India, first cannabis

As with the opium poppy, the hemp plant (cannabis sativa) was also known in ancient times. It probably was first grown in Central Asia and China but soon spread to India and the Middle East. Ancient healers found that the plant could reduce pain, promote relaxation, and stimulate the appetite—all ways of helping a sick person recover. 

The earliest reference to mind-altering effects from Cannabis appears in the Atharva-Veda of the second millenium B.C., when it was already regarded as one of the five sacred plants of India. Ernest L. Abel in his Marihuana The First Twelve Thousand Years, describes much of the early use of Cannabis in the daily life of China and India. Schultes and Hofmann in Plants of the Gods document its use in Tibet ... 

In India and other areas with long marijuana experience, Cannabis is often made into something like a milkshake (bhang) or a kind of candy (most commonly known as majoun). These methods give effects, but experience has shown that if marijuana is to be ingested, its potency can be increased considerably by cooking it first in oil at low temperatures for about fifteen minutes. 

In India, Persia, and the Arab countries, the main value of the plant resided in its inebriating resin. People in these countries were also among the first to use cannabis fiber to make nets and ropes. But the sticky covering on the plant was what they valued most, especially where alcohol was proscribed by religious doctrine. 

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