More than a century before California became synonymous with cannabis cultivation, an unusual agricultural operation near Stockton was reportedly producing cannabis for purposes beyond ordinary hemp seed. A June 24, 1895 newspaper account described Arab and Turkish farmers growing Indian hemp, making hashish and kif, and explaining the fields as a source of birdseed. The story connects immigrant agricultural knowledge with an unexpected chapter in American cannabis history.
From the Middle East to California
On June 24, 1895, the San Francisco Call reported that Arab and Turkish farmers near Stockton, California, were cultivating approximately 20 acres of Indian hemp.
According to the newspaper account described in the original caption, local residents were told the crop was being grown for seed.
However, the plants were also reportedly being processed into hashish paste and kif.
These preparations reflected traditions associated with the Mediterranean and Middle East, where cannabis had established uses beyond its cultivation as a fiber and seed crop.
The caption notes that most Californians at the time were unfamiliar with hashish, although the newspaper claimed it was already being consumed in San Francisco.
The Stockton operation therefore provides a glimpse into cannabis practices that existed in California before the plant became widely recognized in American public life.
Pipes, Paste and Powders
The newspaper reportedly described three methods of cannabis consumption.
1. Smoking kif
Kif was reportedly smoked in pipes.
2. Eating cannabis paste
Another preparation involved a paste made from cannabis leaves, sesame, butter and honey.
3. Swallowing powdered hemp
A third method involved consuming powdered hemp with water.
The newspaper also described supposed effects, using language such as "delusive dreams."
However, the original caption emphasizes that the reporting relied heavily on sensational claims.
Descriptions of bloodshot eyes, brain pain and people supposedly "running amuck" reflected the newspaper's dramatic presentation of cannabis use.
One particularly extreme allegation involved dervishes supposedly tearing animals apart during frenzied behavior.
These descriptions should be understood as claims reported by the newspaper, not independently established effects of the preparations.
The reporting also reflects the orientalist attitudes common in some American coverage of immigrant communities during the period.
A Hidden Supply Network
The Stockton farmers reportedly assured neighbors that their hemp fields were being cultivated for birdseed.
At the same time, the original account describes pressed hashish and kif moving through immigrant communities across the United States.
Stockton became a reported supply point, with products reaching Arab, Armenian and Turkish hashish circles in other states.
These networks connected local cultivation with communities that already understood the preparation and use of cannabis products.
The operation was not described simply as a local agricultural activity.
It was part of a wider movement of cannabis products through immigrant networks.
Why Birdseed Provided Cover
Hemp seed was a legitimate commercial product during this period.
Bird enthusiasts and feed stores purchased large quantities of seed for canaries, parrots and other birds.
This created an opportunity for growers to explain hemp cultivation through an established agricultural market.
According to the original caption, the birdseed explanation helped farmers avoid suspicion while producing cannabis for intoxicating preparations.
The same crop could be presented as a conventional agricultural product even while other parts of the harvest were being processed into hashish and kif.
This overlap between legitimate hemp commerce and cannabis production became an important part of the Stockton story.
The Birdseed Loophole
The original account connects the Stockton farmers' explanation to a much later development in American cannabis law.
In 1895, the farmers reportedly eased local suspicion by explaining that their hemp fields were intended for seed production.
Decades later, when cannabis became subject to prohibition, lawmakers faced a related problem.
Hemp seed remained useful for bird feed, creating a distinction between intoxicating cannabis and certain processed hemp products.
The eventual solution allowed sterilized hemp seed and stalks to remain legal under the relevant federal framework.
The caption presents the Stockton farmers' original explanation as an early precedent for this distinction.
The Controlled Substances Act and Sterilized Seed
The story extends into the 1970 Controlled Substances Act.
According to the original account, sterilized hemp seed intended for bird feed remained legal even under the federal law.
This created a lasting distinction between prohibited cannabis material and certain permitted hemp products.
The original caption describes the old Stockton explanation, "we grow for seed," as an idea that eventually became part of American cannabis policy.
