Science Says Smoking Weed is More Than 12,000 Years Old

Article by Emma Spears, Growth Op

A new study has shed light on the origins of cannabis, and and it looks like the Chinese can take credit for being the first to catch on to both the medical and recreational benefits of the plant.

Published in Science Advances, the study analyzed genomes from 110 plants worldwide, discovering that cannabis has been cultivated in China for at least 12,000 years, first emerging as a crop during the Neolithic period.

Study authors also discovered that the origins of the plant are rooted in northwestern China near the Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan borders, as opposed to South Asia as previously believed. Cultivation of the plant then spread across the world via Europe and the Middle East during the Bronze Age.

“Contrary to a widely accepted view, which associates cannabis with a Central Asian centre of crop domestication… our results are consistent with a single domestication origin of C. sativa in East Asia, in line with early archaeological evidence,” investigators write.

A plant is considered “domesticated” when it has been adapted for human use or consumption. Cannabis is considered one of the earliest domesticated plants, cultivated for food, fibre and medicine. It is believed the original, wild varieties of cannabis have since gone extinct.

Authors claim that the study is the largest of its kind to date, adding 82 genomes to the previously sequenced 28, compiling a total of 110 whole genomes covering a wide variety of cannabis cultivars. These include hemp, feral plants, high-THC cannabis and modern hybrids of the plant.

Read the full article here.