THE HISTORY OF HEMP IN AMERICA Hemp is often marred by misinformation, paranoia, and outright scare tactics. From decades-long baseless propaganda to laws banning the cultivation, use, or sale of marijuana. Good Times In 1611, Jamestown settlers brought the hemp plant to America. They used it to make ropes and cloth, and it became legal tender in some states. Then, in 1762, the Virginia Assembly made it mandatory for all farmers to grow it and punished those who didn't. In the 1930s, a physician called William O'Shaughnessy popularized the use of medical cannabis in the Western world. It became so popular that pharmacies openly sold it after it was added to the U.S. Pharmacopeia in 1850s. Regulation and Ban Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 listed cannabis as an addictive/dangerous drug. Nevertheless, in the following decade, Mexican refugees, sailors, and immigrants from the Caribbean brought smokable hemp to the U.S. In 1911, Massachusetts started demanding hemp prescrip