Huge Stash of Marijuana Found in Ancient Tomb

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Duuuuuude! The world's oldest stash of marijuana has been found in far western
China, according to an article in the Journal of Experimental Botany.

An ancient Caucasian people, probably the Indo-European-speaking Yuezhi whose

fair-haired mummies keep turning up in Xinjiang province, seem to have buried one
of their shamans with a whopping 789 grams of high-potency pot 2,700 years ago.

That's about 28 ounces of killer green bud, worth perhaps $8,000 at today's street
prices, and enough to keep Harold and Kumar happy for a couple of days.

"It was common practice in burials to provide materials needed for the afterlife,"
lead author Ethan B. Russo, a practicing neurologist and prominent medicinal-
marijuana advocate based in Missoula, Mont., tells the Canadian Press. "No hemp or
seeds were provided for fabric or food. Rather, cannabis as medicine or for
visionary purposes was supplied."

But the researchers couldn't tell if the weed was meant to be smoked or eaten. No
pipes, bongs or rolling papers were found in the tomb.

The ancient Greek historian Herodotus relates how the Scythians, Iranian-speaking
nomads who roamed the steppes to the west of the Yuezhi in the first millennium
B.C., liked to throw marijuana onto bonfires to induce trancelike states. It's
possible the buried shaman followed similar practices.