The study is not claiming to have found evidence that humans have been getting high for 25,000 years in the casual, hyperbolic sense that some news coverage might suggest.

It is claiming to have found the earliest direct physical evidence of sustained, habitual use of a plant compound that acts on the nervous system.

That is a precise, testable, well-supported claim.

It is also a genuinely remarkable one.

The Conversation The Findings Open

Beyond the specific finding, the Sulawesi study opens a broader conversation about how and why humans use psychoactive substances — a conversation that has philosophical, social, and public health dimensions.

Why do humans seek altered states of consciousness?