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Opium, magic mushrooms and other psychoactive drugs have been used by humans for thousands of years, a study has revealed.

An anthropologist has discovered that humans have been cultivating and using mood-altering substances since the Stone Age.

Professor Elisa Guerra-Doce has compiled evidence from around the world that Neolithic people were taking drugs derived from cacti in 8,600BC and that they were cultivating opium poppies by around 6000BC.

Opium poppies, like those above, were among the earliest psychoactive plants to have been grown by humans

The professor, based at the University of Valladolid in Spain, said evidence of opium poppy farming has been found at La Marmotta, about 20 miles north west of Rome in Italy, a site occupied by Neolithic farmers around 6,000BC.

There have been at least 17 finds of opium poppies from Neolithic settlements thoughout Switzerland, Germany and Spain.

Traces of an opium poppy capsule were found on the teeth of a male skeleton buried at cave near Albuñol, Granada that dates back to around 4,000 BC.

Writing in the journal Time and Mind, Professor Guerra-Doce said: 'Apart from its use as a food plant, there is also uncontested evidence for the exploitation of its narcotic properties.'

Early humans also used hallucinogenic plants, according to Professor Guerra-Doce.

The is evidence dating back to between 8600BC and 5600BC that ancient inhabitants of caves in Peru's Callejon de Huaylas Valley were using Echinopsis pachanoi - a cactus that contains the psychedelic substance mescaline.

Archaeologsts have found traces of the cactus and pollen in the Guitarrero cave in the area.

Researchers have also found reddish stains on human teeth found in a burial pit in Duyong Cave on Palawan Island in the southern Philippines, which are thought to be caused by chewing the leaves of the betel plant. 

It is still chewed through out much of Asia as a mild stimulant.

Marijuana and the opium poppy have also been reported in Bronze Age ceremonial sites located in the Kara Kurum desert of Turkmenistan.

Charred cannabis seeds have also been found in bowls that date from the Bronze age Pit-Grave culture that appeared in Romania around 2000BC.

Professor Guerra-Doce also claims that tobacco was also used by many ancient human cultures with pipes for smoking being discovered in north west Argentina that date to 2100BC.

Echinopsis pachanoi, or San Pedro cactus, pictured above, contains a number of hallucinogenic compounds

Ancient human stained red by chewing betel leaves (above) have been found in a cave in the Philippines

Traces of nicotine has been found in the hairs of mummies from several periods before the arrival of European settlers in South America.

In North America there are smoking pipes that date back to 2000BC, although these could have been used for smoking other plants.

Nicotine has been found in a pipe in North America that dates to 300BC

Magic mushrooms have also been commonly used though out history, according to Professor Guerra-Doce.

Mushroom shaped carvings into rocky outcrops dating from the Neolithic and Bronze Age in north west Piedmont in the Italian Alps, have been interpreted as signs that psychotropic mushrooms were used in rituals.

The use of hallucinogenic mushrooms has also been documented by small sculptures that resemble mushrooms which have been found at numerous sites dating back to between 500BC and 900AD in Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras and El Salvador.

Magic mushrooms, like those above, have a long history of use in many parts of Europe and central America

There is evidence that tobacco plants (above) have been smoked by humans for thousands of years 

Professor Guerra-Doce believes that rather than having recreational use as they do today, many of these sensory-altering substances were used in ceremonial rituals.

Most of the traces found were in tombs and sites that are thought to have had ritual or religious significance.

The details of the rituals are still unclear, but the hypothesis is that the substances were either used in the course of mortuary rites, to provide sustenance for the deceased in their journey into the afterlife, or as a kind of tribute to the underworld deities.

She believes that the right to use such substances may have been restricted due to the sacred role they played among prehistoric socieits.

However, she added: 'The relationship between humans and psychoactive substances can be traced back over millennia.'