Ever wonder why cannabis has approximately a million names? That’s because it’s been cultivated in different cultures all over the world. Cannabis is Latin. Marijuana? That term comes from Mexico. And ganja comes from the Hindi ganjha.

The first known writing on psychoactive cannabis dates back to ancient China. Though cannabis has at times been considered a tool of shamanism and spirituality, it’s also been outlawed by religions across the world. A lot of them. In 600 BCE in China, Taoism rejected intoxicants, including cannabis. In the 1300s, Sunni Muslims clashed with Sufi Muslims over cannabis fields in Egypt. And a century later, the Catholic Pope declared cannabis satanic.

With a backstory like this, it’s no wonder information on cannabis is hard to come by. But what did this little plant do to become so contentious?

So, now we know plants have tons of bits and bobs—terpenes (aromatic compounds), flavonoids (metabolites), essential oils, and, in the case of cannabis, cannabinoids. But how do these bits and bobs interact with our bodies?

Humans (and all other vertebrates) are full of receptors that help regulate functions like pain, appetite, and memory. These receptors kick into action when they detect cannabinoid molecules. When you expose your receptors to cannabis, it amplifies the work your endocannabinoid system is already doing. “Endo,” for those of you studying linguistics at home, is a root word that means “inside.” So an “endocannabinoid system” is a cannabinoid-regulating system inside your body.

For a while, scientists thought we only had endocannabinoid receptors in our brains and nerves. More recent research proves that we actually have receptors just about everywhere.

With the Controlled Substances Act, which was signed by President Nixon in 1970, cannabis was designated as a drug with no potential medical uses. John Ehrlichman, counsel to Nixon, later claimed there was a political and racial agenda behind this designation:

“We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be against the war (in Vietnam) or Black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and the Blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”

As more states legalize cannabis, it’s important to keep a few key facts in mind. One: The war on drugs harmed (and continues to harm) Black people disproportionately more than white people. Black people are still 3.64 times more likely to be arrested for cannabis offenses in the US than white people. Two: The rhetoric around cannabis has led many Americans to fear that cannabis is highly dangerous, despite the fact that there are no reports of fatal cannabis overdoses in the epidemiological research consulted by the World Health Organization. Three: Roadblocks on research are slowly, finally disappearing, making this both an exciting era to study cannabis and a bit of a Wild West, where folks will chase trends and say anything they think they can get away with. That’s why we aim to make the nitty-gritty of cannabis as transparent and honest as possible.

The science of cannabis is infused with curiosity and possibility. We encourage you to experiment along with us. Every individual reacts differently to cannabis products, and we’re legally not able to claim any specific benefits of our products (like, “X product will cure Y ailment,” even if, in our experience, it does). So pick out a few High Desert Pure products and give them a whirl! Try them for a few days. Share them with your friends and see what they think.

Thanks for being scientists with us.