If you have ever visited Nova Scotia, you would know about its rich history. It was ground zero for the largest man-made explosion prior to Hiroshima. It supplies the city of Boston with a Christmas tree every year. And you’re never more than 60 kilometres from the sea. 

Here is something you won’t read in the history books: Nova Scotia is the birthplace of cannabis in Canada. 

It’s something few people would expect given how Nova Scotia’s identity is anchored to the ocean, but this long connection with cannabis dates back 400 years. When European settlers colonized Canada they would first arrive on the east coast. Many of those settlers brought skills and trades such as farming and fishing. One of those trades was horticulture.

Nova Scotia’s relationship with weed dates back to 1606, when a French botanist named Louis Hebért planted cannabis crops in Nova Scotia. He is widely considered the first apothecary and the first person to ever farm in Canada. That is likely when Canada was first introduced to weed.

Cannabis was considered a commodity at the time. Not only was it used for its medicinal properties, but hemp sails and ropes carried European settlers to North America for hundreds of years. 

A boat with tourists is seen in the Halifax harbour Tuesday May 11, 2010 as it sails past Navy ships. (ANDRE FORGET/QMI AGENCY)

Cannabis production in Canada peaked between the 1850s and 1900s, when a Nova Scotia physician by the name of F.W. Goodwin lectured about the benefits of the plant for migraines, poor appetite and depression. At the time, Dr. Goodwin was president of the Nova Scotia Medical Association, now known as Doctors Nova Scotia.

“From half an hour to three hours after taking a full dose, the patient feels a sense of well being or as if he had heard good tidings of great joy. There is a tendency to laughter, and the subject in many cases says comical and witty things,” Goodwin published in 1898 in the Maritime Medical News.

Famous Canadian physician William Osler backed up Goodwin’s findings in 1916. It wasn’t until 1923 that Canada added marijuana to the drug prohibition act and it became a controlled substance. Cannabis would remain on the controlled substance list for almost 95 years.

Today, Nova Scotians are among the highest per capita cannabis users in the country / Photo: iStock/Getty Images Plus iStock / Getty Images Plus

It’s been more than a year since the federal government legalized recreational cannabis use. Today, Nova Scotians are among the highest per capita cannabis users in the country, according to Statistics Canada.

The small fishing town of Yarmouth, situated on the province’s South Shore, is no exception. Yarmouth’s recent Cannabis Cup festival, from Nov. 15 to 17, celebrated the plant with joint-rolling classes, an indoor growing seminar and a manic munchies eating contest. 

Nancy Bain is the organizer behind the event and does it out of sheer passion. The 52-year-old says hundreds of people from all over the province attend. “We’re typically a friendly and non judgemental bunch. It’s important to know it’s a brand new world out there and if we can publicly discuss cannabis, we can build a community,” said Bain

Bain credits Nova Scotia’s positive attitude towards legalization to the east coast’s inherently open-minded way of thinking. It’s only natural for Nova Scotians have such a positive relationship with cannabis — it’s part of their history.

“Nova Scotians have always lived off the land and sea, now we’re living off the crops — literally.”