Though it is supposed that people were farming hemp as far back as 10,000 BCE, the oldest known hard evidence of humans using cannabis is 8000 BCE (Pisanti, 2019). Tiny fossils of both the fruits and seeds impressed upon broken pieces of pottery were found in central Japan when the culture of the Jomon was most prevalent (Okazaki et al., 2011). Source

"According to the Pen Ts’ao Ching cannabis flowers, or Mafen, can cause yin, or loss, corresponding to the ridding of things like rheumatic pain, and malaria (Li, 1975).

Emperor Shen Nung (2700 BCE), deified by Chinese religion, is credited as having brought agriculture to Chinese civilization. It is recorded in an ancient document called the Xia Xiao Zheng that Shen Nung encouraged the cultivation of cereals, but also the cultivation of hemp as a principal crop (Yu, 1987). Those aforementioned discoveries made in Pan-p’o indicate that enough cannabis was being cultivated to impact the local pollen patterns at the time, further bolstering the fact that weed was a principal crop (Chou, 1963). It is surmised that mostly fiber-rich weed, rather than THC-rich stuff, was cultivated for the purpose of creating textiles like rope, paper, and fishing nets during this time (Dai, 1989)." - Source

India also utilized hemp for textile, rope, and more.

The U.S. census records thousands of hemp plantations producing rope, fabric, and paper.

The linen, which dates back 9,000 years, was found as part of the latest dig, which involved 120 people from 22 different countries, and was one of the most striking findings of the season, particularly due to its high level of preservation." - Source

The Mesopotamians were most likely importing cannabis from Bactria (modern-day Afghanistan and Turkmenistan), where Zoroastrian priests used the plant to make Haoma, a religious drink (Vedic: Soma)." - Source

"In 1619 the Virginia Assembly passed legislation requiring every farmer to grow hemp. Hemp was allowed to be exchanged as legal tender in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland." - Source

"During the Great Depression, massive unemployment increased public resentment and fear of Mexican immigrants, escalating public and governmental concern about the problem of marijuana. This instigated a flurry of research which linked the use of marijuana with violence, crime and other socially deviant behaviors, primarily committed by "racially inferior" or underclass communities. By 1931, 29 states had outlawed marijuana." - Source

"A 1936 American exploitation film about drugs, revolving around the melodramatic events that ensue when high school students are lured by pushers to try marijuana – upon trying it, they become addicted, eventually leading them to become involved in various crimes such as a hit and run accident, manslaughter, murder, conspiracy to murder and attempted rape. While all this is happening, they suffer hallucinations, descend into insanity, associate with organized crime and (in one character's case) commit suicide." - Source

"Congress repealed most of the mandatory penalties for drug-related offenses. It was widely acknowledged that the mandatory minimum sentences of the 1950s had done nothing to eliminate the drug culture that embraced marijuana use throughout the 60s, and that the minimum sentences imposed were often unduly harsh." - Source

"The U.S. begins to import food-grade hemp seed and oil." - Source