Scientists find Yuezhi Shaman Tomb

It's a silly story but it mentions the Yuezhi and Scythians. Apparently marijuana was important for the afterlife so they buried the dead with their horse (of course) and a bowl of weed. It's also neat to hear that Yuezhi were blue eyed and blond haired.

The article has a link to a scientific journal if anybody is a hobbyist botanist.


http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,460425,00.html

I wonder if it was still fresh?

i was trying to find this to post earlier...

while I appreciate the link, they inaccurately cite Herodotus' words (he mentioned they bathed in it, not seeking ecstacy, although i am sure the Scythians knew of its effect- it was also the seed they used, according to him, yuck)... some crappy hype / sensational voice in that article too, trying too hard to be cool... wow, reminds me why i don't respect journalism at all interesting and nice to see nonetheless, thanks (sincerely). PIE FTW

[edit]
slightly OT fun quote:

Dennis Howard Green's Language and History in the Early Germanic World.

"A similar conclusion can be drawn from the second word which, because it also undergoes the Sound Shift, must have been loaned early enough into Germanic to make an association with the Bastarnae feasible. The word is attested in several Germanic languages (e.g. OE hnæp 'hemp') and corresponds to Gr. kánnabis with the same meaning, showing now two results of the [First Sound] Shift (k>h, b>p). This agreement with Greek does not mean that we are dealing with an early loan from Greek into Germanic, but instead with a loan into both languages from a common source. Where this source may be found is suggested by the observation of Herodotus that hemp was cultivated especially in the east by Scythians and Thracians. This conjunction of an early dating and the Thracians suggests the same background for 'hemp' as for the 'Carpathians' (where Thracians were also settled). Although the evidence for the Thracians as a possible source for both words may be quite fortuitous, the origin of the words in the south-east and adoption into Germanic long before the arrival of the Goths in this region seem unquestioned" (164-165).

Very interesting, and much thanks to the original poster.

I'm sorry it's taken me so long to respond, as I'm just now recovering from having raped my eye sockets with a sharpened curling iron covered in rock salt before I made it half-way through the second paragraph of that retarded FOX "News" article.

Here are some articles for people who aren't Bill S. Preston, Esquire:

2,700-year-old marijuana found in Chinese tomb --The Toronto Star

Phytochemical and genetic analyses of ancient cannabis from Central Asia --Oxford Journal of Experimental Botany

No offense intended, D.A.A, I know you pointed out these links. I just had to get that out of my system, and make these links plain.

-Glee

lol. this is almost as good as the "marijuana forest" in Afghanistan. (Literally thousands of 20 foot tall mary jane plants growing in remote parts of Afghanistan)

Best medicine we got in the states...to bad its illegal. Think about it, if its wrong and we shouldn't be doing it, that's like slapping God or whatever higher power you believe in in the face. I think the natural occurring drugs are here to help us get along in life. Just an opinion.

P.S. Great articles guys very interesting...no wonder the stuff lasted to today look at the value of it, somebody had to know of its greatness hehe!

here's something for you to think about EVERYONE : marijuana / cannabis bind to naturally occurring receptors in our brain, which have no other purpose discovered thus far except to cause what we know to happen from THC! our brain has evolved to purposely have the reaction caused in combination with pot... why would this be? is it by God then, as all things meted out by the creator? my own spirituality doesn't allow for a God not having something God doesn't want...

btw, Gleemonex, those articles were awesome... the really scientific / biological article seems to me to actually say that they recently discovered among that trove the existence of an unknown form of protein-structure for pot that otherwise hasn't been developed naturally by our peoples (but they had it back then!) and that the ancient Yüeh-Chih actually had such advanced techniques that they knew to cultivate Cannabis Indica and Cannabis Sativa for their special properties and their multitude of botanical combinations...

PS - on tv in the USA, National Geographic channel just showed an hour long program (called EXPLORER i think) on America's biggest cash crop, concerning the large supply and demand, highly useful herb and such... interesting, supposedly the government won't allow scientists to have any legal amount for scientific purposes if it might prove that it has a good benefit (which the government denies - surprise). that reminds me of botanical science in the USSR actually

Yeah, I read that article earlier today. I remember reading something along the lines of " ...he was blonde and eyes were blue" and "his people spoke a language similar to Celtic." I immediately thought, "This is bullsh*t...another attempt to turn Central Asians into NW Europeans." I'm sure that the Tokharian language was just as similar to Celtic as it was to...I dunno...Persian. ^^

Persian / Indo-Iranian language is part of the Satem family of Indo-European, despite closer proximity to Europe and yet the Tokharians / Yüeh-Chih language is part of the Centum family. this in-fact, might point to Satem dialects / palatalization being primarily caused by contact with Indo-Iranian culture who transmitted this innovation / linguistic trend, such as to the Balto-Slavic language-speakers who otherwise are not very 'Satem' compared to others.

