History lesson, please! Just how long has Cannabis been in use?

[SheltonThompson]

From my research in regards to the history of cannabis, it's been dated back more than 10,000 years ago. Can't imagine what it was like to light one up in ancient times. Seems China, then Asia, then eventually to Europe and the United States..and then to all the other places.



What's your guys take on this? I am just curious on more of a background to Cannabis. Gives you an idea of just how much the government is holding back if even way back then they believed it cured various ailments.

 

[Phaeton]

Mercury is traditional medicine with a long long history of use.
Bleeding to balance the humors is a tried and true method in medicine going back centuries to the first journals written.
Repeated stings from wasps cured quite a few disparate ailments since forever.
Documents relating to marijuana use date to 2500 BC.

Making this subject part of a conspiracy theory involving the government forced a response.
See what you made me do.

 

[HuffnPufferfish]

government conspiracy? i wish people in charge were smart enough for that, but its just incompetence

 

[St. Phatty]

I hear dolphins sometimes play with pufferfish -

and the theory is they get high from the poison.

Personally, I prefer Cannabis.

I've read passages in history books about the Scythians putting it on their fires & enjoying the smoke.


OK now someone at Sea World needs to design a bong for dolphins so they can stop abusing the puffer-fish.

 

[Jhhnn]

Oldest cannabis uses yet found-

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-...annabis-plants-found-in-ancient-tomb-in-china

 

[gekolite]

used before written record

 

[oldchuck]

How long humans have cultivated Cannabis is unknown and probably unknowable. Keep in mind that the plant may have been used in its wild state a lot longer. What seems fairly certain is that Cannabis is among the very earliest cultivated crops, probably not for getting high but for food or fiber. That puts it in the neighborhood of 10,000 years ago. Just when people started using it for medicine or fun is also unknown. The written records are not clear but maybe at least 2,500 years ago. Newly discovered evidence is interesting but not really ancient pre-history.

 

[geneva_sativa]

Earliest written record 2727 B.C.E. from Shen Nong's records.

That would be what ? nearly 5,000 years ago.

We might find an older record, really fascinating to look into it.

 

[St. Phatty]

Earliest written record 2727 B.C.E. from Shen Nong's records.

That would be what ? nearly 5,000 years ago.

We might find an older record, really fascinating to look into it.

How do you translate,
"(Coughing sound) SMOOTH"

in ancient Chinese ?

"(咳嗽聲) 光滑"

... best I could do with online translate.


http://antiquecannabisbook.com/chap2B/China/China.htm

 

[sdd420]

Long enough that our bodies have developed endocannabinoid receptors

 

[geneva_sativa]

How do you translate,
"(Coughing sound) SMOOTH"

in ancient Chinese ?

"(咳嗽聲) 光滑"

... best I could do with online translate.


http://antiquecannabisbook.com/chap2B/China/China.htm

This may be better, the other character you used for smooth relating more to physical objects.

feeling is smooth or pure ( literally = really or very pure )

好純

 

[Phaeton]

I need to quit reading this thread.

Human opioid receptors did not originate bcause primates ate poppies.
Cocaine receptors did not arise because our ancestors used coke.
Endocannabinoid receptors are not in all our cells because primitive men were stoners.

There are a finite number of usable organic molecules available. This is good because plants and animals have to use the same ones, albeit for different purposes. This allows us to remove concentrated forms of chemicals from plants that are both useful and rare in humans. Antibiotics from fungus, painkillers and stimulants from plants, poisons and cures from other animals.

The chemicals life evolved to use arose before life could pick and choose what food to eat. It used what was available at the time, and shared that with all the other life occupying the same space/time.

I used mercury as an example in my original post because it is a deadly, almost always fatal chemical that was used as a cure for many ailments from prehistory all the way to less than 100 years ago.
It was shiny and unique so MUST be magically wonderful, or so the thinking went for thousands and thousands of documented years.

I do like the fact the ancient Chinese pots had my favorite mix of intoxicants in the recipe. Some things they got right.

 

[oldchuck]

I think you are quite right Phaeton. I don't think people started using Cannabis to get high or for medicine until many thousands of years after the plant was domesticated. Probably an accidental discovery. Evidence is slim as it is for many preliterate human activities. My own guess is that the first use people found for Cannabis was as a seed plant like grain. This must have happened long before people figured out agriculture. Cannabis seeds have a high nutritional value but I would guess the first cultivated use was for fiber.

The relationship between the human endocanabinoid and the plant is an interesting mystery but clearly they developed separately.

 

[St. Phatty]

I think you are quite right Phaeton. I don't think people started using Cannabis to get high or for medicine until many thousands of years after the plant was domesticated. Probably an accidental discovery.

I remember the first time I tried hemp seed butter.

Definitely had a healthy feel. Don't know if THC was involved.

Our ancestors certainly ate hemp seeds, and with hemp seeds come brachs, tiny leaves etc.

First time they tried to bake their hemp seeds ... Fun Fun Fun !