American Blog

Submitted by YOUR NEW REALITY

When I first read this story a few days ago, I thought ‘Stoner Surfer Invents Time Machine, Gets Trapped In Past”, and almost instantly watched a trailer for this yet unmade movie on the mind screen :

Researchers say they have located the world’s oldest stash of marijuana, in a tomb in a remote part of China.The cache of cannabis is about 2,700 years old and was clearly “cultivated for psychoactive purposes,” rather than as fibre for clothing or as food, says a research paper in the Journal of Experimental Botany.

The large cache was contained in a leather basket and in a wooden bowl, and was likely meant to be used by the shaman in the afterlife.

The 789 grams of dried cannabis was buried alongside a light-haired, blue-eyed Caucasian man…

How pissed off would he have been to reach the afterlife and only then learn that his shy-kilo stash didn’t cross over with him?

This most excellent story does not, however, answer the most nagging question : whether or not researchers tried to put the flame to this ancient gear, though they acknowledge it was subject to “a battery of tests”. I wonder if any of it, you know, went missing?

There are a lot of very, very wealthy cannabis connisuers in this world, what do you think (if it were legally possible to do so) this 789 grams of the world’s rarest gear would fetch at auction? $20 million? $50 million?

There were seeds in the stash, but none germinated, or so the researchers claim. While the cannabis was still green, it had lost its recognisable, sweet odour. But researchers said they believed it to be “relatively high” in THC. This shaman of ancient China was smoking, eating or drinking potent gear.

Curiously, the Xinjiang region in China is said to be “an original source of many cannabis strains worldwide.”

So, back to the mind movie. The time traveler, who knows about growing, tending and cultivating supreme gear, being a true conniseur, finds himself back in ancient China, unable to get back home to the 21st century. If I’m stuck here, he figures, I’m not tolerating this low potency local brew, I’m going to breed me some killer cannabis and make the most of it.

He’s a shaman, so he only has to hand out his cannabis cake and tea and balm to the sick, and come up with a few tripped-out stories, awesome visions, poignant observations and life-bettering philosophies a few times a month to earn his keep. He tends his crops, he heals some of the sick, he teaches of all the society-altering uses of this remarkable plant and he gets on with it. When he dies, those who knew him decide to not only bag up some of his best crop to go into his tomb for use in the afterlife, they also prepare a fresh bowl. It’s what he would have wanted.

Back to the real story :

Remnants of cannabis have been found in ancient Egypt and other sites, and the substance has been referred to by authors such as the Greek historian Herodotus. But the tomb stash is the oldest so far that could be thoroughly tested for its properties.

“This materially is unequivocally cannabis, and no material has previously had this degree of analysis possible,” Russo said in an interview from Missoula, Mont.”It was common practice in burials to provide materials needed for the afterlife. No hemp or seeds were provided for fabric or food. Rather, cannabis as medicine or for visionary purposes was supplied.”

The substance has been found in two of the 500 Gushi tombs excavated so far in northwestern China, indicating that cannabis was either restricted for use by a few individuals or was administered as a medicine to others through shamans, Russo said.

“It certainly does indicate that cannabis has been used by man for a variety of purposes for thousands of years.”

The stoner surfer time traveler flourished in his new digs in ancient China, and while replicating a Playstation was impossible, he still had his toys :

The tomb also contained bridles, archery equipment and a harp, confirming the man’s high social standing.

When there are no guitars, and no electricity to power those guitars, a harp just might, that is might, suffice.

Visit 1800blogger to see all of our industry leading blogs.