by Dan Ketchum
As the University of Sydney reminds us, cannabis was part of Emperor Shen Nung’s pharmacopeia as early as 2800 B.C. — so, yeah, it’s pretty easy to imagine that a whole lot has changed for our favorite plant all across the spectrum, from cultivation to culture. On the ground level, the way we grow and extract cannabis has experienced a condensed, rapid change in the past five decades compared to the previous millennia, much of which goes hand in hand with how it has been culturally maligned or celebrated over the decades.
Weed From the ‘70s: Imports Rule
Even decades past the hysteria of “Reefer Madness,” cannabis was still far from accepted in the United States of the 1970s. In 1970, Congress passed the Controlled Substances Act, which classified marijuana as an illegal drug with “no accepted medical use” and a “high potential for abuse,” both concepts that the succeeding years would prove untrue. Despite petitions to legalize, the early ‘70s were also the beginning of the conservative propaganda movement the U.S. government called the “war on drugs.”
At the time, most users smoked weed that was illegally imported from source countries, commonly Columbia, which was less potent than today’s cannabis. According to Leafly, this is mostly down to two key factors: the imported bricks of cannabis were often a mixture of leaves, stems, flowers and other plant parts, and the weed lost much of its potency on the multi-country journey from farm to consumer. Alongside aggressive laws, though, lesser-known legislation did allow certain universities and scientific organizations to grow weed for research purposes, laying the early groundwork for the development of modern cultivation methods.
Weed From the ‘80s: Home Grown
As a comprehensive overview in the journal EchoGéo notes, the runoff of counter-culturalists eventually led to the significant proliferation of home-grown weed in the hills of Northern California and Southern Oregon in the 1980s, creating a cottage industry that provided much of the product for the nation’s estimated 20 million cannabis users in 1985. Around this time frame, Humboldt and Mendocino counties were growing annual crops worth up to $400 million. Quality, and likewise potency, of American cannabis would continue to rise from here, as locally grown weed contained less filler, more flower and more focus on the curation of unique strains. Per Insider, THC concentration in weed from the ‘80s was about 2%, roughly speaking.
In the 1980s, cannabis also made its first appearance in medical treatments for various conditions, from nausea to cancer, per ProCon. In 1988, the first evidence of CB1 cannabinoid receptors was discovered in the rat brain. This discovery served as a pivotal foundation for our understanding of the endocannabinoid system and how cannabis naturally interacts with our bodies’ own cannabinoid receptors.
Weed From the ‘90s: Indoor Tech
By 1993, we’d already discovered CB2 receptors, and over time, this expanded knowledge of the endocannabinoid system (ECS) would influence cultivation as growers sought strains and blends that would heighten interaction with the ECS. Simultaneously, continued Drug Enforcement Agency and local crackdowns on outdoor growing drove many growers indoors, leading to the rise of grow lights, indoor grow labs and hydroponic systems for cultivation. In 1997, the average THC concentration in confiscated marijuana had risen to about 4.5%.
Not only would the late ‘90s continue to yield expanded research on the ECS and indoor cultivation, but California’s Compassionate Use Act of 1996 shifted the narrative by legalizing medical marijuana in the state. In 1998, professors Mechoulam and Shabat first posited the notion of the “entourage effect,” the thesis that the synergy of a variety of cannabinoids working in tandem can enhance marijuana’s overall effect (and a concept that our triple-strain blends continue to leverage).
The 2000s to Today
The ‘10s and early ‘20s continued to be a hotbed for ECS research, but invigorating new studies brought a new contender to the mainstream: CBD (or cannabidiol, a non-psychoactive component of cannabis), which from around 2012 to 2017 was shown to soothe some symptoms caused by schizophrenia and lessen the severity of seizures in a number of reputable studies — the U.S. government even dedicated $3 million to CBD research in 2019. And while the particulars of concentration legality vary, as of 2022, the CFAH notes that CBD is legal or conditionally legal in all 50 states. Today, the combination of legalization, widespread research and 50 years of mainstream cultivation knowledge puts us squarely in a golden age of cannabis.
The 21st Century: Legalization and Technology
In the early 2000s, as the Washington Post recapped, eight US states passed comprehensive medical marijuana laws. By 2010, more than a dozen U.S. states had legalized medical marijuana, while nine states had legalized recreational marijuana, leading a sea change for the leaf’s cultural widespread perception. California once again led the charge with recreational legalization in 2016. As of early 2022, cannabis is recreationally legal in 18 states and medically legal in 36.
On the tech front, the Cannabis Industry Journal calls technology the “leading driver of change” in the post-2000s cannabis landscape. In the past two decades, we’ve witnessed efforts such as nanoencapsulation making edibles more effective than ever before and trends like micro-dosing empowering cannabis users to better quantify exactly the dosage they consume. App-based, online and delivery purchasing have also exploded, further proliferating the bud and encouraging both destigmatization and accessibility, while tech-driven cultivation innovations like “Internet of Things”-driven agricultural sensors and detailed tracing methods that track plants from seed to sale have engineered cannabis to an unforeseen quality.
Looking Forward
Compared to weed from the ‘70s, the widespread belief that weed today is stronger is actually true (though not to the comical extent anti-legalization pundits would argue), largely because our legally and expertly cultivated weed now typically contains much more of the feminized flower, high-THC sensimilla, that produces most of cannabis’ desirable effects, per Vice and other sources. In the year 2000, only 3.2% of sampled cannabis derived from the sensimilla; by 2010, that figure rocketed up to 60%.
Here at Mistifi, we rely on cutting-edge technological methods like Hi-Phi extraction, a low-temperature high-pressure extraction that preserves natural THC and terpene ratios, and Cantography, rapid plant mapping tech that empowers us to ensure widespread consistency. Tech playing in tandem with factors like broadening legalization, a rapidly growing pool of research, massive mainstream adoption and a newfound enthusiasm for cannabis have revolutionized everything from cultivation to hybridization to extraction, and it’s only going to get better from here.
Dan Ketchum is an LA-based freelance lifestyle, fashion, health and food writer with more than a decade of experience. He’s been fortunate enough to collaborate and publish with companies such as FOCL, Vitagenne, Livestrong, Reign Together, Out East Rosé, SFGate, The Seattle Times and more.
Sources
The University of Sydney — History of Cannabis
OpenEdition Journals — EchoGeo: American Weed: A History of Cannabis Cultivation in the United States
Leafly — Why Is Cannabis Now So Different From 1970s Cannabis?
Vice — Weed Is Way Stronger Than It Used To Be. That’s Why It Should Be Legal
ProCon — History of Marijuana as Medicine – 2900 BC to Present
Business Insider – Has Marijuana Actually Got Stronger Since the 1980s? Here’s What the Science Says
The Washington Post — A History of Marijuana Laws in the United States
The Center for Advancing Health — Is CBD Oil Legal? Legal Status of CBD in 50 States in 2022
Cannabis Industry Journal — Technological Evolution of the Cannabis Industry
Irish Tech News — 4 Technologies Driving the Cannabis Industry Forward