Cannabis: A Matter of Culture, even in 2015. Experts, lovers, haters, scientists, moralists… people continue to have extremely different ideas about cannabis.

Some of us think about it constantly, others aren’t even familiar with its smell. Still, it is quite undeniable that this little green creature – yes, I am calling it creature – has the power to shake the boundaries of our own cultural foundations.

The fact is that, before being anything else, cannabis is a cultural product and, like the wonderful Stuart Hall reminds us, culture is an intricate web of systems of meanings humans adopt to make sense of the world around them. “But wait”, you might say, “isn’t cannabis a plant before being a cultural product?” It would certainly be, if we as human beings had the capacity to erase centuries of representations and discourses, and if we didn’t have the ability to communicate with each other and share our opinions. But, and I hope you will agree with me, since language and imagination are two of our species’ defining features, it is quite impossible to erase the main producers of culture: our vocal chords and brain. Indeed, we produce culture, we are culture and we live within culture.

Can we conceive cannabis without talking or thinking about it? Well, not really, and that’s precisely why cannabis is a cultural product before being a product of nature.

But here is the funny thing about culture and cultural products: they are dynamic, ever-changing organisms, constantly produced and reproduced through our interactions and imaginations.

You don’t believe me? Let’s try a little culture-producing experiment.

You have your own idea about cannabis, I am sure. But what if I told you the plant is indigenous to Central and Southern Asia (it is one of the 50 fundamental herbs of traditional Chinese medicine), and that the list of its original uses included childbirth’s pain relief? Yes, no Jamaica or hippies, but ancient Asians, doctors and mothers.

And what if I added that hemp was brought to America by the colonialists, and that the Declaration of Independence was written on hemp? Not exactly a symbol of underground counterculture, don’t you think?

I bet these few curiosities are already changing your idea of the cannabis culture.

Even before thinking about biology and morality, think about culture. And whenever you visit our website – http://greenhouseseeds.nl – think about what cannabis means, its beautiful history and the complexity of its representations. It will be an unexpected, wonderful journey that will change your culture.