60 Fun Facts About Marijuana

What did the five San Rafael high-schoolers who coined '420' in 1971 call themselves?

They named themselves for the wall outside school where they hung out. High Times later wrongly credited a police code before tracing the story back to them in 1998.

The originators of '420' agreed to meet at 4:20 p.m. by a school statue of which scientist?

Their code phrase was '4:20 Louis'. After repeated failures to find the crop, it shrank to '4:20' and came to mean smoking itself.

Followers of which band spread the phrase '420' beyond its home town in the 1970s and 80s?

One of the original group became a roadie for the band's bassist, Phil Lesh, and the term travelled with the tour.

Which country became the first in the modern era to legalise recreational cannabis, in December 2013?

President José Mujica signed the law; the plan let citizens grow their own for non-commercial use and licensed farmers for larger production.

On 17 October 2018 which nation became the first G7 country to legalise recreational cannabis nationwide?

The Cannabis Act made it only the second country in the world to do so. Its medical programme dated back to 2001, and prohibition to 1923.

Possession of up to how many grams of cannabis is decriminalised in the Netherlands?

Buyers must be 18 or over, and since 2013 the law technically limits entry to Dutch residents, though enforcement varies from town to town.

THC was first isolated in 1964 by Yehiel Gaoni and which 'godfather of cannabis research'?

His lab's later work led to the discovery of the endocannabinoid system. He won the Israel Prize for chemistry in 2000 and died in 2023.

The chemist who first isolated THC, a Hebrew University professor, was born in which country?

He was born in Sofia in 1930 to a Sephardic Jewish family; his physician father survived a concentration camp, and the family emigrated to Israel in 1949.

Cannabidiol (CBD) was first isolated and identified in 1940 by which American chemist?

Adams also documented the first synthesis of THC from CBD in 1942, decades before anyone isolated THC directly from the plant.

Epidiolex, the first FDA-approved CBD medicine, treats seizures linked to Dravet syndrome and which other?

In 2020 the label was widened to seizures from tuberous sclerosis complex. It remains the only prescription CBD product the FDA has approved.

Which first commissioner of the US Bureau of Narcotics drafted the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937?

Anslinger held the post for an unprecedented 32 years, until 1962, and popularised the Mexican-Spanish spelling 'marihuana' in his campaigns.

The 1937 tax act was struck down in 1969 in a Supreme Court case brought by which famous LSD advocate?

The court found that applying for the tax stamp forced a person to incriminate themselves, violating the Fifth Amendment. Congress replaced the act the next year.

The 1936 propaganda film later famous as Reefer Madness was originally released under what title?

All four names were used at some point as it toured the exploitation circuit, but Tell Your Children was the original. It ends with a teacher pointing at the camera.

Who originally financed the film that became Reefer Madness?

It was meant to be shown to parents as a morality tale. Producer Dwain Esper then recut it for the exploitation circuit, which is how it survived.

In 1972 NORML founder Keith Stroup bought a Library of Congress print of Reefer Madness for how much?

NORML screened it on California campuses for a dollar a head, raising $16,000 for a 1972 legalisation initiative, and the film became a midnight-movie staple.

Which state was the first to legalise medical marijuana, through Proposition 215 in 1996?

The Compassionate Use Act passed with 56% of the vote after Governor Pete Wilson had vetoed medical cannabis bills in successive years.

Which US state was the first to decriminalise cannabis possession, in 1973?

Eleven states followed between 1973 and 1978. Nevada did not even reduce possession to a misdemeanor until 2001.

In November 2012 which two states became the first in the world to vote to legalise recreational marijuana?

Both measures passed on 6 November 2012. Legal retail sales began in Colorado on 1 January 2014 and in Washington that July.

Colorado's Amendment 64 earmarks the first $40 million a year of marijuana tax for what?

The money goes to the Building Excellent Schools Today fund. Even so, by 2017 most Colorado municipalities had opted out of allowing retail sales.

The 1970 US Controlled Substances Act placed cannabis in which category, the most restrictive of five?

