighter had a 3-meter hemp leap at the end of the season.

The rapper who was assassinated in Las Vegas in 1996 is regarded by many as one of the most significant rappers of all time. The Outlawz hip-hop group, however, took the lyrics of his song “Black Jesus” seriously during the memorial service conducted in his honor soon after and combined his ashes with a cannabis cigarette. “I came up with that garbage,” his bandmate EDI Mean said. Black Jesus says: “Last wishes, niggas smoke my ashes” if you listen to him. “And we took it very seriously, since we mixed it with grass and smoked it in his honor!” the song sang.

In his book “Nixon’s Secrets,” Richard Nixon’s biographer Roger Stone claims that the former president was a huge fan of Louis Armstrong, who was dubbed a “Goodwill Ambassador” in the late 1950s and was touring Europe and Asia at the time. He was however directed to the customs line when he arrived in New York in 1958 following one of those concerts because the officials thought he could smuggle: he had roughly 1 kilogram of cannabis in his suitcase. Armstrong began to perspire heavily once he realized he was going to be detained. As soon as the doors opened, Vice President Richard Nixon and a number of reporters and photographers entered the space.

What are you doing here, Satchmo? Surprised, Nixon enquired. Well, they told me I had to clear customs after returning from my goodwill ambassador tour to Asia. Nixon grabbed his two suitcases without thinking. Nixon, unknowingly acting as Armstrong’s mule, added, “Ambassadors don’t have to go through customs and the vice president of the United States will gladly carry their bags.”

If you’ve ever read “The Hobbit” or “Lord of the Rings” by JRR Tolkien, you surely recall that the hobbits of Middle-earth enjoy smoking reputed “pipe-weed.” Longbottom Leaf, Old Toby, and Southern Star are some of the names given to it that some cannabis breeders would adopt for their kinds much later. The book’s appendices state that Tolkien was referring to tobacco, not cannabis. What is evident is that Peter Jackson depicted this herb as having psychoactive properties in the movie version. In reality, it is evident in a number of passages, but particularly in the one where Saruman criticizes Gandalf’s smoking behavior in the following manner:

“Your love for the leaf of the middle has clearly muddled your mind.” ​

Do you recall the 2010 San José mine catastrophe in Chile, which left 33 miners stranded there for 69 days? In fact, several of them reportedly received cannabis in their spouses’ letters to help them cope with the hardship, according to The New York Times reporter Jonathan Franklin’s book “33 Men.” They were puffing so much that the authorities thought of using a drug-detecting dog to catch the cannabis letters slipping down the rescue well. As some survivors claim, cannabis did not have the relaxing effects it was meant to have since it had been seized by a small number of miners who would not distribute it. As a result, this would have led to “more stress than relaxation.”

The most costly joint ever made is fashioned like an elephant’s tusk and is nearly one meter long. It was ordered by Stone Road Farms, a business that specializes in organic pre-rolled joints. It was produced for a fundraising auction in 2018 to benefit the African Wildlife Foundation. According to Forbes magazine, Weavers, a well-known “stoner” artist who already owns the record for one of the largest joints in the world (not the largest bud in the world), rolled the joint after a Hollywood prop designer was unable to finish the job. It has three layers of 24-carat gold Shine rolling paper in addition to roughly 1 kg of hashish and weed.