Early Drug Use

The more we discover about how early civilizations lived the more we find out about early drug use. It is easy to believe that drug use is a modern phenomenon starting with the hippy culture of the 1960s or alternately the earlier beat generation of the 50s and early 60s. However, this would be quite wrong. Humans have used drugs for millennia.

In respect of early drug use one of the earliest records of naturally occurring drugs and their medicinal use comes from China. The scholar emperor Shen Nung who lived around 2700 BC compiled a pharmacopoeia (book of medicines) listing all the known drugs and the use that they may have. One of the remedies listed was a plant called Ch’ang Shan, which was effective for fevers. Nearly 5000 years later American scientists used this same plant as the basis for the synthesised anti-malarial medication for the troops fighting in the pacific during World War II. Shen Nung also identified another plant called Ma Huang, which had a stimulant effect. Japanese chemists have isolated the active ingredient, which is ephedrine. So at least in China, although presumably elsewhere, there would appear to have been not only early drug use but also a relatively sophisticated knowledge of drugs and their uses as far back as 5000 years ago. The knowledge gained for this early drug use was almost certainly through trial and error.

The nature of this early drug use is unclear, but it was probably not too different from the way drugs are used today. For example just as we do today, early civilisations used drugs as medicines, as part of religious ceremonies and for recreation, as well as other purposes.

Historically psychoactive drugs have been important for many religions. The role of the Shaman (wise man/woman) has been, in some cultures, inextricably linked with the use of hallucinogenics that allowed contact to be made with spirits or deities. For example the South American Indians used the hallucinogenic properties of the distilled cactus peyote in their rituals to enter the presence of the great god Peyote. This, they believed would allow them to see and speak to the god and receive guidance for themselves and the tribe. It is believed that other shamen who reported that they turned into animals during rituals were in fact under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs. Thus drug use, for some, could be regarded as being a sacred activity. Some commentators have suggested that, quite apart from any pleasurable affects that might accrue, the use of drugs in this way brought power and status to the user as it brought both a mystique and legitimacy to their activities. This way of using drugs is not found only in the early drug use of ancient civilisations but instead some societies continue these traditions today.

An obvious example would be practitioners of the increasingly popular Shamanism or some Native American religious traditions. Indeed in June 2004 the Utah Supreme Court ruled that non-American Indian members of the Native American Church can use peyote as part of their religious ceremonies.

However the religious use of psychoactive substances can be found in more mainstream religions and in modern times, witness the use of alcohol in Judo/Christian religions. Across the various denominations the use of wine varies from the purely symbolic or commemorative of the last supper (see picture below) to the mystical (trans-substantiation). As with other shamen and priests, the enactment of the rites brings power and/or status to the practitioner

Return from Early drug use to History of Drugs