I am not anti marijuana, but lets get the facts straight. The cash crop grown by George Washington et al was a strain that produced no high, commonly referred to as Indian hemp.
Good Idea!
"I am very glad to hear that the Gardener has saved so much of the St. foin seed, and that of the India Hemp. Make the most you can of both, by sowing them again in drills. . . Let the ground be well prepared, and the Seed (St. foin) be sown in April. The Hemp may be sown any where. " George Washington to William Pearce, 24 February 1794
Sounds like he was using the St Foin variety for medicinal purposes.
Most N American areas can grow 3x harvests of industrial hemp per year, only the last harvest goes into seed/flower. Planting the St Foin early meant he was wanting the biggest flowers possible on them. This is NOT an industrial usage planting schedule. It is a maximum bloom planting schedule.
That's correct. But, Randolph Hearst led the campaign to ban hemp, by demonizing marijuana -- and hemp was banned along with marijuana.
The reason? Hemp is actually superior for pulping into paper, by several different metrics (paper per acre, number of times paper can be recycled, longer shelf-life for paper).
Hearst had significant holdings in timber, and he used his media empire to protect them, inflaming hysteria over marijuana to ban hemp.