Hello my friends! I hope all of you have been having a great Yuletide, and I’m wishing you many positive vibes during this New Year season. Red Bench reviews has been making lots of plans for 2021 as we move into Season Two of our video reviews. Exciting stuff!

This last weekend we filmed two reviews instead of our usual one… part of our new schedule as we launch CBD Sunday this coming week. We will now have two videos every week – our regular cannabis reviews on Wednesday and now, a hemp flower review on Sundays!

In the midst of all our planning, filming and holiday making I got a chance to do a little web surfing. I came across several articles on a site called Ancient Origins that were about the long history of cannabis. The articles were fascinating… one was about the 28 million year history of the herb. They have actually found the location where marijuana first grew, and along the way proved that hemp and hops both originated from the same plant. Beer and pot are cousins!

Link to further reading…

Research Traces Cannabis Plant Origins to the Tibetan Plateau 28 Million Years Ago

https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-general/cannabis-plant-0011944

The Most Amazing Plant

Nearly every society of humans for 27,000 years has found cannabis to be a blessing, a spiritual aid, an indispensable crop that has provided fiber for clothes, seeds for food, and as a plant that provided an endless source of medicine – and they smoked it just to get high! Many cultures actually used cannabis as a form of cash. Makes sense to me – money you can smoke!

And we’re not talking about cultures that just came and went, we’re talking about deeply established cultures and societies that continued for thousands of years. Obviously cannabis was not an evil plant that destroyed the moral fiber of society and brought an end to culture. No, we’re talking about a greatly revered plant – memorialized in art, medical books, and the holy scriptures of ancient days – The Vedas.

We are a strange culture that has forgotten the magic of cannabis. For decades our mainstream culture has treated marijuana as a menace to society – something to be locked up, and that includes anyone that participates in using this “evil” plant. History is going to look back on the cannabis prohibition era, the War on Drugs period, and laugh at us… and it will be a sad laughter.

A Long Tradition

As for me, I’m proud to be part of a long history, a long tradition of herb smoking that goes back to the days before modern humans had taken over the planet. The first growers of the herb were Denisovans, an ancient human race related to us, that cultivated the herb on the Tibetan plateau. So I’m part of a tradition that predates everything else I know about in life… our country, our laws, our politicians, our medicines, our beliefs, and our modern technological existence.

Those of us that are cannabis positive are on the right side of history, past and future. Cannabis should be seen as a blessing from our Creator, or one of the most fortunate accidents of biology that ever happened. I couldn’t think of a better gift to give a people who are going to have to deal with suffering than to give them cannabis. It will cloth them, feed them, and provide relief, relaxation and recreation for the mind and body. I couldn’t imagine living on this planet without cannabis, and apparently that was the same way many humans have felt for thousands of years.

A Couple of Thoughts

As I was thinking about the ancient history of the herb I couldn’t help but think of several things…

First off, what would it be like to live in a culture that has been using the herb for a thousand years? What kind of strains would they have developed? I imagine they must have developed some amazing strains, manipulating the cannabinoids in ways we’re just beginning to understand. I bet the ancient understanding of the herb must have been deep, thorough and full of wisdom we can’t even fathom yet.

After all, we’ve just had a real awareness of the medical uses of cannabis for the last twenty-four years. Before 1996 that wasn’t even discussed – wiped out of the medical books since 1937, the year cannabis was effectively made illegal. What kind of knowledge of cannabis medicine does a culture that has used the plant for several thousands of years have? More than we have, that’s for sure.

The second thing I thought of, right after taking a hit that floored me, pushing my high to the next level… I was staring off in that stoned kind-of-way, spacing-out with an “oh wow” thought running around my brain. My imagination traveled back eleven thousand years, to a little cottage in a village, occupied by people like us, but also very different than us.

I thought of a guy like me, as he would get out his herb and his clay pipe, and pack a bowl, like he had thousands of times… probably some really great stuff that was cured just right. He would smell the herb and think about how great it smelled, just like I do today. Then he would take a few hits, and the same marijuana high that I know and enjoy today would be what he was experiencing. Then would come that little extra hit that pushes his high to the next level, and he would stare off in that stoned kind-of-way, spacing out with those “oh wow” thoughts running around his brain… part of a long tradition.

Our beloved herb has a fantastic, long history – loved by billions of people over thousands of years – and will be around long after we are gone, our culture included. I, for one, am so glad I found this plant, and to use it in my life for health, wellness, and relaxation… this is truly a gift from above! I am glad to be a part of a very long tradition and sing the praises of the amazing cannabis plant, loudly and often.

Until later, best of health.

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