Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Reminds me of the old Bob Newhart routine where Sir Walter Raleigh is calling the leaders back in England and telling them about tobacco. All you hear is the guy in England, and it goes something like, "Okay Walt, let me get this straight. You take burning leaves and stick them in your mouth. Uh huh. Sounds delightful."
Opium has always been used in the Mediterranean until very recently. Among peasants it was very common to store dried poppy and boil them to soothe any pain, I have seen it. People ate or drank opium, and yes, laudanum was very common until quite recently.
Ah yes, right you are. However, the thread topic is smoking, not eating or drinking.
To add, while opium was common in the Mediterranean, it was among Egyptians, Arabs, Maghrebi, Ottomans, Berbers and such. All which are not European nationalities/tribes/ethnicities.
Was there smoking, like with clay pipes, in Europe prior to the importing of tobacco and if so, what did they smoke?
No, and no. A simple Internet search would have given the answers.
Long story short until tobacco was introduced to Europe in the 16th century (brought from the New World) there was nothing really to smoke worth bothering putting in a pipe.
Hemp along with linen were the major textiles for clothing, rope making and so forth until cotton imports began arriving from the New World. The THC levels in industrial hemp are so low you could smoke tons of the stuff and feel no effects. Again why no one would bother. It is only because Big Cotton wanted competition (hemp) out of the way that it got caught up in the various bans/laws regarding Cannabis.
Nah, hemp was considered only a fabric. Smoking started in Europe after the colonisation of the New World. Even then it took 150 years to catch on, and only among the upper class. The general population spent their little money they had on another addictive substance - sugar. (And later - coffee.) Smoking became popular at the same time as the industrial revolution, so the history of smoking is quite short in Europe.
Herodotus records the Scythians smoking cannibis for pleasure in ancient times, so we can infer that the practice came and went a few times.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
