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Cannabis is one of the oldest cultivated plants in history and while it is generally assumed in the archaeological community that its use goes back to the Neolithic or later Stone Age, the first hard evidence of its use was found in the form of hemp decorated pottery at the excavation site of a 10,000 year-old Taiwanese village (Green, Cannabis, p.34). Ancient China is thought to be the probable site of the early domestication of Cannabis. Further evidence of the use of Cannabis hemp expanded exponentially as history progressed and “from at least the 27th Century B.C.E. until the 20th Century C.E. Cannabis was incorporated into virtually all the cultures of the Middle East, Asia Minor, the Indian subcontinent, China, Japan, Europe and Africa” (Herer, The Emperor Wears No Clothes, p.70).

Like the use of Cannabis for industrial purposes early uses of Cannabis for its psychoactive effects is equally shrouded in mystery. The Chinese Pên-ts’ao Ching, dated about 2000 B.C.E. thus making it the world’s oldest surviving pharmacopoeia, states that the fruits (i.e. flowering tops) of hemp, ‘if taken in excess will produce hallucinations’ and continues ‘if taken over a long term, it makes one communicate with spirits and lightens one’s body’. The first recorded use of Cannabis for recreational purposes in the western world is derived from a 5th Century B.C.E. report on the Scythians (central Asian nomads) by Herodotos, the famous Greek historian.

When, therefore, the Scythians have taken some seed of this hemp, they creep under the cloths (of the sweat lodge) and then put the seed on the red hot stones; but this being put on smokes, and produces such a steam, that no Grecian vapour-bath would surpass it. The Scythians, transported by the vapour, shout aloud. (Herodotos, Works, Book IV, Ch. 74)

There is also evidence of Cannabis use for spiritual reasons in traditional Hinduism, Buddhism, early Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Islamic Sufism, the Pygmy, Hottentot, and Zulu civilizations, Coptic Christianity and of course the modern day Rastafarian community.

There are also as many ways to get high from the plant as there are cultures that use it. For the purposes of this paper I will stick to the methods you will most likely come across in the 21st Century western world. I can’t picture anyone in Toronto building a massive underground earthen oven, as the Bantus of Ethiopia do for mass smoking, when there’s a bong readily available and perhaps most Canadians would consider chewing raw cannabis like certain Shaivite sadhus of India to be crude compared to a nice joint.

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