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Evidence of the marijuana (or Cannabis) smoking can be found as far back as the 3rd millennium B.C., as indicated by charred cannabis seeds found in a ritual brazier at an ancient burial site in present day Romania.

Marijuana has been used also by the ancient Hindus of India and Nepal thousands of years ago. Cannabis was also known to the ancient Assyrians, who discovered its psychoactive properties through the Aryans.

The Chinese were already cultivating cannabis 4500 years BC. The first medicinal applications were described two thousand years later. It was used for rheumatism, gout, malaria, and a number of other disorders.

Long history of marijuana use also has been proved in 2003. When a leather basket filled with cannabis leaf fragments and seeds were found next to a 2,500- to 2,800-year-old mummified shaman in the north-western Region of China.

Cannabis has an ancient history of ritual use and is found in pharmacological cults around the world.

South African Journal of Science published report that showed that "pipes dug up from the garden of Shakespeare's home in Stratford upon Avon contain traces of cannabis. From the seventeenth to the mid-twentieth century marijuana was considered a household drug useful for treating headaches, menstrual cramps, and toothaches.

From 1913-38 a stronger variety of the marijuana plant was cultivated by American drug companies for use in their drug products. It was called Cannabis americana. In 1937 forty six states banned the use of marijuana along with other narcotic drugs.

By the 1960s it was widely used by the young people from all social classes. It is estimated that in 1994, 17 million Americans had used marijuana. And about 1.5 million of these Americans smoke marijuana regularly.

The presence of more potent strains of marijuana has widened the debate between the drug enforcement authorities and the advocates of decriminalizing marijuana use because it is, they argue, not in the same class as the more addictive drugs.

Others assert that marijuana is a "gateway" drug to the harder drugs and therefore argue that rigid laws against its use and distribution should remain in effect.

Since 1976 laws allowing the limited use of marijuana for medical purposes (medical marijuana) have been enacted in 35 states (by 2003 some of these laws had expired or were specifically not renewed by state legislators).