Cannabis, cocaine and heroin have interesting life stories and long rap sheets. We might know them today as illicit drugs, but each was once legal.

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Then things changed. Racism and politics played a part in how we viewed them. We also learned more about their impact on health. Over time, they were declared illegal.

But decades later, these drugs and their derivatives are being used legally, for medical purposes.

Here's how we ended up outlawing cannabis, cocaine and heroin, and what happened next.

Cannabis plants originated in central Asia, spread to North Africa, and then to the Americas. People grew cannabis for its hemp fibre, used to make ropes and sacks. But it also had other properties. Like many other ancient medical discoveries, it all started with religion.

Cannabis is mentioned in the Hindu texts known as the Vedas (1700-1100 BCE) as a sacred, feel-good plant. Cannabis or bhang is still used ritually in India today during festivals such as Shivratri and Holi.

From the late 1700s, the British in India started taxing cannabis products. They also noticed a high rate of "Indian hemp insanity" - including what we'd now recognise as psychosis - in the colony. By the late 1800s, a British government investigation found only heavy cannabis use seemed to affect people's mental health.

In the 1880s, cannabis was used therapeutically in the United States to treat tetanus, migraine and "insane delirium". But not everyone agreed on (or even knew) the best dose. Local producers simply mixed up what they had into a tincture - soaking cannabis leaves and buds in alcohol to extract essential oils - and hoped for the best.

So how did cannabis go from a slightly useless legal drug to a social menace?

Some of it was from genuine health concerns about what was added to people's food, drink and medicine.

In 1908 in Australia, NSW listed cannabis as an ingredient that could "adulterate" food and drink (along with opium, cocaine and chloroform). To sell the product legally, you had to tell the customers it contained cannabis.

Some of it was international politics. Moves to control cannabis use began in 1912 with the world's first treaty against drug trafficking. The US and Italy both wanted cannabis included, but this didn't happen until until 1925.

Some of it was racism. The word marihuana is Spanish for cannabis (later Anglicised to........

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