Indo-Europeans in general, but the Yüeh-Chih in particular are described by Chinese as 'white' / having light skin... less often, but in many different instances described as having characteristic 'red hair' or sometimes 'blonde' too, this being unique among more prevalent black-haired communities, despite the natural occurrence of a variety among IE... so any modern fear of 'Aryan'-ism is based in propaganda and ignorance from WW2 and Nazi stupidity as well as bad portrayal by them and others in Europe of a true language / cultural study with true connections, which do not have to have a 'racial' overtone.

Many people of the Eurasian steppe, Siberia, and/or in Northern / Cold climates have 'blue', 'green' or 'gray eyes' and are 'pale' or 'white' skinned and have light-colored 'blonde' or 'gray' or 'white' hair... these people are no exception, just as the Ainu of Japan might be described as such and not have anything to do with Aryanism.

you have a good point that the 'Celtic' association is not accurate (although both closely related as Centum languages among other features) and many try and make that assertion because of the strong La Tene / Halstatt culture forming early IE in Europe, but all are but shades of a greater universalism - that's my opinion, based in observable fact.

SOME EVIDENCE THE CELTS WERE NOT SO CLOSE TO ASIA:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Dennis Howard Green's Language and History in the Early Germanic World:

"[...] words which were probably loaned from Germanic into Celtic and belong to the same context agree further in signifying not a Germanic innovation, but rather a transmission from a third party. The first of these words is Lat. brācae 'breeches', for which a loan from Celtic is commonly assumed. Trousers were not a traditional garment in the Mediterranean world; the Romans' attention was first drawn to this clothing of their Celtic opponents at the battle of Telamon (225BC) and they regarded it as so typically Gaulish that the Narbonensis was known as Gallia brācata (even though the Goidelic Celts may have differed from them in this). Despite this it is commonly held that the etymological parallel with Lat. suffrāgines 'posterior, buttock' (the term for a part of the body stands for an item of clothing) suggests a derivation of the Gaulish c from a g, which underlies the commonly accepted view that the Celtic word was taken over from Germanic after the First Sound Shift [Grimm's Law] which in turn shows its effect in the Germanic forms: ON brók, OE brōc (plur. brēc), OHG bruoh. (The substitution of Celtic ā for Gmc. ō cannot reliably be used to date the loan before the Gmc. shift of IE ā to ō, since Gaulish, lacking ō, could have substituted ā for it.)

"In agreement with the linguistic pointer there are other suggestions that the Germani wore trousers- not so much from archaeological finds (because of the perishability of the material) as from the depictions of Germanic prisoners of war on Roman monuments. However, the suggestion that the Celts may have taken over this type of clothing and the word for it from the Germani for a particular reason justifies asking the same question of the Germani themselves, whose early contacts with horse-riding nomadic peoples of south Russian steppes may provide an answer. Research on the earliest contacts of these nomads with other civilizations has shown repeatedly the military superiority of mounted warriors to the clumsier horse-drawn charioteer favored by peoples on the borders of the steppes, how the latter were impelled by the success of their opponents to adopt their tactics and make the transition to horse-riding warfare, in every case accompanied by the adoption of trousers as the garment best suited to this purpose (again, as depicted on monuments). Amongst the horse-riding nomads responsible for this development are to be found a number of Iranian tribes of the Pontic region, including above all the Scythians whose influence also reached the Thracians of the north-eastern Balkans. Since this is an area to which the Germanic tribes such as the Bastarnae and the Sciri penetrated long before the Goths, it it possible that their acculturation to the needs of the steppes included not merely mounted tactics, but also the type of garment which they called for. By comparison the attempt to by-pass Germanic transmission by deriving Celtic brācae directly from Thracian is much less persuasive. It rests on the view that the Thracian language shows evidence of a sound shift similar to the Germanic, so that Gaulish c could be explained from Thracian rather than Germanic. However, we know very little about Thracian, about the extent and chronology of its sound shift, or even whether it possessed the word in question, which is amply attested in Germanic. It seems safer to argue from the known than from the merely hypothetical, especially since there are other cases where the Bastarnae made similar contacts in the Pontic region at a time earlier than the First Sound Shift" (146-147).

