Marijuana

The story of marijuana is old indeed, and starts with one of the earliest domesticated crops: the Cannabis plant. Cannabis has been cultivated for millennia in Asia and the Middle East, as the fiber beneath its bark can be refined into soft, durable hemp. Though this fiber was the main selling point, ancient farmers soon discovered one could smoke Cannabis flowers and their attached leaves and stems for interesting psychological effects; archeological evidence shows intentional inhalation of cannabis smoke as early as the 3^rd millennium BCE.

Though these pioneers of pot most likely smoked unprocessed Cannabis, today’s stoners have additional options, like kief, a powder sifted from leaves and flowers; hashish, concentrated flower resin; and hash oil, extracted from cannabis leaves. These processed Cannabis variations offer benefits like ease of use when cooking weed-infused foods, or increased levels of Δ⁹-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), marijuana’s main psychoactive ingredient.