History of CBD in the USA: From Prohibition to the 2018 Farm Bill

The history of CBD in the United States reads like a dramatic saga of political maneuvering, scientific discovery, and a remarkable cultural reversal that unfolded over nearly a century. What was once a plant grown by America’s founding fathers—and later demonized during the era of “Reefer Madness”—has re-emerged as the foundation of an industry worth billions of dollars annually. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, CBD products have flooded the consumer market since the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, appearing in everything from tinctures and gummies to skincare serums and pet treats.

Yet the path from a Schedule I controlled substance to a product sold openly in pharmacies was neither quick nor straightforward. Understanding the history of CBD requires tracing threads that stretch from ancient Chinese medicine through colonial-era hemp farms, through decades of federal prohibition, and into the modern scientific breakthroughs that finally separated cannabidiol from the stigma of marijuana. This article walks through that entire journey—era by era—so you can appreciate both the science and the politics that shaped the CBD landscape you see today.

Whether you are new to CBD or a long-time user, knowing how we arrived at this moment provides essential context. It explains why regulation remains uneven, why quality varies between products, and why researchers are still catching up after decades of government-imposed research restrictions.

Ancient Origins and Early American Hemp

Cannabis in the Ancient World

Long before anyone used the term “CBD,” the cannabis plant held an important place in human civilization. Archaeological and textual evidence suggests that cannabis was among the earliest crops deliberately cultivated by humans, with origins traced to Central Asia thousands of years ago. According to a review published in the journal Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research, references to the medicinal use of cannabis appear in Chinese pharmacopeias dating to approximately 2737 BC, when Emperor Shen Nung reportedly prescribed cannabis-infused tea for ailments including gout, rheumatism, and malaria.

The plant’s therapeutic reputation spread along ancient trade routes. By 1500 BC, the Ebers Papyrus—one of the oldest surviving medical documents from Egypt—included references to cannabis as a treatment for inflammation. In India, cannabis was considered one of five sacred plants in the Atharvaveda texts. Chinese surgeon Hua Tuo is documented as using cannabis preparations as an anesthetic around 100 AD, mixing the plant with wine to dull pain during surgical procedures. These ancient applications foreshadowed the modern scientific interest in cannabinoids, though the specific compound we now know as CBD would not be identified for nearly two thousand more years.

Hemp as an American Staple

When European settlers arrived in North America, they brought hemp seeds with them—and for good reason. Hemp fiber was essential for manufacturing rope, sails, and clothing, all critical supplies in the colonial economy. In the Virginia colony, the Assembly passed legislation in 1619 requiring every farmer to grow hemp, making it one of the first mandated crops in the New World. King James I issued similar orders to the Jamestown colonists, reflecting the British Crown’s dependence on hemp for its naval fleet.

Many of America’s founding fathers were hemp farmers. George Washington grew hemp at Mount Vernon and recorded detailed notes about his cultivation in personal diaries. Thomas Jefferson grew hemp at Monticello and even drafted early versions of the Declaration of Independence on hemp paper. By the mid-1800s, cannabis preparations were commonly sold in American pharmacies. In 1850, the U.S. Pharmacopeia officially listed cannabis as a recognized medicine recommended for conditions ranging from nausea to labor pains. This early acceptance underscores a crucial point in the history of CBD: the plant was mainstream long before it was criminalized.

Throughout the 19th century, pharmaceutical companies including Eli Lilly and Parke-Davis sold cannabis tinctures over the counter. Doctors prescribed them freely for pain, insomnia, and nervous disorders. The idea that cannabis was dangerous or immoral simply did not exist in the public consciousness during this period. That dramatic shift would come in the early 20th century, driven by politics more than by science.

The Road to Prohibition

Anti-Cannabis Campaigns of the Early 1900s

The criminalization of cannabis in the United States was less a product of medical evidence than of racial prejudice and political ambition. In the early 1900s, waves of Mexican immigrants arriving in the American Southwest brought with them the practice of smoking cannabis recreationally—a practice unfamiliar to most Anglo-Americans at the time. Local newspapers and politicians quickly seized on “marihuana” as a tool for stoking anti-immigrant sentiment, associating the plant with violence, criminality, and moral decay despite a near-total lack of scientific evidence supporting those claims.