"Various tribes were settled in the Lower Vistula area several centuries BC and the Bastarnae, together with others like the Sciri and the Vandals, reached as far as the Upper Vistula, from where they migrated further, so that the Bastarnae reached the Black Sea at the close of the third century BC, centuries before the Goths. Their presence is attested at the mouth of the Danube about 200BC, where they are mentioned alongside the Thracians, but a stage on their route may be reflected in the name Alpes Bastarnicae for the Carpathians in the Tabula Peutingeriana. If we go by the later migration of the Goths over much the same route (archaeological evidence suggests it took them about a hundred years to reach the Pontic area), the Bastarnae may have set out from the Lower Vistula at about the beginning of the third century BC.

"This dating is helpful, since amonst the words designating novel objects or places encountered by the Bastarnae which they are thought to have passed on to the rest of Germania are two which were early enough to undergo the effects of the First Sound Shift. The first is the designation for the Carpathians (Ptolemy: Karpátēs óros), where the Bastarnae were settled for some time. In ON this mountain-range is known as the Harfaðafjöll, where the second element refers to the mountains (English 'fell') and the first shows the triple effects of the Second Sound Shift (k>h, p>f, t>ð). For these changes to occur we may assume that the Shift (spread over a length of time) had not begun at the time when the Bastarnae separared geographically from the rest of Germania.

"A similar conclusion can be drawn from the second word which, because it also undergoes the Sound Shift, must have been loaned early enough into Germanic to make an association with the Bastarnae feasible. The word is attested in several Germanic languages (e.g. OE hnæp 'hemp') and corresponds to Gr. kánnabis with the same meaning, showing now two results of the Shift (k>h, b>p). This agreement with Greek does not mean that we are dealing with an early loan from Greek into Germanic, but instead with a loan into both languages from a common source. Where this source may be found is suggested by the observation of Herodotus that hemp was cultivated especially in the east by Scythians and Thracians. This conjunction of an early dating and the Thracians suggests the same background for 'hemp' as for the 'Carpathians' (where Thracians were also settled). Although the evidence for the Thracians as a possible source for both words may be quite fortuitous, the origin of the words in the south-east and adoption into Germanic long before the arrival of the Goths in this region seem unquestioned" (DH Green 164-165).

Originally Posted by navarro951

Best medicine we got in the states...to bad its illegal.

Not in California. LA is like Amsterdam with prop 215.

Edit- And the person who wrote that article is totally hip and groovy.

Originally Posted by blitzkrieg80

Persian / Indo-Iranian language is part of the Satem family of Indo-European, despite closer proximity to Europe and yet the Tokharians / Yüeh-Chih language is part of the Centum family. this in-fact, might point to Satem dialects / palatalization being primarily caused by contact with Indo-Iranian culture who transmitted this innovation / linguistic trend, such as to the Balto-Slavic language-speakers who otherwise are not very 'Satem' compared to others.

Indo-Europeans in general, but the Yüeh-Chih in particular are described by Chinese as 'white' / having light skin... less often, but in many different instances described as having characteristic 'red hair' or sometimes 'blonde' too, this being unique among more prevalent black-haired communities, despite the natural occurrence of a variety among IE... so any modern fear of 'Aryan'-ism is based in propaganda and ignorance from WW2 and Nazi stupidity as well as bad portrayal by them and others in Europe of a true language / cultural study with true connections, which do not have to have a 'racial' overtone.

Many people of the Eurasian steppe, Siberia, and/or in Northern / Cold climates have 'blue', 'green' or 'gray eyes' and are 'pale' or 'white' skinned and have light-colored 'blonde' or 'gray' or 'white' hair... these people are no exception, just as the Ainu of Japan might be described as such and not have anything to do with Aryanism.

you have a good point that the 'Celtic' association is not accurate (although both closely related as Centum languages among other features) and many try and make that assertion because of the strong La Tene / Halstatt culture forming early IE in Europe, but all are but shades of a greater universalism - that's my opinion, based in observable fact.

SOME EVIDENCE THE CELTS WERE NOT SO CLOSE TO ASIA:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Dennis Howard Green's Language and History in the Early Germanic World:

Interesting. Any other Source(s)?

