Some things have been around a really long time. One of the most used and the “oldest” drug around – marijuana – has a history that goes centuries back into ancient China. Euphoric condition achieved through smoking this substance has been on people’s mind since 2737 BC – the first ever reference to marijuana can be found in the writing of the Chinese Emperor Shen Nung. Soon enough marijuana has “traveled” from China to India, and from there to North Africa and then to Europe, and eventually it reached across the ocean.

It has started out as a medicine for various things including gout, malaria, rheumatism, etc. Also it was thought to cure such condition as absent-mindedness. There are no particular records confirming the effectiveness of marijuana as a medicine, but its psychoactive intoxicating properties had been noted. Once it spread out to India, cannabis was mostly used recreationally – it is either they had plenty of other medicine to cure everything that was needed, or the effects of smoking it had prevailed any other characteristics of it. When popularized in North Africa, marijuana was, once again, used recreationally rather than medicinally – it became quite popular among Muslim population since alcohol was prohibited by Koran, so cannabis and hashish spread out rather quickly through Persia territories. The earliest mentioning about pot in Europe goes back to AD 500. In 1545 marijuana was brought into the New World together with other things brought by Spaniards. English settlers made a use of this major crop that was used to produce fiber in 1611 Jamestown.