The most influential figure in the campaign against cannabis was Harry J. Anslinger, the first commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, appointed in 1930. Anslinger pursued an aggressive public relations crusade that relied heavily on racist fearmongering and sensationalized anecdotes. He testified before Congress that marijuana made people violent and insane, and he actively lobbied newspaper publishers to run stories linking cannabis to crime. The 1936 propaganda film “Reefer Madness” captured the hysteria of the era, depicting wholesome teenagers descending into madness after a single encounter with marijuana. Though later regarded as unintentional comedy, the film reflected the genuine public fear that Anslinger and his allies had cultivated.

The 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act had already required labeling of cannabis-containing products, but it did not ban the plant. By the 1930s, however, more than half of U.S. states had enacted their own anti-cannabis statutes, setting the stage for federal action. It is worth noting that the American Medical Association actually opposed federal criminalization, arguing that cannabis had recognized medical value and that prohibition would impede legitimate research. Congress largely ignored this testimony.

The Marijuana Tax Act of 1937

On August 2, 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Marijuana Tax Act into law, effectively criminalizing all cannabis at the federal level. The law imposed such heavy taxes and registration requirements on anyone cultivating, distributing, or possessing cannabis that legal participation became virtually impossible. As the Drug Enforcement Administration notes in its historical records, this legislation made no distinction between psychoactive marijuana and industrial hemp—a failure of classification that would have consequences lasting more than eight decades.

The impact was immediate and devastating. Hemp farming collapsed almost overnight, ending an industry that had been part of American agriculture since the colonial era. Pharmaceutical companies pulled cannabis preparations from their product lines. Research into both cannabis and its individual compounds ground to a halt. The Marijuana Tax Act essentially erased a plant with centuries of documented therapeutic use from the American medical toolkit in a single legislative stroke.

A brief exception came during World War II, when the U.S. government urgently needed hemp fiber for military rope, parachute webbing, and other supplies. The Department of Agriculture released a promotional film titled “Hemp for Victory” in 1942, encouraging American farmers to plant hemp for the war effort. More than 400,000 acres of hemp were cultivated under this wartime program. Once the war ended, however, the government swiftly returned to its prohibitionist stance, and the “Hemp for Victory” film was quietly archived.

The 1970 Controlled Substances Act

The most consequential blow to cannabis in the 20th century came on October 27, 1970, when President Richard Nixon signed the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) into law. The CSA created the modern drug scheduling system and placed cannabis—with no distinction between hemp and marijuana—in Schedule I, the most restrictive category reserved for substances deemed to have “no currently accepted medical use” and “a high potential for abuse.” This put cannabis in the same legal category as heroin, LSD, and ecstasy.

Schedule I classification carried severe consequences. Researchers who wanted to study cannabis needed federal approval that was extraordinarily difficult to obtain. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) controlled the only legal supply of research-grade cannabis, and it prioritized studies examining the harms of cannabis use rather than potential therapeutic benefits. This created a Catch-22: the government claimed cannabis had no medical value, but it simultaneously made it nearly impossible for scientists to conduct the research that might prove otherwise. The resulting research gap—spanning decades—is something the CBD industry is still working to fill today.

The CSA’s effects rippled globally. American drug policy influenced the United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, and many countries adopted similar restrictions on cannabis. Industrial hemp, which contains negligible levels of psychoactive THC, was caught in this dragnet purely because of its botanical relationship to marijuana.

The History of CBD: Discovery and the Endocannabinoid System

Isolating Cannabidiol

Even as prohibition tightened, a handful of determined scientists continued to study the cannabis plant’s chemistry—and their work would eventually change the course of the history of CBD. In 1940, organic chemist Roger Adams at the University of Illinois successfully isolated cannabidiol (CBD) from the cannabis plant for the first time. Adams also isolated cannabinol (CBN) and partially elucidated the structure of THC, though the full picture remained unclear. His work was published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society and represented the first concrete step toward understanding the specific compounds responsible for cannabis’s effects.

The next major leap came from Dr. Raphael Mechoulam at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 1963, Mechoulam and his colleague Yechiel Shvo determined the exact molecular structure of CBD—a critical achievement that allowed other researchers to study the compound in isolation. The following year, in 1964, Mechoulam identified the structure of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the compound responsible for marijuana’s psychoactive “high.” This distinction between CBD and THC was foundational. It demonstrated that the cannabis plant produces chemically distinct compounds with very different effects on the human body, and it opened the door to studying CBD as a therapeutic agent separate from the intoxicating properties of THC.

Mechoulam’s work continued to yield breakthroughs. In 1980, he co-authored one of the first clinical studies examining CBD’s effects on epilepsy in humans. The small trial, published in Pharmacology, found that four of eight subjects with epilepsy who received CBD experienced significant improvement in seizure frequency, while none in the placebo group improved. Though limited in scope, this study planted a seed that would eventually grow into the FDA-approved epilepsy medication Epidiolex nearly four decades later.

