I wrote a relevant piece a few months ago that addresses the use of hemp/cannabis in the ancient Mediterranean world: I can't offer the same level of detail for other periods and places, unfortunately.

Hemp/cannabis has indeed always been a commonly used plant. Just not for smoking (until the last few centuries). The seeds have always been commonly eaten; it's always had important industrial uses; at times the foliage has served as a rather unappetising vegetable; and in antiquity the juice of the seeds was used to treat earache.

But only some varieties are rich in THC (most modern industrial hemp/cannabis is THC-poor), and there's very little evidence for any burning in antiquity, let alone burning of the buds, let alone doing so deliberately in order to achieve a high. The effects of doing so simply hadn't been discovered.