Discoveries, selection, diversity, culture, cuisine, traditions, legends, literature... but also, of course, medicine, legislation and other illegal and smoky uses: here's a complete tour of the shared history between man, hemp... and cannabis!

After ten years of research, music composer Alexis Chanebau decided to write this book to make up for the lack of imagination (or information) in our current policies. This summary has the urgent task of shedding light on the extraordinary applications of this plant, noting that it is little known to the general public. An essential tool for the economic independence of emerging civilisations and religions, this forgotten raw material can be used to produce all sorts of vital, high-quality products: food, biofuels, lighting, heating, paper, textiles, ropes, incense, cosmetics, medicine, etc. Hemp was undoubtedly one of the most widely cultivated plants on the planet until 1961. In his eulogy of Pantagruélion, published in 1546, François Rabelais even attributed to it the rank of "Queen of plants, generator of progress", writing that "hemp enabled men not only to join together across the seas, but also to attempt to climb the heavens". George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, the founding fathers of the United States of America, were equally convinced: between 1650 and 1850, an American farmer could pay his taxes with what is known today as "Marijuana". This ecological momentum was brought to a screeching halt, overshadowed by the rise of polluting industries: petrochemicals, wood-pulp paper mills, cotton growing, etc. Today, with the oil-financial crisis, hemp's exceptional qualities mean that it could finally be recognised as a universal and renewable providential resource, dedicated to mankind. "Why sacrifice our hundred-year-old forests, continue the costly exploitation of our minerals, if we can obtain the equivalent with the annual harvest of hemp...? "(Henry Ford).