The Endocannabinoid System Emerges

The most transformative discovery in cannabinoid science came in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In 1988, researchers at St. Louis University, led by Allyn Howlett and William Devane, identified the first cannabinoid receptor in the rat brain—later named CB1. This receptor was found in extraordinarily high concentrations throughout the central nervous system, particularly in areas governing memory, mood, motor coordination, and pain perception. The discovery raised an obvious question: why would the human brain have receptors specifically designed to interact with a plant compound?

The answer came in 1992, when Mechoulam’s team identified anandamide, the first known endogenous cannabinoid—a compound naturally produced by the human body that binds to CB1 receptors. The name came from the Sanskrit word “ananda,” meaning bliss. A second major endocannabinoid, 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG), was identified shortly after. In 1993, a second receptor type—CB2—was discovered primarily in immune cells and peripheral tissues. Together, these endocannabinoids, receptors, and the enzymes that synthesize and break them down constitute the endocannabinoid system (ECS), a vast regulatory network involved in maintaining homeostasis across virtually every organ system in the body.

According to a comprehensive review in Neurotherapeutics, the ECS plays documented roles in regulating inflammation, pain signaling, mood, appetite, sleep, immune response, and neuroplasticity. CBD does not bind directly to CB1 or CB2 receptors the way THC does. Instead, it appears to modulate the ECS indirectly—by inhibiting the enzyme FAAH that breaks down anandamide, by interacting with serotonin (5-HT1A) receptors, and by activating TRPV1 vanilloid receptors involved in pain perception. This complex pharmacological profile is what gives CBD its wide-ranging potential therapeutic applications without producing intoxication.

The Modern CBD Movement

State-Level Cannabis Reform: 1996–2012

While federal law remained firmly prohibitionist, individual states began charting their own course. In 1996, California voters passed Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act, making California the first state to legalize medical marijuana. Over the following decade, a growing number of states followed suit—Oregon, Alaska, Washington, Maine, Colorado, and others established medical marijuana programs that allowed patients with qualifying conditions to access cannabis products with a physician’s recommendation.

However, these early medical marijuana programs focused primarily on whole-plant cannabis, not on CBD as a distinct compound. Dispensary shelves were stocked with THC-dominant products; CBD was largely an afterthought. That began to change around 2009–2010, when breeders in Colorado’s medical marijuana community started developing high-CBD cannabis strains specifically for patients who wanted therapeutic benefits without intense psychoactive effects. The Stanley Brothers, a group of Colorado cultivators, were among the pioneers, eventually developing the strain that would make CBD a household name.

The broader cultural tide was shifting as well. In 2012, Colorado and Washington became the first states to legalize recreational marijuana, signaling that a majority of voters in those states no longer viewed cannabis prohibition as sound policy. National polls from the Pew Research Center showed that support for marijuana legalization had crossed the 50% threshold for the first time. Against this backdrop of growing acceptance, the stage was set for a single story that would catapult CBD into the national spotlight.

Charlotte Figi and the CBD Revolution

No single event in the history of CBD had a greater impact on public perception than the story of Charlotte Figi. Born in 2006 in Colorado, Charlotte was diagnosed with Dravet syndrome—a severe form of epilepsy that causes frequent, prolonged seizures and is notoriously resistant to conventional medications. By age five, Charlotte was experiencing up to 300 grand mal seizures per week. Her parents had tried every available treatment, including experimental medications, ketogenic diets, and even induced comas, with minimal success.

Desperate for answers, Charlotte’s mother Paige Figi reached out to the Stanley Brothers, who had been cultivating a high-CBD, low-THC cannabis strain. When Charlotte began taking CBD oil extracted from this strain, the results were extraordinary. Her seizures dropped from 300 per week to just two or three per month—a reduction of more than 99%. The strain was renamed “Charlotte’s Web” in her honor, and it became the most recognized CBD product in America.

The story reached a national audience in August 2013, when CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta aired a documentary titled “Weed.” Gupta, who had previously expressed skepticism about medical marijuana, publicly reversed his position after reviewing the evidence and meeting patients like Charlotte. The documentary was watched by millions and generated an immediate surge in interest in CBD. Families of children with epilepsy traveled from across the country—some becoming “medical refugees”—to access CBD oil in Colorado. The Charlotte’s Web story accomplished what decades of scientific advocacy had not: it made ordinary Americans view CBD as a legitimate medicine, entirely separate from recreational marijuana.

