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The Coevolution of Humans and Cannabis
From a prodigal past to a fantastic future, cannabis is shaping human life in profound ways.
Originally published on Massroots.com
We now know that the reason that cannabis is so miraculously able to address so many different human ailments and provide so many useful applications as hemp is because it actually evolved with us over time in a process called co-evolution. In fact, according to Michael Pollan, the NYT bestselling author of The Botany of Desire, cannabis has been so changed by its 15,000 years of coevolution with us that a wild version of the plant simply does not exist anymore.
According to Pollan, cannabis found a way to produce chemicals that give us pleasure, like THC, thereby seducing us into cultivating it and spreading it– a strategy that allowed cannabis to borrow our legs and piggyback on humans as we colonized the globe. Similar to cultivated fruits like the apple or even domesticated animals like the housecat, marijuana is part of the human shaping of the earth. But that shaping is a two-way street — which is why it’s called a “co” evolution folks — and cannabis has been and continues to influence our destiny as well.
In fact, cannabis might just be in the driver’s seat.
