
Origins of Cannabis Smoking - conse_lad
https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/6/eaaw1391
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dang
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20167586](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20167586)

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xamuel
Something I didn't see mentioned in either of the older threads: some people
speculate that the mention of "sweet cane" in Exodus 30:23 is actually a
misinterpretation and that it should actually be "cannabis". The literal
Hebrew [1] is בֹ֖שֶׂם וּקְנֵה־ "ḇō·śem ū·qə·nêh-" or, rearranging that a bit,
"qeneh-bosem", which looks a lot like "cannabis". If this speculation is true,
it would indicate cannabis was used for religious ceremonies by the early
Israelites.

[1]
[https://biblehub.com/interlinear/exodus/30-23.htm](https://biblehub.com/interlinear/exodus/30-23.htm)

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adrianm
The Hebrew word, בשם (fragrant, sweet), is used to describe cinnamon earlier
in the same verse...

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xamuel
Yeah, and it's interesting how in English "cinnamon" and "cannabis" both start
with "c*nna". Almost as if they're both using a common root.

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digitalsushi
[http://www.balashon.com/2008/03/cinnamon.html](http://www.balashon.com/2008/03/cinnamon.html)

[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CE%BA%CE%AC%CE%BD%CE%BD%CE%B...](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CE%BA%CE%AC%CE%BD%CE%BD%CE%B1%CE%B2%CE%B9%CF%82#Ancient_Greek)

They don't seem related from a non-scholar's perspective.

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xamuel
That first link looks like a long-winded way of saying "LOL who knows". I did
find its conclusion pretty interesting, where it was suggested that cinnamon
ultimately comes from an ancient Chinese word for "spice". Now what other
meaning does the word "spice" carry these days? Synthetic cannabinoids!

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dr_dshiv
What's amazing to me is that smoking with pipes or with leaves was unknown in
the old world before Columbus.

Though, archaeology in India is massively underfunded. It wouldn't surprise me
to find that smoking was much older than the 1500s...

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JoeAltmaier
Amusing to imagine a European encountering Tobacco from the New World for the
first time. "What is this?" "It's tobacco, sir! Comes from the Redmen over the
sea." "What do they do with it?" "Oh, they roll it up, stick it in their
faces, and light it on fire."

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bookofjoe
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20183942](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20183942)

