Por: Paulo Byron

By pointing out the artificiality inherent in

the distinction between so-called licit and illicit

drugs, judge MariaLucia Karam demonstrates the

social construction character of prohibitionism in

this field, a theme developed throughout this

text, especially from a historical perspective.

In fact, although it was made an illicit

drug in the last century, previously, marijuana

was not only legal, but was also a relevant

economic input in Europe, used since Paleolithic

times. Written with the same seven letters, the

word marijuana is an anagram of hemp, a raw

material of great importance in the Renaissance.

Gutenberg used hemp paper to produce the first

135 printed Bibles in the world, one of these

copies being located in the collection of the

National Library, in Cinelândia, Rio de Janeiro.

Origin and History of CultureCannabica in the World and in

Brazil

In the Renaissance, marijuana was one of

the main agricultural products in Europe. Proof

of its great influence in changing mentalities is

that, in addition to the hemp paper pages of the

first printed books, artists painted on canvases

made from its fibers. So much so that the word

Canvas, used in several languages to designate

“canvas”, is a Dutch corruption of the Latin

'cannabis': hence the word 'oil on canvas'.

Since antiquity,the Greek and the Romans

used candles and rope hemp on ships. In the

15th century, cultivated in the regions of

Bordeaux and Brittany, France, Portugal and

Africa, hemp was used for making strings, cables,

sails and sealing material on boats, which

frequently flooded on long voyages.