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.
