This question occurred to me while reading a GD thread on alcohol vs. other drugs.
I don’t mean tracing it back to the first instance of someone eating some fruit that had been sitting around long enough to ferment and got drunk as a one time thing; I mean, for example, which came first–cultivation of marijuana with the intent that it be smoked (or ingested in some manner), or the manufacture of wine (or beer, whichever was first), both with intoxification as the ultimate intent? Or maybe some group of people, while not actually cultivating anything, would simply go hunting mushrooms (or some plant) with the intent of ingesting them for their mind altering effects.
I imagine that in many European cultures, alcohol was probably first, but what about other cultures? I realize that history may not be well recorded enough to conclusively answer this question, but educated speculation is also appreciated.
Alcohol is probably a good one in most cultures, allthough I suspect that opium and mushrooms would rate fairly high as well.
I suspect that alcohol was first used to preserve produce (grapes?), and not really used as a drug. Same goes for mushrooms. They were gathered as food instead of for their intoxicating effects.
Where do you draw the line between consumption (of drugs) for food as opposed to consumption for their intoxicating effects.
How long do you think it took after they first drank the wine, before they figured out it made the room spin? I would guess that food preservation and intoxication happened pretty much simultaneously.
I remember reading an article a few years ago that said the oldest writing in existence, besides lists of inventory, is a recipe for beer. The article talked about trying it and it was not too bad. But I can’t remember where I read it.
That’s the point I’m trying to make in the next scentence. (sorry, forgot a questionmark). The OP talks about recreational use of drugs. It’s pretty difficult to estimate wether someone is drinking wine because he likes the way it makes the room spin or because he’s thirsty.
If this is the case, how can you say that a drug was taken recreationally? Or, to put it another way: when we drink wine today, is it purely because we like spinning rooms, or do other factors come into play as well?
A rumor I’d heard many years ago, postulated that beer and wines were “developed”, or at least came into broad use, as a nonperishable, reasonably disease-free drink that could be stored for relatively long periods.
Supposedly the ancient Egyptian recipe for beer produces a very low alcohol brew. Enough to kill the infectious stuff- I’m assuming- but not quite enough for a great deal of the intoxicating effects.
If that’s the case, it can be said that beer and wine weren’t “recreational” drinks. (Though certainly the later, stronger brews rapidly became so.)
Now didn’t the… Inca? Aztec? Olmec? One of the South American ancient cultures anyway… use an opium-poppy derivative way back when? I seem to recall that from somewhere but I’m damned if I can come up with specifics.
There’s a book out there that postulates that one of the primary factors in the cognitive abilities of man was the consumption of psilocybin mushrooms. Let’s try the web with “magic + mushrooms + man”… Wow, lots of sites:
“Hallucinogenic mushrooms have been part of human culture as far back as the earliest recorded history. Ancient paintings of mushroom-ed
humanoids have been found in caves in the Saharan desert. Central and Southern America cultures built temples to mushroom gods and carved
“mushroom stones”. These stone carvings in the shape of mushrooms, or in which figures are depicted under the cap of a mushroom, have
been dated to as early as 1000-500 B.C. The purpose of the sculptures is not certain, but these stones may have been religious objects.”
From http://www.erowid.org/plants/mushrooms/mushrooms.shtml
I don’t think they were up to making beer at the time. I suppose there’s room for arguement that mushrooms taken for religous purposes aren’t recreational, but the intent was definitely to get high. Personally, I took enough hallucinogens to meet GOD one time, but it wasn’t much fun.:eek: