5 Phenomenal Facts about Cannabis

1. There is a cannabis “Doomsday Vault”

This sounds like the plot of a bad movie, but it is 100 per cent true.
Legally speaking, it’s called the Svalbard Global Seed Vault and it holds more than just cannabis. Located on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen in the remote Arctic Svalbard archipelago, there are more then 21,500 cannabis seeds stored in the vault – more than blueberry, raspberry or asparagus seeds – ensuring that the cannabis industry can be restored after the apocalypse.

2. Weed was the first ever product to be bought and sold online

A quick Internet search will tell you Pizza Hut holds the title for first online transaction – but if you dig a little deeper, you’ll find that the very first online purchase was, in fact, a drug deal. In 1971, students from Stanford University used the Arpanet account at their AI lab to sell a small bag of weed to students at MIT.

3. The anointing oil referenced in the bible is actually cannabis oil (?)

Okay – so this might be more of a theory than a fact, but we liked it too much not to include it. Scholars have argued that the holy anointing oil used by Jesus and referenced in Exodus 30: 22-25 is actually cannabis oil. They refer specifically to the mention of q’aneh-bosm, a “mysterious herb” which some historians believe was actually cannabis.

4. California was the first state to prohibit marijuana

California is now one of the most significant regions for cannabis production around the world. In 2021, the state’s (legal) weed industry was valued between $4 and $5 billion dollars – so it’s ironic that Cali was also the first state to prohibit it. In 1913, California amended the Poison Act, passed in 1907 to criminalize non-prescription cocaine and opiates, to include marijuana.

5. There is technically a lethal amount of cannabis consumption

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, there are no reports of fatal overdoses from cannabis consumption. Perhaps you’ve experienced “greening out”, a feeling of nausea and/or anxiety when you’ve gone too far – but to fatally overdose, one would need to consume approximately 1,500 pounds of cannabis in 15 minutes or less – roughly 100 pounds every sixty seconds.