CANNABIS HAS BEEN GROWING ON THIS PLANET for thousands, maybe millions of years, quite some time before human intervention. Cannabis can be grown nearly anywhere as long as the temperature is not consistently cold and there is enough sunlight and food for the plant to flourish. In Asia, you can travel to various regions around Mongolia and visit the cannabis plant growing naturally on hillsides and across vast plains, sometimes covering entire hill faces and spreading across the valley below. The origins of cannabis are not entirely clear, but biologists and cannabis researchers generally agree that the plant first took root somewhere in the Himalayas.

The cannabis plant has managed to travel across the globe without the involvement of humans. Marijuana seeds have been carried by the wind, in bird droppings and has attached itself to animals that trek over long distances, thus globally dispersing the plant, naturally.
Today, human intervention has forced the cannabis plant to be grown under more controlled conditions and in areas where the plant would not have previously existed. It is estimated that there are between two and twelve different cannabis strains growing wild in countries that have not culled the plant, but there could be more. These wild strains, known as landrace strains, are often cultivated by local residents for their hemp material and herbal qualities. The Afghani plant, which has been used by many a cannabis plant breeder to create strains like Kush, Master Kush and the Hash Plant, is a well-known landrace strain. Farmed hybrid strains often make their way back into the wild, creating new landrace strains. In Afghanistan in particular, there are now several different strains of Afghani growing in the wild.

Wild cannabis plants are rarer in countries that have tried to eliminate the plant by burning fields and conditioning woodlands. In certain countries the cannabis plant has been identified as a dangerous drug and has been all but eradicated by government and law-enforcement officials. It is treated as a noxious weed that induces social, mental and physical problems. Despite the fact that the reasoning behind these attitudes is not well founded, the cull of cannabis continues. Highly adaptable, however, the cannabis plant has survived these attempts at eradication in secret indoor and outdoor grow spaces around the world.

Cannabis was used for many things other than the extraction of tetrahydro-cannabinol (THC).* Until the late 1800s or early 1900s our ancestors used hemp to make clothing and various materials, from paper and rope to fuel. Hemp is a strong, durable material that can withstand large amounts of stress and is widely regarded as one of the best materials for producing fabrics. A pair of pants made from hemp will stand the test of time and be far superior to cotton. This should provide some clues as to why the fabric industry wanted to stop the cultivation of marijuana in the late 1800s. Hemp-fabric products last longer than cotton-fabric products; thus buyers purchase less over a longer period of time.
Although cannabis prohibition is a booming industry that creates jobs and capital, if cannabis were decriminalized these lost jobs and profits could be derived.