They may have been the first weed dealers.

The following is excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek. Get your free and confidential subscription at WeedWeek.net.

Evidence suggests that Bronze Age Yamnaya tribespeople established a cannabis trade between Europe and Asia 5,000 years ago. Native to the Caucasus Mountains (roughly), the Yamnaya were horse-riding, cattle-herding nomads who traveled along what later became the Silk Road.

While neighbors Indonesia and the Philippines escalate their wars on drugs, Thailand may reform its famously harsh laws.

Can you find weed growing in the wild? Green Rush Daily investigates.

The Cannabist interviews joint rolling artist Tony Greenhand.

Eugene Monroe, who got cut from the Baltimore Ravens this year after he became the first active NFL player to call for MED use, has retired from the league. He’s one of jocks included on the Men’s Journal list of 18 cannabis activists in sports. The only woman is mixed martial artist Ronda Rousey. Earlier this year The New Yorker discussed “ The athlete’s case for cannabis.”

Tabloid stories about the dangers of drugs appear to fuel greater drug use. Gatherings where everyone stays sober are becoming trendy.

Agneya Singh, director of “ M Cream,” a movie billed as Bollywood’s first stoner flick, says India should decriminalize.

This weekend’s Enchanted Forest Gathering, a rave in northern California, was among the first U.S. festivals to have a MED dispensary on site. Alcohol was not sold.

Clothing company Patagonia, has made a short film ”Harvesting Liberty” to support industrial hemp legalization.

Michael “Dooma” Wendschuh, the central figure in my story “ Ebbu and the rise and fall of a modern weed dealer” has a new cannabis company. According to its LinkedIn page, Toronto-based Province Brands is a “global luxury brand” creating products “which do not feel like marijuana products.”

Some schoolchildren in the U.K. are gardening with cannabis compost.