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

[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]

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 .

[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.

[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?

[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.

[J.Alco]

Actually, I'm just wondering: Were drugs like opium (or other drugs that we associate with smoking nowadays: Cannabis, etc) actually smoked in EB's time period? Only I seem to remember reading somewhere a comment about how people actually mixed the seeds from the flowers (or dried leaves, whatever it was) into wine cups and drank them. Is that what actually happened? Or were the drugs simply smoked like nowadays?

[Tellos Athenaios]

Sometimes it would be drunk (Saka Haomavarga - Haoma drinking Saka); and Herodotos mentions plants that are thrown on hot stones during a Skythian hot-vapour bath which make the bather enjoy an unexplicable but delightful ecstatic feeling...

Poppy juice (somewhat similar to opium, in fact opium can be seen as some concentrated poppey juice ingredients) was used for the calming effects it had on both body and mind...

[Reverend Joe]

Outta sight.

[Cyclops]

I think the obvious examples have been covered.

Prior to our period there is the mysterious "soma" of the Rg Veda. It seems to have been used at feasts and given a "religious" experience.

I think most drugs came with a religious ceremonial culture: Symopsia, Dionysian rites etc.

I wonder about the putative geseatae drugs: I don't dount thay had extensive herbal knowledge but I'm sure it wasn't a real-world potion of superheroism.

No doubt there's a host of common household substances with little known psycho-active properties: look in your spice rack. Maybe they used known drugs as an enabler and part of the effect was self-generated?

Just rambling really, is it possible that their powers were as much due to self motivation and rage and the drug party could even have been a mild anaesthetic?

I guess their secrets have died out.

[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]

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

I would guess that it was something along the line of "opium tent happy girls"

[russia almighty]

Merlin are you a user .

[Olaf The Great]

I would guess that it was something along the line of "opium tent happy girls"

No, Spear-Women(ala Gaestae, except women) :)

[MerlinusCDXX]

Merlin are you a user .

why whatever gave you that idea?

[russia almighty]

Don't worry . One of the EB team members has dropped hints he or she is in the brotherhood too.

[MerlinusCDXX]

Don't worry . One of the EB team members has dropped hints he or she is in the brotherhood too.

sweet...count me in on the next batch of brownies

[cmacq]

I wonder about the putative geseatae drugs: I don't dount thay had extensive herbal knowledge but I'm sure it wasn't a real-world potion of superheroism.

No doubt there's a host of common household substances with little known psycho-active properties: look in your spice rack. Maybe they used known drugs as an enabler and part of the effect was self-generated?

Just rambling really, is it possible that their powers were as much due to self motivation and rage and the drug party could even have been a mild anaesthetic?

DWK

Doing-battle While being-Kelt

[mAIOR]

I think the drugs around that time were Opium based and Cannabis. other than that, the drugs we know(cocain, etc) couldn't exist back then.

I know Juta should be pretty popular among soldiers considering the effects.


Cheers...

[Danest]

In other words, did Rome have a serious drug problem? Other than alchohol, I haven't heard anything of the sort on a serious scale in Rome, so I'm curious too.

[Tiberius Nero]

In other words, did Rome have a serious drug problem? Other than alchohol, I haven't heard anything of the sort on a serious scale in Rome, so I'm curious too.

Not really, if drugs were used, they must have been used by members of cults in rituals, never heard of such a thing as a recreational drug in Rome, and afaik Latin doesn't even have a word for it, unless this is hiding under "venenum" = "poison", "magical potion".

[MiniMe]

2 RA:

Merlin are you a user .

this one

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 ?

is obvious evidence on who's got the experience ;-)