Reacción a "What may be the oldest evidence of drug use by pre-agricultural hunter-gatherers has been discovered"

The study by Brumm et al. provides direct evidence of the long history of drug use, thanks to data obtained from LC/MS chemical analyses of teeth from two prehistoric individuals from Indonesia, one of whom dates from the Pleistocene. Specifically, arecoline, an alkaloid found in betel nut, has been detected. This plant is a natural stimulant widely consumed today across a vast region stretching from South-East Asia and the South Pacific to East Africa.

These findings not only represent the oldest evidence of the use of psychoactive plants currently known worldwide, but also demonstrate that betel consumption is a millennia-old tradition dating back to prehistoric times, and that hunter-gatherer groups, long before the establishment of a production-based economy in the region, had discovered the psychoactive properties of areca nuts and utilised them for various purposes.