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How Old Is Cannabis?
How long has Cannabis/Hemp been growing on our planet? At least 20 million years...
The amazing ancient herb - cannabis hemp, nature’s oldest & safest medicine - is even older than we thought!
Fossil cannabis leaves at least 23 million years old were discovered in Germany (named Cannabis oligocaenica to indicate the Oligocene epoch, about the same time the first elephants and primates start appearing in the fossil record). Fossilized cannabis pollen has been found worldwide, the oldest is dated to 19.6 million years ago from northwestern China/Tibet.
Cannabis/hemp’s geographic center of origin is now believed to be on the northeastern Tibetan Plateau, in the general vicinity of Qinghai Lake (China/Tibet). From there, cannabis first traveled west (6 million year old cannabis pollen has been found in Europe), then east, reaching China by 1.2 million years ago and India by 32,600 years ago…
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