That category is defined as high abuse potential with no accepted medical use. Federal moves to shift cannabis to Schedule III began in 2024.

The Shafer Commission, created under Nixon to study marijuana, made what recommendation in 1972?

Chairman Raymond Shafer told Congress the criminal law was 'too harsh a tool' for personal possession. Nixon ignored the report.

Anandamide, the first endocannabinoid discovered in the human body, is named from a Sanskrit word meaning what?

It binds to the same CB1 receptors that THC does. Its partner molecule, 2-AG, is actually far more abundant in the brain.

The High Times Cannabis Cup, founded in 1988, was first held each November in which city?

Editor Steven Hager started it there in 1988. The first US edition was not held until 2010, after state medical laws made it possible.

High Times magazine (1974) was conceived as a one-off parody of which magazine?

Founder Tom Forçade swapped sex for marijuana; the centerfold became a cannabis plant, and the joke ran for decades.

From 1974 to 2016 the magazine was published by a company whose initials spelled THC. What was it called?

The pun was deliberate. The magazine also spun off High Times Books and High Times Records.

Hashish is made by collecting and compressing which part of the cannabis plant?

The stalked resin glands are called trichomes and carry THC in higher concentrations than raw flower. Morocco, Afghanistan and Lebanon are historic producers.

Comedy duo Cheech & Chong, an American and a Canadian, first met in 1969 in which city?

Their first film, Up in Smoke, arrived in 1978. Their 1973 album Los Cochinos won a Grammy for Best Comedy Recording.

In Up in Smoke (1978), the pair unknowingly drive a van across the border that is built entirely of what?

The film calls the material 'fiberweed', a play on fiberglass. Panned on release, it grossed over $104 million and invented the stoner-comedy genre.

Which record producer made his directorial debut with Up in Smoke?

Adler had produced the Mamas & the Papas and Carole King's Tapestry, and co-produced the Monterey Pop Festival, before turning to comedy.

Which island nation was the first EU member to legalise personal cannabis, in 2021?

Adults may carry seven grams and grow four plants; the country had earlier made news when cannabis saplings appeared in traffic roundabouts on Gozo.

Which country became the first major EU state to legalise recreational cannabis in 2024?

It was the ninth country in the world to legalise. Non-profit cannabis social clubs followed that July.

In 2022 which government announced it would give away one million free cannabis plants to households?

The country had already become the first in Asia to legalise medical cannabis in 2018, and delisted the plant as a narcotic in June 2022.

The Jamaican word 'ganja' arrived with indentured labourers brought to the island in the 1850s and 60s from where?

Cannabis was banned there under the 1913 Ganja Law. Possession of small amounts was finally reduced to a petty offence in 2015.

Rastafari treat the smoking of ganja as what?

It is smoked at communal 'groundations' alongside drumming and reasoning. Rastas call the plant 'the holy herb', among other names.

The word 'marijuana' is believed to have entered English in its current form from which language?

One theory traces it further back to a Nahuatl word for 'prisoner'; another to Chinese ma ren hua, 'hemp seed flower'. Anslinger pushed the spelling in the 1930s.

The word 'cannabis' entered Persian, Greek and Latin from which ancient horse-riding people?

The Greeks first learned about the plant by watching these nomads' funerals. Linnaeus fixed the Latin name in his 1753 Species Plantarum.

Which Greek historian, writing around 440 BC, described nomads throwing hemp seed onto hot stones in felt tents?

Hemp seeds later dug up at Pazyryk in Siberia backed up his account of steppe funeral rites two millennia later.

Which everyday English word for a heavy woven fabric is derived from 'cannabis'?

Hemp was the standard material for sailcloth for centuries, along with rope and rigging, which is why the fabric took the plant's name.

Under the 2018 US Farm Bill, hemp is cannabis with no more than what percentage of THC by dry weight?

That threshold removed hemp from the Controlled Substances Act and allowed federal commercial cultivation for the first time since 1937.

Besides sativa and indica, which third cannabis species do some botanists recognise?

