History of Hemp AKA Cannabis

history is not set in stone, marijuana history in particularly determining what fact and fiction even are, is quite the challenge. It doesn't really help matters that year's of the prohibition inspired propaganda has most of the legitimate research done on cannabis hard to verify and or locate. The genetics research currently taking place on cannabis, as well as archeological evidence cross referenced will begin painting a more detailed picture of marijuana history.

Until then I will attempt to impart some of the more evidence backed cannabis history as we know it.

Now from what I can gather, the earliest examples of archeological evidence of usage and cultivation of cannabis come from mid to southeastern aisa and Northern Africa.

One of the first – if not the first – reference to weed was back in China in 2900 BC. It was around that time that Chinese Emperor Fu Hsi made mention of Ma, which is the Chinese term for cannabis. The Emperor mentioned cannabis as a popular medicine with both yin and yang.

Then, according to Chinese legend, Chinese Emperor Shen Nung was the first person to use marijuana as medicine in 2700 BC. Nung, who is also known by the first name Chen, is thought to be the Father of Chinese medicine. As per this legend, Nung also discovered ephedra and ginseng.

Archeologists have dug up remains in an ancient village in China that appear to support the earliest recorded use of marijuana there. The remains found included small pots with cannabis fibre (hemp) decorating them that were more than 10,000 years old.

Israel

Researchers made the discovery after analyzing ancient residues left on two altars at the shrine. The burnt cannabis is "the first known evidence of [a] hallucinogenic substance found in the Kingdom of Judah," a region that now includes parts of the West Bank and central Israel, the researchers wrote in the study.

Once the cannabis was burned at the Iron Age site, "we can assume that the religious altered state of consciousness in this shrine was an important part of the ceremonies that took place here," study lead researcher Eran Arie, the curator of Iron Age and Persian period archaeology at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem

Archaeologists first excavated the site in the 1960s; they unearthed two fortresses, dating to from the ninth to the early sixth centuries B.C., that flanked the southern border of the Kingdom of Judah. During these excavations, archaeologists found a well-preserved shrine dating to about 750 B.C. to 715 B.C.

This is a very interesting article and I suggest checking it out if you're interested in this type of information.
https://www.livescience.com/cannabis-shrine-israel.html

Other more specific areas

Japan

Hemp is possibly one of the earliest plants to be cultivated. Cannabis has been cultivated in Japan since the pre-Neolithic period for its fibers and as a food source and possibly as a psychoactive material. An archeological site in the Oki Islands near Japan contained cannabis achenes from about 8000 BC, probably signifying use of the plant. Hemp use archaeologically dates back to the Neolithic Age in China, with hemp fiber imprints found on Yangshao culture pottery dating from the 5th millennium BC. The Chinese later used hemp to make clothes, shoes, ropes, and an early form of paper.

Ancient Korea

Cannabis was an important crop in ancient Korea, with samples of hempen fabric discovered dating back as early as 3000 BCE.

Religious use and record according to (Wikipedia)

Usually a topic that I personally try to side step due to my cold analytical nature coming off as offensive, if this is how the following seems its unintentional and I am sorry. Religious records are an important aspect of our history and by leaving any information out I am limiting my research.

Hemp is called ganja (Sanskrit: गञ्जा, IAST: gañjā) in Sanskrit and other modern Indo-Aryan languages. Some scholars suggest that the ancient drug soma, mentioned in the Vedas, was cannabis, although this theory is disputed. Bhanga is mentioned in several Indian texts dated before 1000 CE. However, there is philological debate among Sanskrit scholars as to whether this bhanga can be identified with modern bhang or cannabis.

Cannabis was also known to the ancient Assyrians, who potentially utilized it as an aromatic. They called it qunabu and qunubu (which could signify "a way to produce smoke"), a potential origin of the modern word "cannabis". Cannabis was introduced as well to the Scythians, Thracians and Dacians, whose shamans (the kapnobatai—"those who walk on smoke/clouds") burned cannabis flowers to induce trance. The classical Greek historian Herodotus (ca. 480 BC) reported that the inhabitants of Scythia would often inhale the vapors of hemp-seed smoke, both as ritual and for their own pleasurable recreation.

Cannabis sativa from Vienna Dioscurides, AD 512

Cannabis residues have been found on two altars in Tel Arad, dated to the Kingdom of Judah in the 8th century BCE. Its discoverers believe that the evidence points to the use of cannabis for ritualistic psychoactive use in Judah.