Edit- Specifically about Chinese testimonials about Yuezhi.

Blitz, if you never write a book about Indo-European studies, I will be very disappointed with you.

Here's a Nazi inspired link about the Tokharians: http://www.white-history.com/hwr6a.htm

Originally Posted by Anastasios Helios

Yeah, I read that article earlier today. I remember reading something along the lines of " ...he was blonde and eyes were blue" and "his people spoke a language similar to Celtic."

Heh, about a year ago my ethics teacher showed us a newspaper article which touted the discovery of "Celts in China." I had a real fun time explaining to him why the Tokharians were not Celtic and what they really were. Or explaining what they really weren't to be more accurate. Pinpointing their identity is incredibly complicated, and considering the huge amount of almost conflicting ethnonyms ascribed to supposedly a related group of populations it's incredible that we've been able to gather as much information as we have on them.

I'm sure that the Tokharian language was just as similar to Celtic as it was to...I dunno...Persian. ^^

Like blitz said the Tokharian languages were more closely related Celtic since it is a fellow Centum language, but where the Tokharian language group should placed within the Centum group is still uncertain. There are two main aproaches to the question of their migration: one group, usually advocates of the "Long Trek" theory of Tokharian migration, hold that Tocharian has a specifically close affinity to the western Centum languages (Germanic, Italic and Celtic), meaning that it developed in Central Europe and then for some unspecified reason it's speakers migrated to the Tarim Basin with comparatively little Indo-Iranian influences. The other main theory is that Tocharian is a relatively isolated Centum language, like Greek, that split of from the main PIE group relatively early, not too long after the Anatolian family. Of course all these theories are subject to debate and are far from certain.

Interesting. Any other Source(s)?

Edit- Specifically about Chinese testimonials about Yuezhi.

For that I'd recommend The Tarim Mummies by Victor H. Mair and JP Mallory. I'm not sure if the names are right, but you can find it in the EB bibliography under the Yuezhi section. Especially the early part is based heavily on Chinese sources, but it's quite all-encompassing and for a book targeted at educated laymen very thorough.

"The old weed then disappeared mysteriously en route to the museum. Several drivers are being questioned."

Of course, the Tokharians would have enjoyed leaving the lush forests of Europe and crossing the endless steppe to live in a Chinese desert. I think that the second theory that they broke off from the Centum group very early is a more plausible theory.

Originally Posted by lobf

Not in California. LA is like Amsterdam with prop 215.

Edit- And the person who wrote that article is totally hip and groovy.

Well i live in L.A. and thats true, but ive been fined before by cops for only a few grams. Too bad prop 5 didnt pass...those are the stepping stones.

Originally Posted by navarro951

Well i live in L.A. and thats true, but ive been fined before by cops for only a few grams. Too bad prop 5 didnt pass...those are the stepping stones.

Do you have a card? (Doctor's note.)

the federal law has not changed and the US government still refuses to let states enforce their own laws, despite the fact that many states only joined the USA with the Bill of Rights and other measures meant to ensure that they wouldn't lose their freedom, yet that has happened. Marijuana can be legalized in any state, like CA, and still have any user medical or not, arrested, at whim, by the federal government. we are not free! be thankful the federal government isn't currently interested in ending your extended state freedom (natural rights we all deserve), but that BY NO MEANS is any comparison to the true freedom found in the Netherlands. The Netherlands has practiced free thought for a long time, yet it's the USA who tries to gloat about democracy, and we are less free! Canada is another example of government representing the people with even a slight bit of respect for the law, unlike the USA, where blatant disrespect for its own laws (like State) and unacceptable corruption are commonplace. The people have spoken and our aristocracy doesn't care.

Originally Posted by Anastasios Helios

Of course, the Tokharians would have enjoyed leaving the lush forests of Europe and crossing the endless steppe to live in a Chinese desert. I think that the second theory that they broke off from the Centum group very early is a more plausible theory.

i find it so amusing to picture... maybe they really liked the 'bud' climate

lobf, i will try and find you some sources on that... now if i can only remember, it might help, but they're out there somewhere and i will come up with something helpful.

Thanks dude, I'd really appreciate it.

