Comment Several thousand years (Score 2) 190
It dates to much longer than that. Cannabis usage in the "western" world date back to 400+ years, but in Asia minor and neighbor region it is much longer :
The oldest written record of cannabis usage is the Greek historian Herodotus's reference to the central Eurasian Scythians taking cannabis steam baths.[40] His (c. 440 BCE) Histories records, "The Scythians, as I said, take some of this hemp-seed [presumably, flowers], and, creeping under the felt coverings, throw it upon the red-hot stones; immediately it smokes, and gives out such a vapour as no Grecian vapour-bath can exceed; the Scyths, delighted, shout for joy."[41] Classical Greeks and Romans were using cannabis, while in the Middle East, use spread throughout the Islamic empire to North Africa.