This timeline was created as part of the [Republic of Cannabis](http://www.kqed.org/news/bayarea/republicofcannabis/), a project of the Center for Investigative Reporting and KQED.;xNLx;;xNLx;Reported by Julia Bernstein and Lisa Pickoff-White;xNLx;;xNLx;Produced by Lisa Pickoff-White
Governor Eugene Foss signs the first law prohibiting marijuana in the United States.
"Tell Your Children" a cautionary tale of marijuana use was produced by a church group to scare teenagers. But in the 1970s it just made everyone laugh, and was subsequently retitled: "Reefer Madness."
The Marihuana Tax Act banned the recreational use of marijuana through prohibitive taxation/penalties.
Samuel R. Caldwell, 58, of Denver, Colorado, became the first marijuana seller arrested under federal law. He was also the first convicted, and spent four years in Leavenworth Penitentiary.
The United Nations creates an international treaty to ban marijuana, along with other narcotics.
The major psychoactive constituent of cannabis, (what gets you high), D -9-THC, was synthesized in pure form for the first time.
The famous rock concert of 1969 was meant for a few thousand people at a field in New York, but about 500,000 showed up. And just about everyone from Jimi Hendrix to Joe Cocker sang about -- or partook in -- mary jane.
The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws forms with a $5,000 grant from the Playboy Foundation.
While the 1937 tax act prohibited marijuana, it did not ban it. So in 1970 the federal government clarified that with the Controlled Substances Act, which bans specific drugs from any use.
The Nixon-appointed Shafer Commission finds evidence that the "gateway theory" of marijuana use is false.
