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The Journey
Each jar tells a story: from humanity's earliest cultivation, through the propaganda that demonized it, to the hard-fought legalization of today.
Chapter 1
Cannabis was domesticated around 12,000 years ago in present-day China and Taiwan, one of humanity's oldest cultivated crops. Early communities used it for fiber, food, and medicine. Nomadic Scythians used it in ritual ceremonies described by Herodotus in the 5th century BCE.
Chapter 2
During the age of exploration, European ships relied on hemp for sails, ropes, and rigging. Without hemp, long-distance sea travel and early colonization of the Americas would have been far more difficult. Hemp was arguably the most valuable industrial crop of its era.
Chapter 3
In 1619, the Jamestown Colony passed a law requiring farmers to grow hemp, one of the first agricultural mandates in North America. Hemp was vital for rope, sails, and goods for trade and survival. The plant that would later be criminalized was once legally required to grow.
Chapter 4
In 1839, Irish physician William Brooke O'Shaughnessy introduced cannabis to Western medicine. By the late 1800s, cannabis tinctures were widely available in pharmacies, prescribed for pain, insomnia, and other ailments. It was considered a legitimate, valued medicine across the Western world.
Chapter 5
In 1937, cannabis was criminalized following a campaign by Harry Anslinger, who promoted the term "marijuana" to make the plant seem foreign and dangerous, using racist rhetoric targeting Black and Mexican communities. A medicine used for millennia was rebranded as a threat to society.
Chapter 6
William Randolph Hearst, who owned vast timberlands and paper mills, amplified anti-cannabis hysteria. Hemp threatened his business interests. His newspapers ran sensational headlines linking cannabis to moral collapse. Media and money conspired to shape public fear.
Chapter 7
During the 1960s, cannabis became intertwined with American counterculture, embraced by hippies, anti-war protesters, musicians, and civil rights activists as a symbol of resistance and personal freedom. The plant became a vehicle for questioning authority and imagining a different world.
Chapter 8
The modern legalization movement began with California's Proposition 215 in 1996. In 2012, Colorado and Washington legalized recreational use. By 2025, daily cannabis use surpassed daily alcohol consumption for the first recorded time. History is being corrected, one state at a time.
Chapter 9
Cannabis offers real environmental benefits when cultivated responsibly. Hemp absorbs COâ‚‚ efficiently and can be carbon negative. Living soil practices allow cannabis to function as a tool for restoration, not just profit. This is where Reid's Runtz lives: at the intersection of craft, ethics, and care.
Reid's Runtz
Every jar is a small act in a much larger story. Thank you for being part of it.