Hi All
Oddly inspired by this MPSIMS thread.
Did people in the Old World® partake in the inhalation of any type of smouldering weed before the ‘discovery’ of the New World™ and tobacco? If so, what did they smoke, was it any good and could I get hold of it today? I’ve heard that oak leaves were used during WW2 as a substitute for tobacco, but that may just be a UL. Also health food places often sell herbal tobacco alternatives, and that probably isn’t even relevant.
Many thanks.
OB
Marijuana has been used in India and China since ancient times.
Both opium and marijuana come to mind. They’ve been smoked for millenia.
I wouldn’t recommend starting on them, however.
Thanks Colibri and Qadgop. I’m well aware of the intoxicating effects of both substances… I probably should have excluded well known narcotics from the OP. I guess what I’m sort of asking is whether a 15th Century European would have had any inclination to put dried weed into a clay pipe and smoke it (whether regularly or just on occasion). Also, further to that, whether the introduction of tobacco smoking would have appeared totally unnatural to Europeans when it was first introduced.
OB
From here.
Another source.
I would think that if the activity of sticking something in a pipe and smoking it were common before the introduction of tobacco the same substance would still be common for this purpose. Pot and opium certainly are. Tobacco is reasonably intoxicating when used straight, but unlike pot and opium it is not addictive in the least.
I remember reading somewhere (maybe my highschool history class) a letter written by some Renaissance-era social critic who was opposed to smoking. His comments were pretty much what you might expect: It’s unnatural, it makes you stink, and it’s probably bad for your health.
You’re probably thinking of King James I’s A Counterblaste to tobacco, which ends:
He also comments on people smoking while other people are eating. The more things change…
Buh? Tobacco is not addictive? Where have you been for the last 50 years of medical research?
I wanted to see if I could pull that off without a smiley.
Yeah, that resulted in a “wait… what?” on my part. 
I gotta figure that for eons, people have noticed that some stuff smells pretty bad when it burns and some smells pretty good. I gotta figure someone decided to keep a little fire and smoke with him, just because it smelled pretty nice. Maybe someone figured that you could keep it lit by putting it into a little bowl with a way to blow or suck on it. tick…tick…tick…tick… (time passing)…pipes of herbs. Way before Sir Walter Marlboro. xo, C.
Last year, an archaeological find reported indications of nicotine and alcohol use 10,000 years ago. Cover story of Vol 57(2) of this journal.
Correction: 57(3).