lokariototal

Hello guys!

Do you think Hemp/Cannabis was consumed in Europe in the Middle Ages or Antiquity?? Did people know about it? Did the peasants smoked it or consume it somehow?

Any thoughts?

Thanks.

Davidius

The town I grew up in, Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire, derives its name from the hemp growing industry that prospered there. The town was awarded a royal charter in 1539 by King Henry VIII.
The hemp was apparently grown to make rope with but I am sure that the recreational properties of the plant were known. They certainly were by the time I lived there!

PS. There is also a place called Hempstead in Gloucester. The Normans built a church there but it is now a major landfill site.

Derfel Cadam

Hemp was grown across northern Europe for textiles and cordage and for seed that was crushed for oil or used as feed. It was a common enough crop.

Smoking was in general rare; pipes were exotic or non existent. It didn't really pick up until tobacco was introduced. We know the arabs had water pipes, so there may have been a bit of cultural diffusion.. But there aren't (m)any? records.

Could some herbalists, alchemists, heretics etc, known about cannabis's psychoactive properties? Sure, maybe. But if they did, I think it's more likely they just would have eaten it than smoked it.

Black Dog

Hemp was a very useful plant. Killed off by the corruptions of the Du Pont company in the USA and their oil baron friends.

Hops and nettles are related to hemp/cannabis. There are plenty of consciousness altering plants and fungi out there.

Derfel Cadam

I strongly disagree with that. Flax for example can be used to make most of the same products industrial hemp is commonly touted for. But it was never prohibited or licensed and remains relatively underutilised today.

There's a number of reasons why natural fibre industries haven't attracted capital investment in the modern era. I don't think it was because Du Pont "cheated".