It characterizes this as a historical connection between immigrant farming practices and the later legal treatment of hemp seed.
The precise legislative history behind the federal exemption is not established by the caption alone, so the connection should be understood as the story's proposed historical interpretation rather than proof that the Stockton farmers directly caused the federal provision.
From Secret Fields to Federal Codes
The Stockton story brings together several important parts of early American cannabis history.
Arab and Turkish farmers reportedly brought established knowledge of cannabis cultivation and preparation into California.
Their operation near Stockton connected hemp agriculture with hashish and kif production.
The use of birdseed as an explanation for cultivation reflected the existence of a legitimate hemp-seed market that could overlap with other uses of the plant.
The original account connects that historical practice with the later legal distinction surrounding sterilized hemp seed.
Legacy
The June 24, 1895 Stockton report provides an early glimpse into cannabis cultivation and hashish production in California.
The reported 20-acre operation connected Arab and Turkish agricultural communities with cannabis preparations familiar in parts of the Mediterranean and Middle East.
Its reported use of birdseed as an explanation for hemp cultivation adds another layer to the story, showing how legitimate agricultural commerce could overlap with cannabis production.
The original caption draws a connection between that explanation and the later federal treatment of sterilized hemp seed under the 1970 Controlled Substances Act.
The Stockton story is a reminder that California's cannabis history did not begin with the modern counterculture movement.
Immigrant communities, agricultural traditions and early cannabis commerce were already part of the state's history in the nineteenth century.
Sources
nuggnotes. "Stockton Hashish Story: How Arab Farmers Planted Cannabis in California." Instagram, 5 Feb. 2026, https://www.instagram.com/p/DUYjYc-Dwd7/.
The original nuggnotes post — primary source for the consumption preparations, newspaper color, and the proposed birdseed-to-CSA connection as the account presents them.
Gieringer, Dale H. "The Forgotten Origins of Cannabis Prohibition in California." Contemporary Drug Problems, vol. 26, no. 2, Summer 1999, pp. 237–287; revised Oct. 2019, https://www.canorml.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Cal-Origins-MJ-Proh-2019.pdf.
Quotes the San Francisco Call, June 24, 1895 verbatim: S. A. Nahon told the Board of Trade that "the Arabs and Armenians or Turks are growing twenty acres of hemp near Stockton. They tell the farmers that it is for bird seed, but that is not all. They make and smoke kiff and send large quantities of hashish to this City… and large quantities are also sent to other parts of the United States where Arab and Turk hashish-eaters reside." Gieringer calls it the only known direct evidence of recreational hashish use in 19th-century California.
"Marihuana Tax Act of 1937." United States Statutes at Large, vol. 50, ch. 553, § 1(b), p. 552, https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:United_States_Statutes_at_Large_Volume_50_Part_1.djvu/576.
The 1937 Act's definition of "marihuana" expressly excludes "the sterilized seed of such plant which is incapable of germination" — the original federal sterilized-seed exemption, carried forward in the Controlled Substances Act's definition (21 U.S.C. § 802(16)).
Dewey, Lyster H. "The Hemp Industry in the United States." Yearbook of the United States Department of Agriculture, 1901, pp. 541–554, https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/60cb707bf3eda22638142a78/60fc1f6fc83a18d4e72c50d8_Hemp-Lester-Dewey.pdf.
Contemporary USDA evidence of the era's legitimate hemp-seed/birdseed trade: hemp was "growing spontaneously where it has been accidentally introduced with bird seed" — viable hemp seed circulated as bird feed, which made the Stockton growers' cover story plausible.
"Historical Digital Newspaper Collections." San Francisco Public Library, https://sfpl.org/locations/main-library/magazines-newspapers-center/digitized-historical-newspapers.
Confirms the archive trail: Chronicling America (Library of Congress) holds San Francisco Call scans for 3/5/1895–12/8/1913, images provided by UC Riverside — the June 24, 1895 issue falls inside the held range.
0 comments