The 2014 and 2018 Farm Bills

The 2014 Farm Bill Opens the Door

Public opinion had shifted dramatically, and Congress began to respond. The Agricultural Act of 2014—commonly known as the 2014 Farm Bill—included Section 7606, which for the first time since 1970 allowed the cultivation of industrial hemp in the United States under limited circumstances. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the law authorized state agriculture departments and universities to grow hemp as part of research pilot programs, provided the crop contained no more than 0.3% THC on a dry weight basis.

The 2014 Farm Bill’s impact was cautious but significant. It did not fully legalize commercial hemp production, and it certainly did not address the sale of CBD products directly. However, it established the critical legal definition of hemp—cannabis containing 0.3% THC or less—that would carry forward into subsequent legislation. It also sent an unmistakable signal that the federal government was reconsidering its blanket prohibition on all forms of cannabis. Between 2014 and 2018, dozens of states launched hemp pilot programs, and the acreage devoted to hemp cultivation grew steadily each year.

The 2018 Farm Bill: The Watershed Moment

On December 20, 2018, President Donald Trump signed the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 into law, and the CBD industry was never the same. This landmark legislation removed hemp from the Controlled Substances Act entirely, reclassifying it as a legal agricultural commodity. Hemp-derived CBD—defined as CBD extracted from cannabis plants containing no more than 0.3% THC—was no longer a controlled substance under federal law.

The implications were sweeping. American farmers could now cultivate hemp commercially without the restrictions of pilot programs. Hemp products, including CBD oils, tinctures, and topicals, could be transported across state lines through ordinary interstate commerce. Hemp businesses gained access to banking services and financial markets that had previously been closed to them due to the plant’s Schedule I status. Farmers became eligible for federal crop insurance and USDA agricultural programs. In practical terms, the 2018 Farm Bill treated hemp the same way federal law treats soybeans or wheat.

The market responded with explosive growth. According to industry analytics firm Brightfield Group, U.S. CBD sales surged from approximately $1.9 billion in 2018 to more than $5 billion by 2022. CBD products appeared on the shelves of major retailers including CVS, Walgreens, and Kroger. Direct-to-consumer brands launched by the thousands. Product categories expanded far beyond traditional tinctures to include gummies, capsules, beverages, topical creams, bath bombs, pet treats, and even CBD-infused pillows. The 2018 Farm Bill had opened the floodgates.

FDA Regulation and the Ongoing Regulatory Gap

The FDA’s Complicated Relationship With CBD

While the 2018 Farm Bill legalized hemp, it explicitly preserved the FDA’s authority to regulate products containing cannabis-derived compounds, including CBD. This distinction is critical: hemp is legal to grow and sell, but the FDA has maintained that CBD cannot be legally marketed as a dietary supplement or added to food products without agency approval. The reason, the FDA has argued, is that CBD is the active ingredient in Epidiolex, a prescription drug approved in June 2018 for the treatment of seizures associated with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and Dravet syndrome—the very condition that Charlotte Figi suffered from.

Under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, an active pharmaceutical ingredient cannot simultaneously be sold as a dietary supplement unless it was marketed as a supplement before the drug was approved. Since CBD was not widely sold as a supplement before Epidiolex’s approval, the FDA has taken the position that CBD supplements exist in a legal gray zone. Between 2019 and 2023, the agency issued dozens of warning letters to CBD companies making unauthorized health claims—such as stating that CBD could treat cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, or COVID-19—while simultaneously holding public hearings and soliciting data on CBD’s safety profile.

In January 2023, the FDA publicly acknowledged that it could not adequately regulate CBD under its existing legal framework and called on Congress to create new legislation specifically addressing CBD’s unique status. As of 2026, that legislation remains a work in progress. Several bills have been introduced in both the House and Senate that would establish a federal regulatory pathway for CBD products, including manufacturing standards, labeling requirements, and potency limits, but none had been signed into law at the time of this writing.

The Patchwork of State Regulations

In the absence of clear federal guidelines, individual states have created their own regulatory frameworks for CBD—resulting in a confusing patchwork that varies significantly from state to state. Some states, such as Colorado and Oregon, have established comprehensive rules governing CBD product testing, labeling, and sale. Others, such as Idaho and Iowa, have imposed stricter limitations, including outright bans on any product containing detectable THC. This inconsistency creates challenges for both consumers trying to understand what is legal in their state and for businesses trying to operate across state lines.

