Marcan herb

The Marcan plant was a tall, green-leafed flowering plant. The matured buds of the Marcan plants, often known by the slang term herb, could be harvested, cured, dried, then smoked Humans and some other sentient beings with similar brain structures to produce a psychoactive effect for one to four hours. Several hundred subspecies of this plant were cultivated across the galaxy's Human populations, each with varying potency and growing requirements. Herb was first introduced by Corellian explorers during the Old Sith Wars era, who discovered the plant on a jungle world in the Inner Rim, though as it shared characteristics with other arboreal lifeforms, the plant may have evolved from a plant that was brought to the world by Human explorers of an even earlier time period. After Marcan's psychological properties were revealed, the plant became a commonplace crop for farmers on worlds like Mandalore, Ord Mantell, Togoria, Boonta, and even Alderaan by the time of the New Sith Wars. Some Marcan species were bred to have more vibrous stalks, which were used by many populations to produce string, rope, and paper. Within the territories of the Mandalorians and Hutts, herb was smoked and brewed into tea traditionally. Republic pharmacies openly distributed herb to be smoked or cooked into meals as a treatment for various ailments until c. 75 BBY, when the Republic started a prohibition on herb as part of the Republic's anti-psychotropic movement. This resulted in herb becoming a staple product of cartels and gangs across the galaxy as the plant material became extremely popular as a recreational drug. By the time of the Clone Wars, herb was rivaled only by deathsticks and common spice in terms of popularity. The plant remained illegal under Imperial law, though became decriminalized on many Imperial worlds.Herb was often smoked in pipes by medicinal and spiritual users or rolled in various wraps such as cured leaves, paper used in the production of tabac cigarettes, or scrap paper by recreational users. Marcan oil could be extracted from dried Marcan buds, which could be used in vaporizers as was common in Hutt Space or cooked into meals and desserts to produce the same effects. The Mandalorians had an ancient recipe for sweet Marcan tea, which was brewed from Marcan buds, sugar, and the crushed leaves of various fruit trees.