Coca, tobacco, cacao, peyote, mushrooms, the black drink, hemp: thousands of years on the record, and the tech and the bans that came after. 30 points on the WW9 Atlas, oldest first, each with its source.
Indian hemp: fiber from this land, 11,000 years (P904)-9000 · Hemp · Paisley Caves, OregonCordage of dogbane, the native plant still called Indian hemp (Apocynum cannabinum), from the Paisley Caves, about 10,000-11,000 years old. Klamath, Modoc and Northern Paiute people made it into thread, fishing line, bowstrings and nets hundreds of feet long. The hemp-like fiber was here first; the Oregon Encyclopedia, "Dogbane hemp" (https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/dogbane-hemp); Connolly et al., "Netting in the Northern and Western Great Basin" (2017)
Peyote buttons 5,700 years old (P897)-3780–-3660 · Visionary plant · Shumla Caves, Val Verde County, TexasTwo peyote buttons from the Shumla caves on the Rio Grande, radiocarbon dated to about 3780-3660 BCE, still holding mescaline when tested.El-Seedi et al., "Prehistoric peyote use," Journal of Ethnopharmacology (2005) (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15990261/)
Cacao drunk 5,300 years ago (P898)-3300 · Trade · Santa Ana-La Florida, Palanda, EcuadorPots of the Mayo-Chinchipe people in the upper Amazon carry cacao starch, theobromine and cacao DNA, about 5,300 years old: the oldest known cacao use, 1,500 years before the dates once given for Mexico.Zarrillo et al., Nature Ecology & Evolution (Oct 2018); ScienceDaily (https://sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/10/181029130945.htm)
The black drink at Cahokia (P898)1050–1250 · Trade · Cahokia, IllinoisBeakers from Cahokia carry caffeine, theobromine and ursolic acid: the black drink brewed from yaupon holly (Ilex vomitoria), a plant that grew more than 300 miles south. A ritual caffeine drink, traded up the river to the mound city.Crown, Hurst et al., PNAS (Aug 6, 2012); Live Science (https://www.livescience.com/22136-caffeinated-black-drink-first-city.html)
Coca and chicha for the capacocha children (P895)1450–1530 · Coca · Llullaillaco volcano, Salta, ArgentinaEight children offered in the Inca capacocha rite on the mountains Llullaillaco, Quehuar and Ampato: cocaine and benzoylecgonine in every hair sample, alcohol in four, and cocaethylene (coca and alcohol together) in two, the girl called Chuscha and one from Llullaillaco. The authors read the mix as Socha et al., "Toxicological studies on the Inca frozen mummies from volcanoes in Peru and Argentina," Antiquity (2026), doi:10.15184/aqy.2026.10439; Archaeology News, Nov 3, 2026 (https://archaeologymag.com/2026/11/inca-mummies-drugs-sacrificed-children/)
Amerrique: America named from the land? (P902)1502–1875 · Lens · Amerrique Mountains, Chontales, Nicaragua (approximate)In 1875 French geologist Jules Marcou argued the name America came from the Amerrique mountains, a gold district Columbus reached in 1502, not from Amerigo Vespucci. Guyanese writer Jan Carew revived it in the 1970s. Most historians keep the Vespucci story. The WW9 reading (Tito's "Amaraka"): the laAmerican Heritage, "Why do we call it America" (https://www.americanheritage.com/why-do-we-call-it-america)
Ololiuqui: the Aztec seed and LSD's cousin (P897)1529–1960 · Visionary plant · Tenochtitlan (Mexico City)The Mexica used ololiuqui, the seed of a morning glory (Rivea or Turbina corymbosa), in healing and divining; friars recorded it and the Inquisition went after it. In 1960 Albert Hofmann, who made LSD from a fungus in 1938, found that ololiuqui carries lysergic acid amide (ergine), a close natural cHofmann, Planta Medica 9 (1961): 354-367 (https://www.thieme-connect.com/products/ejournals/pdf/10.1055/s-0028-1100366.pdf)
Hemp before 1492? (P901; see P904)1535–1545 · Visionary plant · Stadacona (Quebec City), CanadaJacques Cartier wrote of "fine hemp" growing wild near Stadacona in 1535; the usual reading says it was a native fiber plant, Amaranthus cannabinus, not Cannabis. The usual date for Cannabis arriving is Chile, 1545, with Spanish seed. Balabanova's reports of Cannabis in Peruvian mummies are disputedArchaeology Review (https://ahotcupofjoe.net/2019/05/cannabis-in-the-americas-when-and-from-where-did-it-arrive/); Clarke & Merlin, Cannabis: Evolution and Ethnobotany (2013)
