High Network: The Stanford & MIT Pot Story

Brains, Wires & Bud

In 1971—long before browsers or broadband—the world’s first computer network, ARPANET, linked research labs coast to coast. Two of its key nodes, the Stanford AI Lab (SAIL) in California and MIT’s AI Lab in Cambridge, buzzed with grad students testing instant digital communication. The same generation that filled Grateful Dead shows was now coding the foundations of the internet.

A Message Across the Network

Early users weren’t just trading code—they were sending electronic notes, the proto-email. In one exchange, Stanford students used their SAIL accounts to message MIT friends about a small marijuana pickup. It wasn’t myth—it was the first known online transaction in history: a pot deal arranged through ARPANET.

Not E-Commerce, Not Yet

There was no online checkout, no encryption, no PayPal. Just two labs using a government-funded network to coordinate an in-person handoff. The first digital transaction in history wasn’t science—it was weed.

Culture Behind the Code

This wasn’t rebellion—it was reflection. Early-’70s counterculture overlapped perfectly with early computing. The long-haired programmers at Stanford and MIT didn’t separate “hacker culture” from hippie values. Curiosity, freedom, and experimentation were the same code—whether written in BASIC or rolled in a joint.

From Counterculture to Connectivity

That 3,000-mile ARPANET message—typed on a clunky CRT terminal—proved a radical point: networks could connect people, not just machines. It foreshadowed everything from email to online markets. The first digital connection didn’t come from corporations—it came from people sharing what mattered.

Recorded in History

Decades later, journalist John Markoff traced the story in What the Dormouse Said (2005). The first online “transaction” wasn’t a book or record—it was cannabis traded through a U.S. Department of Defense network. That irony became part of digital folklore, showing how the internet’s roots intertwined with youth culture and rebellion.

Legacy of a Simple Message

The deal itself faded into legend, but the lesson endured: technology follows culture. The first thing humans did with the internet wasn’t commerce or conflict—it was connection, sparked by cannabis.

From Joint to Dot-Com

Two decades later, the first official e-commerce sale would be a Sting CD, but long before that, a handful of students on ARPANET had already shown the network’s purpose—to communicate, share, and connect over something meaningful, no matter how small.

YOUTUBE VIDEO

- NUGG NOTES

SOURCES:

1. Mike Power, The Guardian (2013)

   Mentions John Markoff’s account that the world’s 1st online transaction was a drug deal: Stanford students using ARPANET accounts at the Stanford AI Lab arranged a marijuana sale w/ MIT students. 

2. VICE (Kate Knibbs, 2013)

   “The First Thing to Be Bought and Sold on the Internet Was Some Weed” directly quotes Markoff’s passage about Stanford students using ARPANET to quietly arrange the sale of an undetermined amount of marijuana to MIT counterparts. 

3. Neatorama (2013)

   “The World’s First E-Commerce Transaction Was a Drug Deal” repeats Markoff’s quote about the 1971–72 ARPANET marijuana transaction between Stanford & MIT and frames it as the seminal act of e-commerce. 

4. Alchimia (2021)

   “What Was the First Thing Sold Online? Cannabis, of Course!” retells the story: in 1972, Stanford students at the AI Lab used their ARPANET account to sell a small amount of marijuana to MIT students, long before Amazon or eBay. 

5. BetterBe “Famous Firsts of the Internet” (c. 2021)

   Lists “1973 – First Internet Transaction” & notes Stanford students used ARPANET to sell marijuana to MIT students, with the amount sold “still undetermined.” 

6. Grunge (2023)

   “Wild Historical Stories That Involve Cannabis” cites John Markoff’s book and summarizes his claim that the 1st transaction in internet history may have been a cannabis deal over ARPANET between Stanford & MIT.