Dark Enigma - Marijuana as a Funerary Rite and Memorial Day

Summary: Please be aware the stories, theories, re-enactments and language in this podcast are of an adult nature and can be disturbing, frightening and in some cases offensive. Listener Discretion is advised – there is very adult content ahead and you have been warned. Welcome heathens welcome to the world of the weird and unexplained. I’m your host, Nicole Delacroix and together, we will be investigating stories about the weird, wonderful, unexplained, eerie, scary and down-right unbelievable. There will be tales of ghosts, murder, supernatural beings and unexplained mysteries. So, sit back, grab your favorite drink, relax and prepare to be transported to today's dark Enigma.... And on today’s Dark enigma we’ve got a two for one special. I have an interesting story about marijuana and I wanted to do something to commemorate Memorial Day on Monday. So, with that, we will still be playing our drinking game and as you know, the drinking game is only for those of us that are at home and have nowhere else to go tonight. The choice of beverage is yours, so choose your contagion accordingly… Alright, now for the game part how about every time I say pot that will be a single shot and every time I say Memorial, that will be a double shot. Yep, I know I’m freeking hilarious anyway, now that the business end is out of the way we can jump headfirst into today’s dark enigma… and the history of marijuana and funeral rites with a side of Memorial Day. Hot on the discovery of evidence that the first marijuana plant popped out of the ground on the Tibetan plateau 28 million years ago comes evidence of pot smoking and heavy group inhaling at a funeral in the Pamir Mountains of Central Asia about 2,500 years ago. Was this a way to help the mourning with their grief, celebrate the passing of a friend or promote more funerals? This phytochemical analysis indicates that cannabis plants were burned in wooden braziers during mortuary ceremonies at the Jirzankal Cemetery (ca. 500 BCE) in the eastern Pamirs region. This suggests cannabis was smoked as part of ritual and/or religious activities in western China by at least 2500 years ago and that the cannabis plants produced high levels of psychoactive compounds.