January 1, 2018 The first day of taxed and licensed legal adult sales in CA.

Jan 10, 1949 Hollywood actors Robert Mitchum and Lila Leeds were convicted of conspiracy to possess marijuana cigarettes.

Jan 15, 1989 Chris Conrad launched the Business Alliance for Commerce in Hemp and Family Council on Drug Awareness campaigns to coincide with Civil Rights Day.

January 27, 2014 President Obama’s Farm Bill took effect, defining industrial hemp as cannabis containing 0.3% THC or less and allowing domestic cultivation.

January 31, 2011 Veterans Admin stopped drug testing for cannabis if patient has state med approval.

February 1, 1938 Popular Mechanics magazine published its report "Hemp: The New Billion Dollar Crop"

February 6, 2004 HIA v DEA, Appeals court ruled DEA cannot ban hempseed products

February 13, 1869 Louisa May Alcott’s short story "Perilous Play" was published anonymously in Frank Leslie's Chimney Corner. It’s about bored young socialites who eat hashish at a party and get lost in a sailboat and in each other, then find true love – and their way back to the party. "Heaven bless hashish, if its dreams end like this!"

February 26, 1937 George Lower’s report "Flax and Hemp: From the Seed to the Loom" published in Mechanical Engineering Magazine

March 16, 1791 Thomas Jefferson wrote that “[Hemp] is of the first necessity to the commerce and marine, in other words to the wealth and protection of the country.”

March 20, 1968 A noise complaint led to Eric Clapton, Neil Young, Jim Messina and Richie Furay being arrested and charged with suspicion of marijuana while Steven Stills escaped out a window. The Buffalo Springfield’s band manager, Chris Sarns, took the rap.

March 22, 1972 The Shafer Commission, President Nixon’s National Commission on Marihuana and Other Drugs, issued its report, Marijuana: A Signal of Misunderstanding, calling for marijuana decriminalization.

April 4, 2012 Federal agents raided Richard Lee’s dispensary, other businesses and Oaksterdam Cannabis Museum. Local law enforcement refused to participate but got pulled from investigating a mass shooting in order to protect the narcotics agents from angry protestors.

April 10, 1971 Brewer and Shipley’s song “One Toke Over the Line” hit #10 in Billboard’s Hot 100.

April 15, 2010 Jack Herer, “The Emperor of Hemp,” passed away.

April 20 - Unofficial day of celebration for cannabis — 4/20 at 4:20 pm; Safe date to plant cannabis seeds outside in Continental US.

April 25, 2023 Steve Earle’s country rock cannabis anthem “Copperhead Road” was designated as an official Tennessee state song. The tune hit #10 in Billboard’s Hot 100 in 1988.

April 27-30, 1937 Congressional hearings on the Marihuana Tax Act.

May 1 - New York activist Dana Beale declared that “May Day is Jay Day.” May 1 (or the first Saturday of May) became a day when “Global Marijuana March” rallies have been held all over the world since the first one in 1999.

May 4, 1937, Final Congressional hearing on the Marihuana Tax Act.

May 10, 1876 President US Grant opened the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, which coincidentally featured a fashionable Turkish Hashish Exposition where people could partake.

May 13, 2005 The City-approved West Hollywood Medical Cannabis Club was raided by LAPD, DEA and IRS agents.

May 14, 2001 - USA v. OCBC, the US Supreme Court ruled that federal anti-drug laws do not permit an exception for medical cannabis and rejected the medical necessity defense for sales.

May 16, 1765 George Washington’s diary: "Sowed Hemp at head of the Meadow at Doeg Run and Southwards Houses with the Barel.”

May 19, 1969 Leary vs USA, Supreme Court ruled that the federal Marihuana Tax Act was unconstitutional.

May 20 - Safe date to transplant indoor cannabis plants into outdoors without messing up flower cycle.

May 21, 1966 The Byrds “Eight Miles High” hit #14 on Billboard’s Hot 100

May 22, 1974 Musician Willie Nelson was busted for cannabis for the first time, in Dallas TX. His most recent arrest was in 2010, when the chant “Let Willie have his weed” became popular.

June 1, 1974 First issue of High Times magazine released. The magazine helped build the cannabis community and support for legalization.

June 1, 1996, Actor Woody Harrelson was arrested in Kentucky and charged with marijuana possession for planting four hemp seeds, to challenge state laws that did not distinguish between marijuana and industrial hemp. A jury later dismissed the charge.

June 6, 2005 In Gonzalez v Raich, the Supreme Court ruled that Feds can raid state-legal MMJ gardens.

June 14, 2000 After being forbidden from using his doctor-approved cannabis to prevent vomiting – and telling the judge that it was essentially a death sentence, Peter McWilliams choked on his own vomit and died.  

June 17, 1971 Nixon called marijuana “Public Enemy #1” and declared “War on Drugs,” against the advice of his own Presidential Advisory Commission, the Shafer Commission.

