A 2,800-year-old Siberian burial may hold the oldest direct proof that people got high on purpose

Researchers report that human hair and cannabis seeds from a monumental tomb in southern Siberia's Uyuk Valley are the oldest directly dated evidence of cannabis used for its intoxicating effect. The study appeared in Science, per High Times' coverage of the CNN report.

The hair tested positive for THC and CBN. The team also recovered more than 1,400 seeds and says the preserved DNA, now being sequenced, is the oldest known cannabis DNA. Lead author Gino Caspari said the seeds suggest cannabis played an important role in the burial rituals of the early Scythians, nomads who dominated the Eurasian steppe.

The caveats are real. The researchers cannot say how the plant was consumed, and the seeds do not show that it was bred for potency. There is also scientific debate over whether environmental exposure can produce a positive hair test.

It does not change anything on a dispensary shelf, but it is a useful reminder that deliberate use of the plant predates modern regulation by millennia, a point Caspari himself framed as a cultural anchor for today's legalization debates.