Cannabis has an ancient history of ritual use and is found

in pharmacological cults around the world. Hemp seeds discovered by archaeologists at Pazyryk suggest early ceremonial practices like eating by the Scythians occurred during the 5th to 2nd century BC confirming previous historical reports by Herodotus.In China, the psychoactive uses of cannabis is described in the Shennong Bencaojing, written around the 3rd century AD. Daoists mixed cannabis with other ingredients, then placed them in incense burners and inhaled the smoke.

Hemp is called ganja (Sanskrit: गञ्जा, IAST: gañjā) in Sanskrit and other modern Indo-Aryan languages. Some scholars suggest that the ancient drug soma, mentioned in the Vedas, was cannabis, although this theory is disputed. Bhanga is mentioned in several Indian texts dated before 1000 CE. However, there is philological debate among Sanskrit scholars as to whether this bhanga can be identified with modern bhang or cannabis.

Cannabis was also known to the ancient Assyrians, who potentially utilized it as an aromatic. They called it qunabu and qunubu (which could signify "a way to produce smoke"), a potential origin of the modern word "cannabis". Cannabis was introduced as well to the Scythians, Thracians and Dacians, whose shamans (the kapnobatai—"those who walk on smoke/clouds") burned cannabis flowers to induce trance. The classical Greek historian Herodotus (ca. 480 BC) reported that the inhabitants of Scythia would often inhale the vapors of hemp-seed smoke, both as ritual and for their own pleasurable recreation.

I have personally found several different errors in the information above provided by Wikipedia. The one that I can't let stand is that last statement above. You do not smoke seeds for pleasure or ever if you can help it 😉. Every stoner knows this the fats and protein in the seeds gives you a headache not a buzz if you're smoking seeds for pleasure, you should just inhale a camp fire 😜.

From here the Wikipedia page gets progressively more subjective and frankly repeating rhetoric I'm trying not to include. But for those interested here's the link

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_cannabis

Hemp and Cannabis history of genetic research

Hemp and cannabis I have been using these interchangeably up until this point so what is the difference, mostly how it is used 😅 not a joke though really they are genetically the same plant with different traits presented in the different phenotypes.

It’s a common misconception that hemp and marijuana are two different species of plant.

In fact, they’re not distinct species Trusted Source at all. They’re just two different names for cannabis, a type of flowering plant in the Cannabaceae family.

While science doesn’t differentiate between “hemp” and “marijuana,” the law does.

Legally, the key difference between the two is tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content.

THC is one of many cannabinoids, or chemicals found in the cannabis plant. It’s the one that’s primarily responsible for the “high” associated with cannabis.

So other than a legal distinction between the two, the only difference is how you utilize it. For instance I bought CBD Wax which is legally not the same as wax made from medical cannabis however given enough CBD wax you can separate the trace amounts of THC and effectively turn it into a controlled substance a THC concentrate.

All CBD plants Hemp Plants or flower contain trace amounts of THC, there is a legal threshold in fact. The testing going on in this area was recently advanced further in a research paper published in Cornell chronicle
https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2020/01/genetics-not-field-conditions-makes-hemp-go-hot

Fascinating advancement in the genetics research of cannabis is the hemp cultivation agricultural research trying to identify genetic factors that may be responsible for excessive THC production. What kind of mad scientist would I be not to use this kind of information and research for a unintentional purpose.

This is a direct exert from the Cornell chronicle article

To go hot they're referring to the genetic predisposition of producing to much THC or a tested specimen that has produced to much THC.

Jacob Toth, first author of the paper and a doctoral student in Smart’s lab, developed a molecular diagnostic to demonstrate that the hemp plants in the study fell into one of three genetic categories: plants with two THC-producing genes; plants with two CBD-producing genes; or plants with one gene each for CBD and THC.

To minimize the risk of plants going hot, hemp growers ideally want plants with two CBD-producing genes.

“The molecular assays developed in this paper provide useful tools in breeding hemp,” Toth said. “To keep THC levels low, ensuring a lack of THC-producing genes will be important for the development of future compliant cultivars. Molecular testing is also much quicker and less expensive than current methods, and it can be done on seedlings instead of mature plants.”

While conducting the research, the team also discovered that as many as two-thirds of the seeds they obtained of one hemp variety – which were all supposed to be low-THC hemp – produced THC above legal limits.

