
Ancient Cannabis 'Burial Shroud' Discovered in Desert Oasis - benbreen
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/10/marijuana-cannabis-pot-weed-burial-shroud-china-ancient-discovery-scythians-turpan-archaeology-botany/
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hourislate
People for thousands of years have used the plant for pain relief and
spiritual well being. It's oils as ointments and fiber to weave ropes and make
cloths. It's amazing that it has taken 100 years to convince todays society of
it's benefits.

What a great story and more proof the plant is an important part of humanities
history.

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colechristensen
I wish people would dispense with the woo and straight out say that people use
drugs because they enjoy them. Most people consuming THC are doing it not for
some spiritual goal or because they're in pain, they're doing it because it's
fun. Humans generally seem to have a desire to alter their states of mind. It
can be good and it can be harmful, but trying to make all of it evil has very
clearly failed.

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dleslie
It's bizarre; the same people who will happily state they enjoy drinking will
be viciously opposed to the enjoyment of other drugs.

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rascul
It's possible these are the same people who think something is wrong simply
because it's illegal.

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industriousthou
And since it's wrong it must therefore be kept illegal.

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emsy
This is literally the reasoning of the German Health Minister

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13of40
I had a friend some time back who'd been in the Soviet army, assigned to
somewhere in the east, and he told me about a smokeable plant with
psychotropic effects that grew wild there. To this day I don't know if he was
talking about some kind of Siberian "ditch weed" or if there's just some
unknown-to-the-west plant out there on the steppe...

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duozerk
Possibly Cannabis ruderalis ('wild cannabis'):
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_ruderalis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_ruderalis).
It's endemic in central Russia.

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13of40
I think that must be Latin for "ditch weed". The latter being the wild, low
potency marijuana you can find growing by the road in places like Idaho...

Edit: Nope, apparently it's its own species.

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celticninja
I think that a characteristic of ruderalis is that it's autoflowering. All
other types are dependent on photoperiod to induce flowering of the plant.
Ruderalis varieties usually flower after x days from germination.

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INTPenis
The article linked[1] about breast cancer was also very interesting to me.
Might be to someone else.

A siberian noblewoman, afflicted by many diseases, covered in tattoos, buried
with cannabis seeds. I just love those little windows into ancient cultures.

1\. [http://siberiantimes.com/home/born-in-siberia/2500-year-
old-...](http://siberiantimes.com/home/born-in-siberia/2500-year-old-siberian-
princess-died-from-breast-cancer-reveals-mri-scan/)

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nerdponx
I didn't have time to read the original source paper, but there seems to be an
awful lot of speculation in that article.

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INTPenis
That was my impression too but when you're diagnosing a 2500 year old corpse I
guess it's inevitable.

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ende
The first burning man?

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macinjosh
Someone should smoke it... for science.

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dandelany
"nearly all of the flowering heads of the 13 female plants had been cut off
before they were placed on the body" \- looks like this guy's friends already
smoked most if it before they buried him!

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mack73
It was a beautiful gesture but in the end they realized what a tremendous
waste it would be on such good weed not to smoke it. There was a seed, I saw
it in one of the pics from the article. What if it was viable? What midevil
type of weed would that be?

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ianai
Sad about that life sentence tho

