Cannabis has been part of human life for a remarkably long time. The oldest known use traces back to ancient China, where people used it for medicine and spiritual practice. Archaeologists have found cannabis plants in Chinese burial sites dating to 4000 BC, where it served several purposes at once: food, fiber for clothing and other goods, and medicine. Chinese Emperor Shen Nung is said to have recommended cannabis for a range of ailments back in 2737 BC, which is a startlingly early medical endorsement.
China wasn’t alone. There’s evidence of cannabis use across ancient cultures in Central and South America, Africa, India, ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, and the Middle East. In many of these places, people used it medicinally as well as for spiritual and recreational purposes. The plant clearly spread far and wide, and different cultures found their own uses for it.
In more recent history, cannabis has done a bit of everything: a source of fiber for clothing and paper, a medicine, a source of oil, and a recreational drug valued for its psychoactive effects. For all that long history of use, though, its legal status has swung widely over time and from one culture to the next. A plant humans have relied on for six thousand years still can’t get a consistent answer on whether it’s allowed.