It is often described as 'auto-flowering' because, unlike most cannabis, it may flower regardless of day length. Many botanists fold all three into one species.

Cannabis is described as a dioecious plant. What does that mean?

Growers prize unpollinated females, whose flowers hold most of the resin. Chinese texts recognised the male-female split as early as the 3rd century BC.

In which country's Pamir Mountains was the earliest evidence of cannabis smoking found, in 2,500-year-old tombs?

The Jirzankal Cemetery burners held cannabis residue on heated pebbles, apparently used in funeral rituals.

As of 2018, which African country ranked with the United States among nations with the highest adult cannabis use?

Nigeria was the other country in that top group. Cannabis remains by far the most widely used largely illegal drug on the planet.

Marinol, an FDA-approved THC capsule, is prescribed for chemotherapy nausea and what else?

The generic name is dronabinol. It contains no CBD or other cannabinoids, only the single THC molecule.

Sativex, GW Pharmaceuticals' cannabis mouth spray, is licensed mainly for which disease?

The UK licensed it in 2010 for MS spasticity. Its generic name is nabiximols and it was marketed with Bayer.

Charlotte Figi's family used the CBD strain Charlotte's Web to treat what?

The Stanley brothers bred it and pledged in 2014 to keep it below 0.3% THC. Her story pushed several states to pass CBD-only laws.

Which mythical Chinese emperor, the 'Divine Farmer', is credited with teaching people the plow and the use of cannabis?

He is also the legendary source of Chinese herbal medicine, said to have tasted hundreds of plants to test their effects.

Which ancient Indian text, from roughly 1500–1000 BC, lists bhanga among five sacred plants that relieve anxiety?

Scholars still debate whether that bhanga is today's bhang. The Sushruta Samhita, around 600 BC, recommends it for catarrh and diarrhoea.

Bhang, a cannabis drink, is traditionally shared during Maha Shivaratri and which spring festival?

It is served as bhang lassi or bhang thandai and is legal in many parts of India, where pakoras laced with it are also eaten at the festival.

In Hindu tradition, which god chose cannabis as his favourite food after sleeping under its leaves?

Eating the leaves in the morning is said to have refreshed him, which is why bhang is linked to his festival.

Which country's Supreme Court decriminalised recreational cannabis in June 2021 after Congress missed deadlines?

The court had first declared prohibition unconstitutional in October 2018 and repeatedly extended the deadline for lawmakers to act.

'Dagga', the South African word for cannabis, was adopted by Dutch settlers from which indigenous people's language?

South Africa's Constitutional Court decriminalised private use in 2018, and a 2024 act legalised it for adults.

The hybrid strain Blue Dream was created in 2003 by crossing Haze with which other strain?

Breeders give strains memorable names to stand out, though many are chemically very similar to their competitors.

Between 1973 and 1978, how many US states decriminalised marijuana?

The wave stalled in the Reagan years and did not resume in earnest until Nevada in 2001 and the legalisation votes of 2012.

According to the UNODC, cannabis oil may contain more than what percentage of THC?

Resin sits in between at up to 20%. Studies show illicit cannabis has grown steadily stronger since the 1970s, with THC rising and CBD falling.

The Assyrian word 'qunubu', a likely root of 'cannabis', meant what?

They learned of its psychoactive effects from the Iranians, who also passed the plant to the Scythians, Thracians and Dacians.

Which French physician founded the Paris Club des Hashischins in 1844?

He wrote on the drug's psychological effects after travelling through North Africa and the Middle East between 1836 and 1840.

Which colonial government banned cannabis in 1840 over its effect on Indian indentured workers?

Singapore followed in 1870; the first US restriction on cannabis sales came in the District of Columbia in 1906.

What share of people exposed to cannabis develop cannabis use disorder, according to DSM-5 figures?

The comparable rates are 20% for cocaine, 23% for alcohol and 68% for nicotine.

What milestone did a 2022 Gallup poll record about American smoking habits?

Separately, 2018 surveys found almost half of Americans had tried marijuana and 11% had used it in the past month.