Ingested cannabis: The long road from 5000BC to 2022 and beyond

For five millennia, cannabis plants have been ingested to provide health and wellness effects. These products contain a host of many classes of chemical constituents, the most bioactive of which is a mix of cannabinoids. The century long prohibition on research of these products (during the emergence of pharmacology as a field) meant that the newly emerged Cannabis industry was generally relegated to using those same uncharacterized plant extracts in products. We are now in an era when standardized methodologies for production and measurement are being adopted, and will open a path for innovations leading to improved manufacturing, product safety, palatability and bioavailability. It is only then that the true potential of these products can be accurately defined.