Do you know that cannabis sativa is an annual herbaceous flowering plant or that:
Hemp and marijuana are distinct cultivars that derive from cannabis sativa;
Marijuana contains higher levels of THC, a psychoactive intoxicative compound;
Hemp contains 0.3% or less by dry weight of THC;
Jamestown settlers introduced hemp to colonial America in the early 1600s and imposed fines on those who didn’t produce the crop;
Colonial massacres and the confinement of Native Americans to reservations began in 1610;
The first documented arrival of enslaved Africans to what became the US occurred in August 1619;
The following US politicians cultivated hemp:
Henry Clay;
Benjamin Franklin;
Thomas Jefferson;
James Madison; and
George Washington;
The cannabis sativa plant species was first classified by Carl Linnaeus (1753);
Credited with making the first official US flag, Betsy Ross used hemp (1776);
The Indian Removal Act was passed in 1830;
The forced migration -aka- Trail of Tears occurred during the 1830s and 1840s;
The 13th Amendment to the US Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except for punishment for a crime, on December 6, 1865;
Hemp remained a prominent crop in the US until 1937;
To regulate the manufacture, distribution, and possession of controlled substances, the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 (CSA) was enacted;
Marijuana is classified as a Schedule I controlled substance and is federally illegal;
California was the first state to legalize marijuana for medical use when voters approved Proposition 215/the Compassionate Use Act of 1996;
Colorado and Washinton-State were the first to legalize recreational marijuana use (2012);
The 2018 Farm Bill removed hemp from the definition of marijuana, effectively legalizing it at the federal level;
The US cannabis industry is estimated to reach $45 billion this calendar year;
California reported $4.7+ billion in adult-use and medical cannabis sales (December 2024);
Colorado reported $1.3+ billion in adult use and medical cannabis sales (December 2024);
Between 2013 and 2025, Colordo’s combined reported cannabis sales exceeded $16 billion;
There are approximately 2.9 million persons who self-identify as Native American (December 2024);
There are approximately 48.3 million persons who self-identify as Black American (December 2024);
There are 574 federally recognized Native American tribes, with 350 in the contiguous 48 states;
There are 109 federally recognized Native American tribes in California;
There are 2 federally recognized Native American tribes in Colorado;
There are approximately 15,000 marijuana dispensaries across the US (April 2025);
There are 57 tribally owned marijuana dispensaries in the US (May 2024);
Black cannabis entrepreneurs account for less than 2% of the nation's marijuana businesses (December 2021);
Simply Pure, founded by military veterans Wanda James and Scott Durrah, is the first Black-owned and woman-owned cannabis dispensary in the US; or
Viola Brands, founded by former NBA player Al Harrington, is considered the largest Black-owned cannabis brand?
Thank you for sharing this information. It still gets me how they haven't made it legal in all states. A person could be free to smoke it in one state because it's legal, but it could be one state over where another person could be in prison for it because it's illegal. It's crazy and lopsided to me.
Fascinating!