What kind of drugs were there during the EB period ?

[russia almighty]

Yeah the question entered my mind due to some recent activities .

[Leviathan DarklyCute]

I think the thing you imply is illegal

[russia almighty]

I'm not asking were to buy them . I'm asking what did these users use back then . We know our naked gallic friends had something to put there mind in another world before battle .

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

Alcohol was big almost everywhere. Poppies and canabis was grown in the east and shipped across the Mediterranean. And the Gesatatae obviously had something good.

[russia almighty]

Wait they had ganja back then ?

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

Canabis/hemp is one of the oldest cultivated crops in the world. It is theorized that it originated somewhere near the Hindu Kush and spead westward from there. It was very valuable, you can make rope/twine/clothing out of it, you can eat it (seeds), and you can even get in touch with the gods with it.

[CaesarAugustus]

What was the drug that the Gaesatae used to make them all... well, invincible?

[russia almighty]

Probably some sort of PCP like drug . Then again I find that a little weird because supposedly weren't they pretty disciplined considering there whole gig ?

[Sakkura]

I bet the gaesatae invented the 'shroom-eating that viking berserkers later developed into an art form. Well, a messy art form. You know, performance art... Performed on... The audience. With axes.

[Intranetusa]

Canabis/hemp is one of the oldest cultivated crops in the world. It is theorized that it originated somewhere near the Hindu Kush and spead westward from there. It was very valuable, you can make rope/twine/clothing out of it, you can eat it (seeds), and you can even get in touch with the gods with it.

The fibers of the hemp used to make rope/clothes is a different species that is different from the type that produces the buds that you can smoke.

[CaesarAugustus]

"I say, the walls are melting. We should all die...." (That was from HBO's Rome btw)

Were drugs very widespred in the ancient world? Or were they just restricted to the high and warrior classes? Also, were they ever illegalized at any point in time by any 'faction', or were they just viewed in a similar light as alchohol, as a harmless feel-good substance?

[Watchman]

Outside instances where a given substance was considered to have special "sacred" meanings - and thus be presumably the purview of a rather limited groups of people in specific circumstances - my hunch is the most common (and by far easiest) "control measures" were flat out price and availability; anything that had to be imported from any meaningful distance away, only the at least reasonably affluent could afford.

[MerlinusCDXX]

The fibers of the hemp used to make rope/clothes is a different species that is different from the type that produces the buds that you can smoke.

Actually, both varieties are of the same species, the differences in the two are the result of selective breeding programs to emphasize either stalk development (case#1-fiber) or flowering traits (case#2-bud/resin development). The confusion that seems to result in the "species argument" are that other species of hemp-like plants (jute/sisal etc.) that are used for their fiber. Of the plants mentioned, hemp (c. sativa) is the strongest and most prolific. The case#1 growing methods are a lot less labor intensive than the flowering method for c. sativa or the growing methods for the "imitation hemp" fiber plants.

[russia almighty]

Makes me wonder what the equivalent of a crack whore back then was .

[MerlinusCDXX]

Wait they had ganja back then ?

Yes, they did. The most common recorded occurrences of ancient cannabis use was a Skythian practice known as the "felt tent", whereby the participants in the ritual entered a sauna or sweatlodge type enclosure and put the plant parts onto hot rocks to allow them to smolder or burn. The doors to this enclosure were sealed tightly and all the folks inside just breathed in the smoke. I'm not sure if they did this with or without steam, but if steam was used, the ganja would vaporize instead of pyrolizing, but the net effect is still the same.

[passes 'hubble-bubble pipe to russia almighty]
let's get Skythian, shall we?

[Reverend Joe]

Outta sight.

[Decimus Attius Arbiter]

I read that Carthaginian quinquireme rowers used cannibis instead of listening to satellite radio like the rest of us.