7 Fun and Interesting Facts About Cannabis

1. George Washington Grew Hemp.

Our first president didn’t just defeat the British and help create what would eventually become the most powerful country on Earth.

He also grew hemp.

Hemp – which comes from the same plant family as medical/recreational cannabis but contains practically no THC – was considered a cash crop during the 18th century and was used to make clothes, paper, and rope.

2. The 17th Century Virginia Assembly Required Its Residents to Grow Hemp

The year was 1632, and the English navy needed hemp for their lines and sailcloth. So the Virginia Assembly required that every planter “provide seede of flaxe and hempe and sowe the same.”

3. Bhutan Has Way Too Much Wild Cannabis

In the Kingdom of Bhutan, cannabis is about as common as grass. It grows everywhere – in the wild, in cities — even in the cracks of sidewalks.

It’s used to feed pigs, but it’s commonly viewed as a pest. A real weed, we guess!

(Bad pun, we know. Good thing there’s only one more left in the entire post…)

4. Shakespeare Smoked Cannabis

“To toke, or not to toke. That is the question.”

Apparently, Shakespeare’s response to that question was, “Toke!”

Scientists found 400-year-old pipes in Shakespeare’s garden outside his home in Stratford-upon-Avon. Out of the 24 pipes they found, eight of them contained traces of cannabis.

Guess we finally know where his genius came from – at least, in part!

5. The Famous Trapped Chilean Miners Were Given Cannabis

Remember the Chilean mining accident back in 2010 in which 33 miners were trapped underground for 69 days?

People smuggled cannabis down to them to help them cope with the ordeal.

They were smoking so much that the government considered using a drug-sniffing dog to intercept the cannabis-filled letters that were being slipped down the rescue shaft.

6. Richard Nixon Unwittingly Helped Louis Armstrong Smuggle Cannabis Through U.S. Customs

We know.

It hardly seems believable, and the story may very well be made up.

But self-proclaimed agent provocateur and Nixon biographer Roger Stone says that Richard Nixon was a huge fan of Louis Armstrong.

So in 1958, when then Vice President Nixon was at a New York airport and happened to see a very nervous-looking Louis Armstrong (who happened to be carrying three pounds of cannabis in his suitcase) about to pass through customs inspection, Nixon walked over to him, offered to carry Armstrong’s bags, and just walked him past inspection without any trouble.