Traces of cannabis in human bones suggest 17th-century Italians were recreational pot users

People have been consuming weed for a very long time.

Ancient Greek historianHerodotuswrote about flowers with psychotropic effectsin 440 BC, and medical records from the Middle Ages in Europe show cannabis was widely administered to treat everything fromgout, urinary infections andbirthingpains toweight loss, as well as being used as ananesthetic.

But in 1484,Pope Innocent VIIIpassed abull, or decree, labelling cannabis an "unholy sacrament" and banning its useamong the faithful.During the time of the Inquisition, medicinal and hallucinogenic herbswere associated with magic and witchcraft.

Forthe centuries that followed, there has been no hard evidence of itsusethat is, until now,with the discovery by a team of forensic scientists in Milan, Italy, of traces of cannabis in the remains of two skeletons from the 17thcentury.

"We know that cannabis has been used in the past, but this is the first study ever to find traces of it in human bones," said biologist and doctoral student GaiaGiordanoat the University of Milan'sLaboratory of Forensic Anthropology andOdontology(LABANOF) and Laboratory of Toxicological Investigation.

"This is an important finding, because there are very few laboratories that can examine bones to find traces of drugs."

Signs of recreational use

Thestudy was published in the December issue of the peer-reviewedJournal of Archaeological Science.

In it, the team of scientists examined ninefemoral bone samplesfrom people who lived in 1600s Milanand who were buried in the Ca'GrandaCrypt, under a church annexed to theOspedaleMaggiore, the city's most important hospital for the poor at the time.

WATCH | Italian researcher explains significance of cannabis discovery:

Italian researcher on cannabis discovery

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Gaia Giordano, a biologist and doctoral student at the University of Milan, talks about the first study to find traces of cannabis in human bones.

The goal of the study was to find traces of plants used for medical or recreational purposes in the general population. (It follows an earlier study byGiordanothat found traces ofopium in cranial bones andwell-preserved brain tissue.)

In the study, two of the bones one belonging to a woman around age50 and another to a teenageboy showed the presence of two kinds ofcannabinoids:Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinolandcannabidiol, commonly referred to today asDTCandCBD.

The researchers say the finding not only suggests cannabis was consumed by all ages and genders, but that itwas used recreationally, most likely prepared in cakes and infusions, saysGiordano.

The team scanned the medical records ofOspedaleMaggioreand found no mention of cannabis in its detailedrecords of the healing plants, remedies and potions administered to patients in all hospitalsinMilanin the1600s.

Questions about frequency

Its absence in the list ofpharmacopeialed researchers to surmise cannabis found in the two individuals was likely used for the same reasons it is today to relax, zone out or self-medicate.

"Life was especially tough in Milaninthe17thcentury,"archaeotoxicologistDomenicodiCandia, who led the study, told the newspaperCorrieredellaSera."Famine,disease, povertyandalmost nonexistent hygienewere widespread."

Three centuries after the Catholic Church's ban oncannabis,Napoleon prohibitedits consumptiondue to it causingpsychic disturbances and violent deliriumamong his soldiers inEgypt; he hoped the ban wouldstop them frombringing it back home to France.

For centuries, Italywas a majorproducer ofhemp, the fibre of the cannabis plant,which was used inpaper, ropesand textiles including the sails on Christopher Columbus's ship as well as forfeedforlivestockand as a fertilizer.

Marco Perduca, a former Italian senator and founder of Science for Democracy who led a referendum to legalize pot in 2021, says the ubiquity of hemp in Italy makes it likely it was also consumedto get a buzz.

"People used to smoke and make 'decotto,' or boiled water, with all kinds of leaves, so it is very difficult to identify what was the habit back then," Perduca said."But because hemp was used forso many industries, it's possible that people knew those plants could also be smoked or drunk."

Social shame

While there are written references thatthe plantwasadministered as ahome remedy or by healers for various ailmentsover the past centuries, by the late 19thcentury, bans against it spread, with the stigma lasting to this day.

Perduca says the social shame is related to the idea that a substance that is perceived as making you lose your mind or that transports you into a narcotic state runs counter to obedience to yourself and more importantly, to the Catholic Church,until recently a powerful temporal and political institution.

"This was a plant belonging to another culture and tradition that was intertwined with religion," said Perduca, who says it travelled centuries ago to Italy from the eastern Mediterranean.

"So anything and everything that had to do with a non-purely Christian set of ruleswas supposed to be linked with paganism and movements not only against the Church, but against the [Holy Roman] Empire."

Today in Italy, cannabis is legal for medical purposes, but opposition to it continues, with the present and the last Italian government pushing to include CBD, a non-psycho-active molecule, in the schedule of narcotic substances.

As the debate over legalizing cannabis continues in Italy, scientists are debating whether or not thepresence ofthe substance discoveredinthebones reflects high and frequent use of the drug and usejust prior tothetime of death.

To get a clearer picture, they plan to continue their research on other human remains in acollection of some 10,000 bones buried beneath the Ca'Grandacrypt.

LABANOFalsohas another 10,000 skeletons dating back to Ancient Roman times.

Its lead scientist, CristinaCattaneo,who studied atMcGillUniversity,has gained international renown in recent years for her workidentifying the bodies ofrecently deceasedmigrants and otherunclaimed persons often marginalized and fightingfortheir right to a name.