Originally Posted by blitzkrieg80

here's something for you to think about EVERYONE : marijuana / cannabis bind to naturally occurring receptors in our brain, which have no other purpose discovered thus far except to cause what we know to happen from THC! our brain has evolved to purposely have the reaction caused in combination with pot... why would this be? is it by God then, as all things meted out by the creator? my own spirituality doesn't allow for a God not having something God doesn't want...

Sniffing house hold cleaners also cause chemicals to bond to your neurotransmitters...causing epic highness

Originally Posted by Intranetusa

Sniffing house hold cleaners also cause chemicals to bond to your neurotransmitters...causing epic highness

while you may have a point, misguided as it is and quite unadvisable- that is completely unrelated to what i am talking about... the amazing nature of neurotransmitters we might both agree on. 'huffing' is dumb because cutting off oxygen to your brain has nothing to do with self-medication. i bet you get really high before you die from poison as well, but it's not smart and certainly not painless. the body produces pain-killing neurotransmitters to help you deal with those toxins and hopefully survive, so if you're purposely putting poison into your body, like house hold cleaners, you're missing out on a much less harmful and more enjoyable 'high' which the ancients obviously knew of quite well.

that isn't a similar comparison because if you do some research, 'huffing' causes different receptors to react which have other explainable reasons to exist in the human body. the unique thing about THC is that we have NOT found a reason for that to exist in the body otherwise. it might be true that it is related to 'relaxation' and 'mood' but we know so little about it compared to other drugs and such that it is much different than others in that it is thus far unexplainable to why it would exist except what we know to happen from THC. for example, we know that stimulants such as Cocaine cause many / all the primary neurotransmitters to react like Norepenephrine, Dopamine, Serotonin : 'fight or flight' in its highest form, literally... Hallucinogens cause specific serotonin reactions related to sleep and dreams, closely related to anti-depressant medication like Prozac concerning mood, while alcohol and opiates work on the primary reward system, dopamine. Norepenephrine is interesting because it is related to our locomotive function, directly tied to 'fight or flight' and endurance, appetite suppressant / helps the body break down food to use for energy, stay awake, ect, generally 'speedy' effects.... just as it sounds, adrenaline and norepenephrine are a part of the same stuff... just to be on topic for EB, any berserkr / naked fanatic if 'on drugs' is going to be on a drug stimulating their norepenephrine... people naturally stimulate it with exercise and meditation without drugs... one more little note, they have done experiments with dopamine and reward systems and people who have their dopamine supressed with drugs for the test, actually don't even enjoy listening to their favorite music while having their dopamine suppressed! this is pretty good evidence imo, that our whole concept of life and enjoyment / perception is tied to the chemical reaction, which we normally think so little about. this is why depleting those neuron stems through over-indulgence can lead to depression so easily... of course, this is completely legal in the form of alcohol.

BUZZED is actually a really cool and informative book on different drugs that is easy to read and yet has accurate scientific information. it actually makes no judgment calls, and i've heard policemen recommend it because it says how messed up drugs are (in their opinon) but in my experience it actually promotes the fact that most drugs are just used incorrectly, such as when someone doesn't EAT or SLEEP and then dies - what a WONDER! the drug didn't do that... that can be done without drugs and is stupid regardless. someone who exercises non-stop without drinking any water will eventually die also. anyways, it's good to know the facts.

OT rant on legal heart-damage inducing US drugs that the govt condones because they do not release any 'happy' neurotransmitters:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

the sad thing about US drug policy is that ephedrine was a legal drug which can be abused to give heart damage (and did for a long time!) and all the negative side effects of norepenephrine abuse, this was sold with caffeine products over the counter! and this was ok to the US government, because nobody got 'high'. so the only thing we're concerned about in the USA, is if our slaves are too 'content' and 'alleviated' they might get some self-awareness. that is sad. so instead, we must keep all the hard-working people down and miserable so they do not see light or have hope so they can 'bail out' all those poor capitalists who don't want anybody to do something they don't agree with, since they like their booze, their pappa taught them that... they don't need to 'escape' reality with those non-alcoholic substances... alcohol has been so proven to be harmless and healthy- oh wait. NOT!
(obviously I am not happy about being 'straight' and 'sober' which is the what i am and that is what the government wants [minus sober], but yet the people of the USA and world speak differently, purchasing and growing the plant and product and practicing free will as they please, regardless, just like in 'prohibition') viva la revolution!

Chewing coca leaves in its native form also makes you high, as opposed to the dangerous refined cocaine.

