While i was in class one day i heard my teacher say that the mayans or aztec or inca civilizations ( i cant remember exactly which one) grew coca leaves and other things along those lines. then she said that it has been found that Egyptian mummies have been found to been "stuffed" with some kind of coca leave product or something and that the only place they could have found that was in the Mayan/Incan/Aztec area. so she said that they must have traveled to other parts of the world. I found this interesting if anyone has anything to add or knows something else about this please do add your comments.

Coca is still a traditional and primary crop of the natives living in Bolivar. It is due to the high elevation of their homeland that they chew the coca leaves, it is supposed to help with the decrease in the O2 levels that high up.

As for your teachers comments on the Ancient Egyptians and their use of cocain, and nictotine she was right. Although i don't believe she was correct that the mummies of the Egyptians were stuffed with coca leaves.

In 1992 Dr. Svetla Balabanova, of the Institue of Forensic Medicine, Ulm Germany did find traces of cocaine, and nictotine in several mummies living at an German Museum, i think it was the Munich Museum but i am not sure. Anyway her samples included hair shafts, and deep tissue and many of her samples were positive for nictotine and cocain. By products of American known only plants. At an later date Dr. Balabanova's work was confirmed by Dr. Rosalie David, Keeper of Egyptology at the Manchester Museum, a well known Egyptianologist specializing in mummified remains. Dr. David used her own museums mummies for her tests and several of these mummies like the ones used originally by Dr. Balabanova in Germany did test positive for cocaine and nictotine.

Dr. Balabanova had her work covered on a TV speical titled The Mystery of the Cocaine Mummies.

Here is a site you can go to and read the transcript of the show.
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/Misc/mummies.htm

Read Steve Altens Domain, it explains everything.

I've heard of those theories, that the ancient people traded along a global scale and were much more "high tech", so to speak, than we are now...very interesting...reminds me of Stargate...mwahahahahaha!!! (in case your wondering or not a Stargate SG-1 fan...Daniel Jackson, an archeologist comes up with a theory that the Ancient Egyptian gods were alien's who occupied Earth during ancient times and used the pyramids as landing platforms...watch the first 3 seasons! it has tons of referances to Egypt!)

Thats a very interesting site! Thanks for posting it!

i think they found marijuana on the mummy of ramses II.

also the blue lily (of the famed lotus eaters part of homer's odyssey) is an opiate drug found in egypt--the lotus eaters therefore are the egyptians.

I actually hadn't heard that one before. It's strange to think about all the advances way back in ancient times. who knows, they could have known stuff that would be very important today (f.e.: cures, etc). if only we oculd get back in time (without disrupting anything especially not the time-space continuum ) maybe ravaging diseases could be cured! Wow, thats strange 2 think about!

You are right, this is actually very interesting, it can change our perception about drugs. We talked a lot about drugs in late years and we consider them current issue when in fact drugs existed since ancient times. I wonder if they even had an ancient form of addiction treatment...

Nicotine is found in some old world plants e.g. mandrake as well as the new world tobacco and cocaine is probably found in traces in plants the Egyptians could have got without contact with America.
Lettuce contains something very similar to opium.

Also cannabis is an old world plant - varieties with low narcotic contents are usualy known as hemp and are grown as a source of fibre - in Medieval Europe it was a significant food plant and a major source of cloth.