While the research above is on hemp production its genetics info used to establish what genes where responsible came from this study. A paper published in Genome Biology. In it, scientists report that they've sequenced most of the genetic code of the fibrous plant species Cannabis sativa. The team's specimen of choice: a marijuana cultivar called Purple Kush. The genome may give researchers new insight into what makes the pot plant so, ahem, popular at folk festivals.
Here's the research studies pdf published in 2018
https://genome.cshlp.org/content/early/2018/11/07/gr.242594.118.full.pdf+html
This site covered the study in a more condensed version still about an hour read
https://jcannabisresearch.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s42238-019-0001-1

some information from the study

While the whole study is worth your time if this interests you, these two graphs stood out as easily digestible.

Bar plot graphs generated from STRUCTURE analysis for 122 individuals from 30 strains dividing genotypes into two genetic groups, K=2. Samples were arranged by purported proportions from 100% Sativa to 100% Indica (Wikileaf 2018) and then alphabetically within each strain by city. Each strain includes reported proportion of Sativa in parentheses (Wikileaf 2018) and each sample includes the coded location and city from where it was acquired. Each bar indicates proportion of assignment to genotype 1 (blue) and genotype 2 (yellow)

Durban poison was their 100% sativa reference point and purple Kush was the 100% Indica reference point and looked at these strains genetics in relation to hybrids to verify the lineage while further mapping the genome. This is far to much data to post here so if you need further clarification check this link out.
https://jcannabisresearch.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s42238-019-0001-1

Heat maps of six prominent strains (a-f) using Lynch & Ritland (Faircloth 2008) pairwise genetic relatedness (r) values: purple indicates no genetic relatedness (minimum value -1.09) and green indicates a high degree of relatedness (maximum value 1.0). Sample strain names and location of origin are indicated along the top and down the left side of the chart. Pairwise genetic relatedness (r) values are given in each cell and cell color reflects the degree to which two individuals are related

This study is a composite taking place over a decade with different contributors beginning in 2008 (Purple Kush) Genetics testing and mapping some important figures in the study - Harm van Bakel,1 Jake M Stout,2,3 Atina G Cote,1 Carling M Tallon,3 Andrew G Sharpe,3 Timothy R Hughes, corresponding author1,4 and Jonathan E Page corresponding author2,3

Conclusion

Weather or not people smoke marijuana should be irrelevant, this information needs to be recorded and studied. To prevent any further research in this area is not incredibly helpful 🤔. Plant's that we currently cultivating or in the case of lumber just destroying instead of hemp fiber/ material production is doing untold damage to our environment. Hemp is lower impact than cotton production and logging is just laughable in comparison if it where not tragic.

I have personally built houses in my life I realize currently that we don't have a choice but to utilize lumber or concrete/steel. The most common types of residential material is Lumber make no mistake. However we utilize lumber for paper packaging and particular board and insulation. All of these products can be made from hemp or cannabis byproducts, literally all of the stems and plant matter I alone have composted over the years could be a pallet of paper or more.

Not saying that you have to be a tree hugger. I still eat beef, and I know how mad cow disease works so this is saying something. However it's just childish not to utilize a quickly produced overly abundant resource just because people get high.

This sort of attitude we shouldn't use Alcohol to sterilize surgical materials because people get drunk.

Sorry for venting there I should wrap this up the read time is already 16 min, if the info is lacking pleas follow the links provided particularly the PDF this is to much info to properly impart in this fashion.

Todays Daily doses are Jamaican Arabica coffee, yellow/ red maeng da kratom tea, & Royal Gorilla cannabis (bud) or flower.

The image above is the royal gorilla I have been micro dosing while posting this,
Royal Gorilla is an insanely powerful hybrid that, until recently, was only available in the US. With THC levels that at times well exceed 25%, she gives a spectacular high of incredible relaxation together with a balancing uplifting euphoria. averaging at 27% THC Its a rare site to find an average this high, While yes I can get bud with a tested level of that particular specimen higher than 30% typically an average for all the known tested samples is 25% at best. Somewhat harsh but its powerful buzz sets in quick oddly enough doesn't have the typical gorilla glue flavor but its one of the strains used to create it.

If you haven't noticed I have been shooting for strains with a odd history or rarer pedigree. First gold leaf now royal gorilla normally a smoker of habit getting strains I have tried before. All of the recent info I have learned about cannabis (again) for these articles has me broadening my scope a little.