Friday, November 28, 2008

Since Long Before Jeezis

We don't do much typing about Reefer Madness here (& not everything done in the past should be done today) but here's a Canadian item about the oldest stash so far discovered.

OTTAWA – Researchers say they have located the world's oldest stash of marijuana, in a tomb in a remote part of China.

The cache of cannabis is about 2,700 years old and was clearly "cultivated for psychoactive purposes," rather than as fibre for clothing or as food, says a research paper in the Journal of Experimental Botany.

[...]

"To our knowledge, these investigations provide the oldest documentation of cannabis as a pharmacologically active agent," says the newly published paper, whose lead author was American neurologist Dr. Ethan B. Russo.

Remnants of cannabis have been found in ancient Egypt and other sites, and the substance has been referred to by authors such as the Greek historian Herodotus. But the tomb stash is the oldest so far that could be thoroughly tested for its properties.

And from the "I did not know that" Dep't.:
The region of China where the tomb is located, Xinjiang, is considered an original source of many cannabis strains worldwide.

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