History of Marijuana in the U.S.: From Colonial Hemp to Legalization

By James Buddsey · Updated October 16, 2026

Cannabis has been part of American life since the colonies: settlers were told to grow hemp in 1619, it was a common medicine in the 1800s, states began banning it in 1911, the federal government effectively outlawed it in 1937 and made it Schedule I in 1970, and states began legalizing it again, first for medicine in 1996 and then for adults in 2012. In 2026 marijuana is legal for adults in 24 states and D.C., and state-licensed medical marijuana is now Schedule III under federal law.

This is the U.S. story, from Jamestown to the 2026 rescheduling order. For cannabis in the ancient world, from Central Asia to China, India and the Middle East, see our companion piece on the history of marijuana worldwide. Dates and figures below link to their sources.

History of Marijuana in the U.S.: Timeline

Unless noted otherwise, dates come from the legal history of cannabis in the United States and the primary sources linked in each section below.

Colonial Hemp: A Crop the Government Wanted

Cannabis arrived in English North America as hemp, a fiber crop for rope, sails and cloth. In 1619 a decree from King James I led the Virginia Company to ask Jamestown landowners to grow 100 hemp plants each for export, according to the legal history of cannabis in the U.S.

George Washington grew hemp at all five farms of Mount Vernon for rope, sail canvas, thread and fishing nets, according to Mount Vernon. His diary for August 22, 1765 records putting hemp into water to ret, the soaking step that frees the fibers (Founders Online). He first hoped it would be a cash crop and later grew it for the plantation’s own needs. There is no good evidence that he or other founders smoked it; this was industrial hemp.

The 1800s: Cannabis as Medicine

Cannabis entered Western medicine in the 1830s through the work of Irish physician William Brooke O’Shaughnessy in India, who tested it for muscle spasms, cramps and pain, according to the history of medical cannabis. By the mid-1800s, cannabis tinctures and extracts were sold in American pharmacies, and it became a hidden ingredient in patent medicines: one count found at least 2,000 cannabis medicines from more than 280 manufacturers before 1937.

Recreational use was a minor curiosity, mostly through hashish. The first federal step was about honesty, not prohibition: the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, prompted partly by Samuel Hopkins Adams’s exposé “The Great American Fraud,” required medicines containing cannabis and other drugs to say so on the label.

1911 to 1936: The States Ban It First

State prohibition came before federal. Massachusetts passed a cannabis law in 1911, followed by Maine (1914), Wyoming (1915), Texas (1919), and Iowa, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and Arkansas by 1923, then Nebraska and Louisiana (1927) and Colorado (1929), according to the legal history of cannabis. By the mid-1930s every state regulated cannabis in some form.

Race and immigration drove much of it. Thousands of Mexicans moved north during the Mexican Revolution of the 1910s to work on farms, and smoking “marihuana” was associated with them and, by officials such as Harry Anslinger, with Black and Latino Americans and entertainers, as his biography documents. Newspapers ran lurid stories linking the drug to crime. The vocabulary shifted from cannabis, a familiar medicine, to marihuana, a foreign threat.

1937: Federal Prohibition by Taxation

The Federal Bureau of Narcotics was created in 1930 under Harry J. Anslinger, who led it for 32 years and made marijuana a national issue. His campaign produced the Marihuana Tax Act, signed August 2, 1937, which required registration and taxes that made legal trade almost impossible, over the objections of the American Medical Association. Our full explainer on the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 covers the bill, the hearings, the first arrests and the Hearst and DuPont theory.

Hemp got a brief reprieve. In 1942 the U.S. Department of Agriculture released the film Hemp for Victory urging farmers to grow hemp for the war effort, because imported fibers were in short supply. After the war the industry faded, and the last commercial crop was grown in Wisconsin in 1957.

1950s and 1960s: Harsher Penalties, Then a Counterculture

Postwar Congress treated marijuana like heroin. The Boggs Act of 1951 introduced mandatory minimum sentences for drug convictions, and the Narcotics Control Act of 1956 raised them. In the 1960s marijuana moved from the margins to college campuses and the antiwar movement, and the old penalties came under growing pressure.

The Tax Act itself fell in 1969, when the Supreme Court ruled in Leary v. United States that it forced people to incriminate themselves. Congress responded with the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, which placed marijuana in Schedule I, the most restrictive category, while repealing the Boggs-era mandatory minimums.

1970s to 1990s: The Drug War and the First Reforms

President Nixon declared drug abuse “public enemy number one” in June 1971, launching what became the war on drugs. Yet his own Shafer Commission recommended in 1972 that possession of small amounts no longer be a crime. Oregon decriminalized in 1973, the same year the DEA was formed, and several states followed in the 1970s.

The 1980s reversed course with “Just Say No,” the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 and rising arrests. Reform returned through medicine. On November 5, 1996, California voters approved Proposition 215 with 56% support, making it the first state to legalize medical marijuana. Washington’s medical marijuana program dates to 1998 (see our Washington guide). The federal government fought back in court and won: in Gonzales v. Raich (2005) the Supreme Court upheld federal power to prosecute even homegrown medical cannabis.

2012 to Today: Legalization

On November 6, 2012, voters in Washington (Initiative 502) and Colorado (Amendment 64) made their states the first to legalize adult-use marijuana. The Justice Department’s 2013 Cole Memorandum signaled that federal prosecutors would generally not target state-legal businesses; it was rescinded in January 2018, but federal enforcement against licensed businesses stayed rare. Oregon followed in 2015. Today 24 states and D.C. allow adult use, Ohio most recently. See our guides to Washington and Oregon marijuana laws.

Hemp came back as well. The 2014 Farm Bill allowed state pilot programs, and the 2018 Farm Bill removed hemp, defined as cannabis with no more than 0.3% delta-9 THC by dry weight, from the Controlled Substances Act, according to hemp in the United States. That opened the door to CBD and later to intoxicating hemp products. Congress tightened the definition in H.R. 5371, signed November 12, 2025, moving to a total-THC standard and excluding converted cannabinoids such as delta-8 made from CBD. A follow-up law delayed the restrictions on naturally occurring cannabinoids to December 11, 2026. Our hemp flower guide explains what that means for buyers.

Federal marijuana law is moving too. President Biden pardoned federal simple-possession convictions in October 2022 and expanded the pardons in December 2023, according to AP. In April 2026 a Justice Department and DEA final order moved FDA-approved marijuana products and marijuana held under a state medical license to Schedule III (Federal Register). Adult-use marijuana is still Schedule I, and a DEA proceeding on full rescheduling was stayed in September 2026. Our federal marijuana law guide has the latest.

American Marijuana History FAQ

For adults 21+ in legal states. General information, not legal advice.