The Nahua herbal of 1552 (P899)1552 · Medicine · Colegio de Santa Cruz, Tlatelolco, Mexico CityLibellus de Medicinalibus Indorum Herbis, the oldest surviving medical book written in the Americas: Nahua physician Martín de la Cruz wrote the remedies and painted the plants; Juan Badiano, also Nahua, put it into Latin. It sat in Europe for centuries and came home to Mexico in 1990.Not Even Past, UT Austin (https://notevenpast.org/?p=687); México Desconocido (https://www.mexicodesconocido.com.mx/el-codice-badiano.html)
The leaf that paid for Virginia (P898)1612–1620 · Trade · Jamestown, VirginiaJohn Rolfe planted a sweeter tobacco from seed out of the Spanish Caribbean in 1612 and shipped the first cargo in 1614. Tobacco became the colony's money; the leaf grown on Powhatan land paid for Virginia.Wikipedia, "John Rolfe" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rolfe)
The fever bark: quinine (P899)1630 · Medicine · Loja, EcuadorCinchona bark from the Andes, known to Europe as "Jesuit bark" from the 1630s, held quinine, the first working treatment for malaria. It let Europeans survive malaria in Africa and Asia.Proof Library P172; Wikipedia, "Cinchona" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinchona)
Kentucky's first hemp crop (P904)1775 · Hemp · Clark's Run, near Danville, Kentucky (approximate)Archibald McNeill planted hemp seed he brought with him on Clark's Run in 1775, the first recorded hemp crop in Kentucky.Kentucky Historical Society marker, "First Hemp Crop" (https://explorekyhistory.ky.gov/items/show/108)
Hemp and the held workers of the Bluegrass (P904)1840–1860 · Hemp · Lexington, KentuckyFrom 1840 to 1860 Kentucky led the nation in hemp, peaking in 1850 at 40,000 tons worth $5 million. Lexington was the center. The breaking and hackling were done by held workers; owners themselves reported the dust gave them breathing problems. Most of the fiber became bagging and rope for cotton baKentucky Historical Society markers (https://explorekyhistory.ky.gov/items/show/108;https://explorekyhistory.ky.gov/items/show/718); James F. Hopkins, A History of the Hemp Industry in Kentucky (1951)
Ephedra tea and the meth question (P900)1893 · Medicine · Diné and Great Basin lands (approximate)Ephedra teas (Mormon tea, Navajo tea) are an old Native medicine of the desert. Methamphetamine was first made in Japan in 1893 by Nagai Nagayoshi from ephedrine taken from the Asian plant Ephedra sinica. The chemistry reviews so far say the American ephedras lack ephedrine. Tito's lead is that methEvergreen plant chemistry review (https://sites.evergreen.edu/plantchemeco/?p=1077); Caveney et al., "New observations on the secondary chemistry of world Ephedra," American Journal of Botany (2001)
Psilocybin comes out of Mazatec medicine (P897)1955–1958 · Visionary plant · Huautla de Jiménez, Oaxaca, MexicoMazatec healer María Sabina let R. Gordon Wasson sit in her night ceremony with the sacred mushrooms in 1955; Life magazine printed it in 1957. In 1958 Albert Hofmann of Sandoz isolated psilocybin and psilocin from the mushrooms. Spanish friars had already written down teonanácatl, "flesh of the godWikipedia, "María Sabina" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mar%C3%ADa_Sabina); "Psilocybin" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psilocybin)
Tama-Re: Egypt in Georgia (P902)1993–2002 · Lens · Tama-Re, near Eatonton, Georgia (approximate)Dwight York's Nuwaubians built Tama-Re, an "Egiptian village" with pyramids and a sphinx, on 475 acres from 1993; the FBI raided it in 2002 and it was torn down after 2004. York taught his people were the first to settle the Americas. The name echoes Ta-Meri, "beloved land," an Egyptian name for EgyWikipedia, "Nuwaubian Nation" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuwaubian_Nation)
Hemp beats graphene (P905)2014 · Hemp · University of Alberta, Edmonton, CanadaDavid Mitlin's team cooked hemp bast fiber, a farm waste, into carbon nanosheets and built supercapacitors that matched or beat graphene ones, storing up to 12 watt-hours per kilogram, two to three times commercial devices, and far cheaper to make.ScienceDaily, Aug 12, 2014 (https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/08/140812121549.htm)