June 24, 1995 HR95: Atrocities of the Drug War, first showing of the Human Rights and the US Drug War exhibition in San Francisco to mark 50th Anniversary of the founding of the UN.

June 27, 1970 Sly & the Family Stone, “I Want to Take You Higher” hit #38 on Billboard Hot 100

July 1, 2018 Vermont law went into effect, making it the first state to legalize cannabis for adult use through the legislature, rather than the ballot.

July 3, 1893 The Government of India’s seven-member commission convened to look into the ganja question and ultimately rejected the notion of cannabis prohibition.

July 4, 1996 Jeff Jones opened the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Coop (OCBC) medical marijuana dispensary in Oakland, to coincide with Independence Day.

July 9, 1975 The Moscone Act was signed into law, decriminalizing marijuana in California for adults.  

July 16, 1966 Ray Charles, “Let’s Go Get Stoned” Hit No. 31 on Billboard Hot 100.

July 18, 1956 - Narcotics Control Act of 1956 passed, putting the first federal mandatory minimum prison sentences on cannabis.

July 18, 2002 Mower decision: State Appeals Court ruled that Prop 215 allows any reasonable amount of marijuana for a qualified patient’s personal medical use.

July 20, 1978 Dr. Peter Bourne resigned as Special Assistant to the President for Health Issues, dooming President Carter’s efforts to decriminalize marijuana for adults.

Aug 1, 1990 Operation Green Sweep: 200 federal troops raided 22 marijuana gardens in Humboldt.

August 2, 1937 President FD Roosevelt signed the Marihuana Tax Act into Law, against the wishes of farmers, industrialists and the American Medical Assn.

August 2, 1977 President Carter called on Congress to decrim marijuana on the 40th anniversary of the Marihuana Tax Act.

August 4, 1996 Dennis Peron’s CBC was raided by state narcs during height of Prop 215 campaign

Aug 15-19, 1983 CAMP (Campaign Against Marijuana Planting) aerial oversight and eradication program launched with raids in Humboldt county, program continued for decades.

August 16, 1964 Lowell Eggemeier lit up a joint in the San Francisco Hall of Justice in protest. He was arrested.

August 29, 2013, President Obama issued the Cole memo to protect state MMJ programs from federal raids

August 28, 1964 Folk singer Bob Dylan turned on the Beatles to cannabis for the first time. Paul McCartney credited marijuana with inspiring the Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album and many other Beatles songs.

August 31, 1948 Movie star Robert Mitchum was arrested for marijuana in Hollywood

September 6, 1988 DEA Admin. Law Judge Francis Young ruled that DEA had mis-scheduled cannabis and it must be down scheduled. Appeals court said the DEA could set its own time schedule and it never did it.

September 18, 1865: "It appears that a 'Hasheesh' mania has broken out among our Bohemians. Yesterday, Mark Twain and the 'Mouse-Trap' man were seen walking up Clay street under the influence of the drug, followed by a 'star,' who was evidently laboring under a misapprehension as to what was the matter with them." — San Francisco Chronicle

September 23, 2002, Mike and Valerie Corral's WAMM medical marijuana patient collective near Santa Cruz, California, was raided by federal agents.

October 1, 1937 Marihuana Tax Act took effect, $100 per ounce tax stamp on marijuana and banning the cultivation of industrial hemp.

October 7, 1955 Allen Ginsburg gave public reading of Howl, which references hashish and marijuana

October 7, 2007 Oaksterdam University founded by Richard Lee

October 12, 2003 SB 420 signed by Gov Gray Davis, creating a legal defense for medical marijuana collectives of qualified medical marijuana patients.  

October 14, 1916 US Dept of Agriculture Bulletin 404 Hemp Hurds as Paper-making Material published by Lyster Dewey, saying that hemp cultivated for paper could save American forests.

November 5, 1996 California Prop 215, The Compassionate Use Act, passed, legalizing for the first time in the modern era medical marijuana use and cultivation with a doctor’s approval. It did not legalize sales.

Nov 6, 2012 Colorado and Washington voters passed initiatives making them the first two states to legalize adult use, sharing and license sales. Colorado also legalized home cultivation.

November 8, 2016 California Prop 64, The Adult Use Act, passed legalizing adult use, sharing, home grows and licensed,regulated sales.

November 10, 2007 First day of classes at Richard Lee’s Oaksterdam University, “Training for the Cannabis Industry.”

December 2, 1876 The Illustrated Police News printed a drawing of several intoxicated beauties in languorous repose on divans, puffing on "hookahs" captioned "Secret Dissipation of New York Belles: Interior of a Hasheesh Hell on Fifth Avenue"

December 16, 2014 President Obama signed he 2015 Omnibus Appropriations Bill, including the Farr-Rohrabacher Amendment that blocked federal DEA and DOJ from busting or prosecuting state-legal medical marijuana activity.

December 25, Every year People give cannabis to friends and family for Christmas. What was your favorite cannabis gift?