Same goes for marjiuana...one of these days, a drug dealer will distill an ultra potent form that will actually be harmful.

Originally Posted by blitzkrieg80

Canada is another example of government representing the people with even a slight bit of respect for the law

Less and less so, however

A few days after the World Trade Center (sic) attacks, some gang in Toronto took revenge by vandalising a Hindu temple.

And now the Progressive Conservative party (our right-most party, currently in power) is in the USA's pocket, most notably with Hollywood-friendly copyright regulations and transit rent-a-cops tasering bus passengers for failing to cough up two bucks. [1]

Thankfully, the Progressive Conservative minority government is facing heavy pressure from an opposing coalition in parliament. Hopefully we/they can get back to granola eating, bicycle riding and tea drinking soon. The previous government (Liberal -- center-left) came this --><-- close to legalising marijuana, and they and the NDP (far-left) are the ones teaming up to form the opposition coalition.

Marijuana legalisation is actually a big deal in Canada, because the public is aware that it frees up police resources and also opens the way for taxation of commercially-sold herb. Also, the fact that we own British Columbia certainly helps ;) [2]

Soon enough, we may become as civilised as a bunch of pre-historic Chinese cowboys.

****

As far as the Centum issue, I agree that an early separation makes the most sense, although this is based mostly on my gut feeling alone.

I've asked co-workers and local friends (I live in China) about the Yuezhi but they either a) don't know what I'm talking about, or b) they don't believe that a foreigner would know such a minutious detail of Chinese history, and consequently think that naturally I must be talking about something else that I happen to be mis-pronouncing. The fact that the Yuezhi have six recognised and somewhat-conflicting names (in addition to some likely colloqiuial names either in Mandarin slang, Uyghur, or Mandarin pseudo-transliteration from Uyghur) certainly doesn't help.

But I'll keep trying. I'm sure I can dig something up eventually. Don't hold your breath, though.

-Glee

------------------------------------------
[1] An over-simplification, but let's not stray too far off-topic.
[2] Anyone who wants to further discuss this situation should PM me -- let's keep this thread mostly about the Yuezhi discovery.

The way to be is DRUG FREE!

This is why there are no Tokharians around today...the men were all killed and their women-folk raped by Mongols. They were too high to care.

IntranetUSA,

Marijuana, by definition, is the dried female flowering tops and (optionally) leaves of the cannabis plant. Any distilled extract of the above would no longer be marijuana, so a "drug dealer" cannot "distill" an ultra-potent form "that would actually be harmful" and still have it recognized as marijuana. So, if you do the "hash" or "honey oil" of uncertain origin and it proves to be a harmful distillate of cannabis, it's your own damn fault and you should have stuck to the natural stuff i.e. the substance that we recognize as marijuana (you know, the stuff that hasn't changed that much since the time of the recent Yuezhi find that this thread is about.)

Originally Posted by MerlinusCDXX

IntranetUSA,

Marijuana, by definition, is the dried female flowering tops and (optionally) leaves of the cannabis plant. Any distilled extract of the above would no longer be marijuana, so a "drug dealer" cannot "distill" an ultra-potent form "that would actually be harmful" and still have it recognized as marijuana. So, if you do the "hash" or "honey oil" of uncertain origin and it proves to be a harmful distillate of cannabis, it's your own damn fault and you should have stuck to the natural stuff i.e. the substance that we recognize as marijuana (you know, the stuff that hasn't changed that much since the time of the recent Yuezhi find that this thread is about.)

Amen keep it natural indeed!

Originally Posted by lobf

Edit- And the person who wrote that article is totally hip and groovy.

Indeed. He was even keen enough to spell "dude" with 7 u's.

Originally Posted by MerlinusCDXX

IntranetUSA,

Marijuana, by definition, is the dried female flowering tops and (optionally) leaves of the cannabis plant. Any distilled extract of the above would no longer be marijuana, so a "drug dealer" cannot "distill" an ultra-potent form "that would actually be harmful" and still have it recognized as marijuana. So, if you do the "hash" or "honey oil" of uncertain origin and it proves to be a harmful distillate of cannabis, it's your own damn fault and you should have stuck to the natural stuff i.e. the substance that we recognize as marijuana (you know, the stuff that hasn't changed that much since the time of the recent Yuezhi find that this thread is about.)

I know dude. But if they turned coca leaves into cocaine, then they will eventually do it to marijuana. For some, getting high from the natural stuff just isn't high enough.