The question I want to answer is whether my ancestors were stoners.
Hemp seeds came to the New World with the earliest settlers in Virginia and New England. Britain's colonies were required to grow hemp. Even after the Revolution, patriotic duty compelled its cultivation. George Washington's diary contains this particularly juicy quotation: "Began to separate the male from the female plants rather too late ... Pulling up the (male) hemp. Was too late for the blossom hemp by three weeks or a month."
Seems like a clear-cut case, right? After all, marijuana farmers know that the female plants must be separated from the males to produce a more potent product.
Not so fast... There are two species of cannabis in common use: cannabis sativa L and cannabis sativa (without the L). The latter species is grown for marijuana. The former is used for hemp fiber, but contains only about 1 percent of THC, the active ingredient of marijuana. The colonists grew the hemp variety in massive quantities because it was crucial in making rope, and rope was essential to sailing ships.
And what about Washington's diary entry? ... Well, hemp that has already gone to seed (because the male pollen has fertilized the female flower) produces coarser fibers that are less useful in making rope.
Did the colonials use cannabis as a drug? ... They did boil the THC-less hemp seeds in milk as a cough suppressant, but for pain, there was no need for half-measures because opium was readily available. For recreational intoxication, cider was the drink of choice.
So how did marijuana find its way to America? We know that cannabis has been used for intoxicating purposes for at least 2600 years. The Portuguese brought it to Brazil to pacify slaves. The British industrialized it by growing it on plantations in India and exporting it to Guyana and Jamaica. They made money both by growing it and by taxing its consumption. Well into the 20th century, Jamaican company stores sold it to the plantation laborers. Refugees introduced it to the U.S. following the Mexican Revolution of 1910-1911.
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Mark Hay, "Marijuana's Early History in the United States," (an interview with Prof. Barney Warf, University of Kansas), https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/how-marijuana-came-the-united-states-456, viewed 20 April 2017.
James McClure, "Did George Washington Really Smoke Cannabis?", https://www.civilized.life/articles/george-washington-grow-smoke-marijuana/, viewed 20 April 2017.
Ben Swenson, "Hemp & Flax in Colonial American," Colonial Williamsburg Journal, Winter 2015, https://history.org/foundation/journal/Winter15/hemp.cfm, viewed 20 April 2017.
Oscar H. Will III, The Forgotten History of Hemp Cultivation in America, http://www.farmcollector.com/farm-life/strategic-fibers, viewed 20 April 2017.