The Cycle of Criminalisation

In the last blog, we explored how cannabis has had a long history of being used for food fibre medicine and spiritual practices around the world, it has been an integral part of peoples lives. So how did something once so integral to daily life become outlawed across much of the world? what changed?

In this post, we will unpack the mystery of cannabis criminalisation and we’ll explore the twists and turns that turned a household plant into a global outlaw, and why that journey still matters.

(Grucza & Plunk, 2024)

It started with China

The first known ban of cannabis happened in 600 BC when taoism rose in china and cannabis was rejected as it was said to cause disruption to social harmony.  Similar anxieties emerged in the medieval Islamic world, where the spiritual use of hashish by early mystics drew heavy backlash, culminating in a ban in Damascus in 1265. Even Europe joined this pattern when in 1484, Pope Innocent VIII issued a papal decree denouncing cannabis as an “unholy sacrament,” linking it to witchcraft and suppressing its use in pagan rituals. These early crackdowns weren’t rooted in science they were moral, religious, and political reactions to what the plant represented. 

Western Transition

Modern West’s direct encounter with cannabis happened when Napoleon invaded Egypt in 1798. In the 1800’s, French General Jacques-François Menou completely banned the use of hashish among troops as it was said to cause ‘violent delirium’, but interestingly enough there were no firsthand accounts of this from the soldiers themselves. Menou’s decree appeared to align the French occupation with the local Egyptian Sunni elite, who associated hashish with the criminal underclass, Sufi mendicants, and political outsiders.

African Transition

From there, the colonial authorities started spreading the ban and the British outlawed cannabis in South Africa, tying its prohibition directly to race, labor control, and colonial authority. As early as 1870, cannabis (known locally as dagga) was banned in the Colony of Natal, initially targeting Indian immigrants under the belief that its use undermined white rule. The law tightened in 1887 and later spread to the Cape by 1891. These bans weren't based on public health concerns; rather, they reflected fears that cannabis use disrupted labor discipline and enabled interracial trade and social interaction, which were both threats to the apartheid- era of racial order. By 1922, cannabis was criminalised across all of South Africa, grouping it with cocaine and opiates. In 1925, the League of Nations listed cannabis as a dependence-forming substance, thus justifying South Africa’s ban. 

While Egypt banned hashish under the Ottoman and British rule, there was one exception which was India. On request from the UK House of commons, a commission ( The Indian Hemp Drugs Commission) was appointed to investigate the usage and effects of cannabis in India. The rising colonial anxieties after 1870 linked cannabis to violence and insanity. Missionary activism played a major role in raising concerns and were especially vocal against ganja. critiquing its indigenous use and its perceived sanctioning by the colonial government through excise policies. The commission consisted of British and Indian representatives  conducting thorough studies in religious sites of cannabis use, shops, warehouses, and mental hospitals and gathering testimony from over 1,100 witnesses. Contrary to the Moral panic the commission found that total ban on cannabis was not necessary nor desirable. Their report highlighted the social and traditional role and recommended regulation and control through taxation and licensed sales instead. 

British Burma prohibited cannabis in 1891, Thailand followed in the 1920s–30s, while Japan passed its Cannabis Control Law in 1948.

(Limited, n.d.)

Spread to the Americas

Canada criminalised cannabis in an amendment to the Opium and Narcotic Drugs Act in 1923 with little debate or justification. A senate report from 2002 shows that Canada was the first government in the west to ban cannabis, despite the fact that there was essentially no psychotropic use of it in Canada at that time. As detailed in the book Panic and Indifference, cannabis wasn’t even mentioned in the original draft of the legislation. Instead, it appears that an unidentified individual later added it by hand to a carbon copy of the bill, quietly including it in the list of banned substances.

Some believe cannabis was banned in Canada due to Emily Murphy’s 1922 book The Black Candle, which vilified the drug. However, historian Catherine Carstairs argues the book had little influence and wasn’t widely read. She suggests Canada’s participation in early international drug control conferences was a more likely factor. It is clear that cannabis was banned without formal parliamentary debate or scientific evidence, and the government disregarded the extensive research conducted by the British medical authorities in the 19th century. Instead, the decision was made amid a wave of racially charged drug panic, where addiction was framed not as a medical condition but as a moral failing, and cannabis, grouped with other drugs, became a convenient target for anxieties about racial and social decline.

The Geneva Convention

In 1912, a convention was held in Hague, Netherlands to address the opium trade and it was the first convention on drug control. This set the stage for the 1925 Geneva convention or the 2nd opium convention where the focus expanded to other drugs including Cannabis which was primarily added due to concerns raised by countries like South Africa and egypt. 

British diplomats initially resisted international cannabis control at the 1925 Geneva Opium Convention, aiming to protect imperial revenues from its sale. However, they lost the debate, and in 1928, cannabis was added to the UK’s Dangerous Drugs Act through the Coca Leaves and Indian Hemp Drug Regulations. 

The 1925, Geneva Opium Convention also influenced countries like Italy to prohibit the usage of Cannabis.

Criminalisation Enters United States

In the United States (which heavily influenced the global agenda), anti-cannabis policies were explicitly tied to race and xenophobia. Early 20th-century media and policymakers portrayed marijuana as an “immigrant” and “racial” drug - blaming Mexicans and African-Americans for its use. U.S. officials demoniSed marijuana as a scourge “flowing across the border” from Mexico, then as a drug of inner-city Black communities said to cause “murder, rape, and insanity” Sensationalist campaigns (such as Hearst’s newspapers and the 1936 film Reefer Madness) amplified these stereotypes, whipping up fear without scientific basis. The result was that between 1914 and 1925 over 25 U.S. states had passed anti-marijuana laws (often with minimal debate) and the federal Marihuana Tax Act of 1937  outlawed it nationwide.

(T R A N S N A T I O N A L I N S T I T U T E, n.d.)

The United Nations consolidated all these rules under the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs and listed cannabis (the whole plant and resin) in Schedule I and IV – the most restrictive categories and mandated that signatory states “limit exclusively to medical and scientific purposes”. The Single Convention required governments to end non-medical cannabis use within 25 years and to maintain strict state controls on cultivation and trade. Later treaties in 1971 and 1988 further reinforced global prohibition.

Conclusion

The story of cannabis is not just about the laws, it is about control, fear and how it can reshape truth. It is about how a once loved, and sacred plant that clothed and fed people around the world turned into a symbol of danger and trouble. But this did not erase what the plant once was. As we dig deeper and peel back the layers of propaganda and injustice, we see the possibility of rediscovery. What was so desperately buried isn’t lost. It lingers in memory, in tradition, in quiet resistance just waiting to be remembered.

About the Author and this Blog Series

Hi, I’m Sanjana, a researcher with a master’s in environmental science. My research sits at the intersection of environment, agriculture, and culture. During my master's, I studied cannabis in the Parvati Valley, exploring local knowledge, traditional practices, and global policy debates.

That is when I realised that cannabis is not just a plant but a story full of history and controversy.  Many from the valley chose not to speak about it, many have forgotten about the traditional use, and many are just milking it for the sake of money. But overall, nobody wants to talk about it. Few wanted to talk about it, fewer wanted to be seen with it, and almost no one wanted to touch it. This silence and stigma around cannabis is what inspired the title of this series - "The Untouchable Plant."

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