Common state-level regulations include mandatory third-party lab testing for potency and contaminants, accurate labeling of CBD and THC content, age restrictions (typically 18 or 21 to purchase), and registration or licensing requirements for manufacturers and retailers. Several states have also adopted specific rules for CBD in food and beverages, with some permitting it and others prohibiting it entirely. The regulatory landscape continues to evolve, and consumers are advised to check their own state’s laws before purchasing CBD products.

CBD Around the World

The United Kingdom and European Union

The history of CBD outside the United States followed a different trajectory. In the United Kingdom, CBD is legal as a consumer product but is regulated under the Novel Food framework, which requires manufacturers to submit detailed safety assessments before their products can be sold. The UK’s Food Standards Agency set a final deadline of March 31, 2021 for CBD companies to submit valid Novel Food applications, and products from companies that failed to apply were ordered removed from shelves. This regulatory approach provides stronger consumer protections than the U.S. system, though critics argue it has disadvantaged smaller companies unable to afford the application process.

Across the European Union, CBD’s legal status was clarified by a landmark 2020 ruling from the European Court of Justice. In the Kanavape case, the court determined that CBD extracted from the whole hemp plant is not a narcotic and therefore falls under the EU’s free movement of goods provisions. This ruling effectively prevented individual EU member states from banning CBD products originating in other member states. Germany has emerged as the largest CBD market in Europe, while Switzerland has adopted an unusually permissive approach, allowing CBD products containing up to 1% THC—significantly higher than the 0.3% limit in the United States.

The Current CBD Landscape in 2026

Where the Industry Stands Today

As of 2026, the U.S. CBD market has matured considerably from the Wild West atmosphere that followed the 2018 Farm Bill. Industry consolidation has reduced the number of brands competing for shelf space, while the companies that remain have generally raised their quality standards. Third-party lab testing has become the de facto industry norm, and consumers are far more educated about what to look for in a CBD product than they were even a few years ago. Market estimates place total U.S. CBD revenue at more than $15 billion annually, with continued growth projected as product innovation expands into new categories such as functional beverages, beauty formulations, and veterinary products.

Research has also accelerated. According to the National Institutes of Health’s ClinicalTrials.gov database, hundreds of clinical trials examining CBD’s effects on conditions ranging from chronic pain and anxiety to opioid use disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder are either underway or completed. The 2017 report from the World Health Organization declaring that CBD exhibits no evidence of abuse potential or dependence continues to inform global policy decisions and has contributed to the gradual loosening of restrictions in countries from Brazil to Thailand.

Remaining Challenges and the Road Ahead

Despite the progress, significant challenges persist. The lack of a comprehensive federal regulatory framework means that product quality remains uneven; independent testing by organizations such as the ConsumerLab has found that some CBD products contain significantly more or less CBD than their labels claim, and a small percentage contain concerning levels of contaminants including heavy metals and pesticide residues. Health insurance does not cover CBD purchases, placing the financial burden entirely on consumers. And while research has expanded dramatically, the decades-long gap created by Schedule I restrictions means that the evidence base for many of CBD’s purported benefits is still catching up to consumer enthusiasm.

The coming years will likely bring greater regulatory clarity. Congressional momentum continues to build behind proposals that would establish Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) requirements, mandatory testing protocols, and standardized labeling for CBD products. Whether those proposals become law—and how the FDA ultimately exercises its authority—will write the next chapter in the ongoing history of CBD in America.

Conclusion

The history of CBD in the United States is a story that spans thousands of years of human use, a century of politically motivated prohibition, decades of painstaking scientific discovery, and a dramatic modern reversal that transformed a banned substance into a mainstream wellness product. From Roger Adams isolating the compound in 1940 to Raphael Mechoulam decoding its structure, from Charlotte Figi’s miraculous seizure reduction to the landmark 2018 Farm Bill, each chapter of this story built upon the one before it. Understanding this history is not merely academic—it is essential context for anyone using, selling, or writing about CBD products today.

The regulatory landscape remains in flux, and consumers should stay informed about both federal and state-level developments. As research continues to close the evidence gap left by decades of prohibition, the scientific understanding of how CBD works—and for whom it works best—will only grow sharper. What is already clear is that CBD’s journey from ancient remedy to modern phenomenon reflects broader American debates about personal freedom, the role of government in health decisions, and the relationship between science and policy.

The Bottom Line: The history of CBD is a still-unfolding story of science overcoming politics, and staying informed about that history empowers consumers to make better decisions in a rapidly evolving market.