Yes, marijuana is an herb in the strict botanical sense. Cannabis sativa is classified as an herbaceous annual plant, meaning it has a non-woody stem, completes its entire life cycle in a single growing season, and dies after producing seeds. This puts it in the same broad botanical category as basil, parsley, and dill.
What Makes a Plant an “Herb”
In botany, an herbaceous plant is any vascular plant that does not produce persistent woody stems above ground. Unlike trees and shrubs, which build up layers of hard wood tissue year after year, herbaceous plants have soft, green stems that die back at the end of each growing season. Cannabis fits this definition cleanly: it germinates from a seed, reaches sexual maturity, flowers, sets seed, and dies, all within one year when growing in the wild.
There is a small wrinkle. Cannabis stems do contain a woody interior, and fiber-producing hemp varieties can grow quite tall with stiff stalks. But having some rigid internal tissue is not the same as being a woody plant. The stems don’t persist through winter or accumulate growth rings the way a tree or shrub would. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency formally classifies Cannabis sativa as a “herbaceous dioecious annual species,” and that designation is consistent across botanical references worldwide.
Where Cannabis Fits in Plant Taxonomy
Cannabis belongs to the family Cannabaceae, which also includes hops (the plant used to flavor beer). Both cannabis and hops are herbaceous plants, while other members of the same family, like hackberry trees in the genus Celtis, are woody. So even within its own botanical family, cannabis sits on the herbaceous side of the divide.
Within the species Cannabis sativa, botanists recognize subspecies based on chemical content. The formal system uses 0.3% THC in dried female flower tops as the dividing line: plants below that threshold are generally considered hemp, while those above it are the drug-type varieties commonly called marijuana. Both are still the same herbaceous species. The difference is chemical, not structural.
Cannabis as an Herb in the Culinary Sense
The word “herb” also has a narrower, everyday meaning: a plant used for flavoring, fragrance, or medicine. Cannabis qualifies here too. Its seeds and seed oil have been used as food for centuries, and its aromatic profile overlaps significantly with common kitchen herbs and spices. The terpenes responsible for cannabis’s distinctive smell include compounds that produce pine, citrus, pepper, and floral notes. One of the most abundant, beta-caryophyllene, gives off a peppery, spicy aroma and is also found in black pepper and cloves. Others contribute scents described as earthy, woody, herbal, or lemony. If you’ve ever walked past a cannabis plant and thought it smelled like a spice rack, that’s why.
In regions where recreational cannabis is legal, its use as a food ingredient has become increasingly mainstream, with terpene profiles treated much like those of culinary herbs.
Thousands of Years as a Medicinal Herb
Cannabis has one of the longest documented histories of medicinal use of any plant. The earliest reliable records come from China, where it appeared in a compendium of 365 medical herbs compiled during the Han dynasty (roughly 221 BC to 220 AD). In Egypt, the Ebers papyrus from around 1500 BC describes topical cannabis applications for inflammation. Assyrian clay tablets reference it as a treatment possibly used for depression.
In the ancient Greek world, Herodotus wrote about Scythians throwing hemp seeds on hot stones inside sealed tents and being “delighted” by the resulting vapor. Roman physicians including Pliny the Elder, Dioscorides, and Galen all documented its medical properties. Pliny noted that a root decoction could relieve arthritis and gout. Dioscorides confirmed anti-inflammatory effects. Galen mentioned that it was common in Italy to serve small cakes containing marijuana as dessert, and that consuming large amounts “affected the head.” In India, cannabis has been used for thousands of years in Ayurvedic medicine under names like Vijaya to reduce pain, nausea, and anxiety.
Why It Can’t Be Sold as an Herbal Supplement
Despite being an herb botanically and historically, marijuana and its key compounds cannot legally be sold as herbal or dietary supplements in the United States. The FDA has concluded that both THC and CBD are excluded from the dietary supplement definition because they are active ingredients in approved or investigated drug products. Once a substance becomes the focus of pharmaceutical drug development, federal law prevents it from being marketed as a supplement, even if it comes from a plant.
There is a legal exception for substances that were already marketed as supplements before drug investigations began, but the FDA has determined that neither THC nor CBD meets that criterion. This means that while you can buy echinacea or valerian root as herbal supplements, cannabis-derived products occupy a different regulatory space, regardless of the plant’s botanical status.
“Herb” as Slang
It’s worth noting that “herb” is also one of the most common informal names for marijuana, alongside “weed,” “pot,” and “grass.” In legal and research contexts, “marijuana” typically refers specifically to the dried leaves and flowering tops of the cannabis plant, sometimes called “herbal cannabis” to distinguish it from concentrated products like hashish or hash oil. So even in regulatory language, the word “herbal” shows up in direct reference to the plant material itself.
The slang usage isn’t really a stretch. Cannabis is, by every botanical and historical measure, an herb. It’s an aromatic, herbaceous annual that humans have used for food, fiber, fragrance, and medicine for at least 3,500 years. The fact that modern drug policy treats it differently doesn’t change what it is as a plant.