The relationship between humans and hemp plants has an Ancient History. It was grown at the end of the Neolithic Era in China, India, Mesopotamia, Egypt and Ancient Greece.
Both cultivation and use of cannabis has always been a taboo issue in our societies. It had a very important role in our diet, medicine, it was used ceremonoly and recreationally. Elaborate products where made from this raw material. Contrasting with Hinduism and Buddhism, Christianity has always denied “cannabis” divinity.
Modern Greek state started hemp growth for commercial purposes until its total prohibition in 1957. Greece, Turkey and Egypt became important hemp exporters. The use was legal and hemp was cultivated in fertile land such as the Peloponnese.
In 1870 Arcadia and Argolide counties ran hemp crops and marihuana growth. In the middle of the 19th century, Tripoli was the centre of hemp cultivation and trade. Georgios Makropoulos, the son of Tripolis mayor Athanasios Grigoropoulos was the first person to bring hemp seeds in Tripoli.
People were coming from Eastern Europe, Egypt and Cyprus to the municipality of Orchomenos in Mantinea to learn techniques on how to cultivate hemp. The newspaper “Moreas” informed that in 1904 the production in Mantinea was about 5.000.000 okades (64000 ton). Hash was exported to Egypt and the Middle-East.It was classified as one of the best in the world and it had an excellent reputation. Most of confiscations in Tunisia had a seal from Greek factories, mainly Stavros Kocaje of medicinal hemp and hash.
Every producer had a distinguishing and unique seal in their products. The elephant was the seal of Petros Karamanos landowner in Steno village. French traveller, Henry de Monfried, visited the family business in Steno to purchase hash. He said that there was a net organised by Greeks, he agreed to bring new customers and to get customs clearance for them. This net was made not only by marginal people, but also with educated people, men and women, together with necessary translators. They loaded the cargo from Steno and from Piraeus a Greek steam boat would take it to Marseille. The customer had the right to try the hash. The size of the flame was proportional to its quality. The harvest was during the night and hash was stored in a dark barn. After that, women sieved it on a special table and men put it in bowls to homogenize it. With a hydraulic press they were making it smaller in order to make transactions and transport easier.
This growth was stopped due to Britain’s Diplomatic and persistent pressure. They would stop purchasing Greek grapes unless the Greeks gave up growing hemp. There are two different versions of the British persistence.
The first one is about facing a huge problem with workers in Egypt which seemed that they smoked so much hash that it caused an alarming decrease in work performance. The second version was that many Indians were moving around the British Colonies. They wanted to grow hemp there because India was still a British Colony. As a result of this foreign policy, the Greek government imposed a tax and custom restrictions on hash in 1906. In 1919, The Treaty of Versailles stated that hemp cultivation and trade caused addiction and it had harmful effects on health. Greece followed the rest of European nations and under the law 7/11/1925 the ban for hemp trade was promulgated for ten years until the 1st of January 1936. The main goal was to sell out all the stock and import it all to avoid economic ruin. As a result, the hand labour started to decline in most workshops and landowners in Mantineia and they started to grow other crops. After Metaxas dictatorship, there were very strict measures about this issue. Consequently, hemp cultivation and trade disappeared. In the 1920 elections, Leridaios Alexandros Papanastasiou, who was a minister in the Venizelos presidency, arrived in Tripoli for his election. His countrymen had asked repeatedly to help with the suspension of the hemp ban. He not only ignored the petitions, but he also recommended developing more restrictive measures.
In 1932, the Greek Government bans both cultivation and possession of Indian hemp.
By following the old Eastern Mediterranean techniques we are reviving the traditional hash production using exclusively hemp (Sativa L.). As a result of this unique approach is the creation of a legal product with great potential.
It is not only used as a souvenir. The high percentage of CBD (3%-5,6% aprox) or CBG (3,68% aprox) makes the product suitable for other uses too! The medical products currently available in the market contain a CBD concentration on the same range as our product. This makes it an excellent help in aromatherapy.
All of our products follow the EU legislation regulations and are against animal testing.