Cannabis has been used across the world for centuries. It can be traced thousands of years to Asia, from where it spread to many different regions and eventually reached the United states. Cannabis was mainly used for medicine and spiritual purposes. Vikings and medieval Germans turned to cannabis for toothaches and lessening pain during childbirth. Negative connotations have only been associated with cannabis in recent years. In many parts of the world, marijuana has been legal for the majority of its history. When tracing the history of the cannabis plant, it’s important to distinguish between the two common subspecies. Cannabis sativa is also known as marijuana and provides psychoactive properties. Cannabis sativa L is also known as hemp and is non psychoactive. Hemp is used mainly in manufacturing products such as cloth, fuel and oil. Another psychoactive species of the plant, Cannabis indica, was discovered by a French naturalist, and a third less common one, Cannabis ruderalis was identified by a Russan botanist. Cannabis plants are believed to have originally evolved from regions that are now known as Mongolia and southern Siberia and date back 12,000 years. It is one of humanity’s oldest cultivated crops. Burned cannabis seeds have been discovered in kurgan burial mounds in Siberia from 3,000 B.C. Some of the tombs of nobles buried in China and Siberia from 2500 B.C. have revealed large quantities of mummified psychoactive marijuana. Hemp and psychoactive marijuana were a staple of ancient China, showing up for medicinal use in 4000 B.C. it was used as an anesthetic during surgery.