When did mankind start using drugs?

Today, humans use thousands of psychoactive compounds. We seek again and again to alter our experience of the world. Many are derived from plants and fungi. And others we manufacture. Some, like coffee and tea, increase alertness. Others, like alcohol and opiates, decrease it. But when did mankind start using drugs?

When did mankind start using drugs Here, an ancient Mixtec codex celebrating the use of hallucinogenic mushrooms.
When did mankind start using drugs? Here, an ancient Mixtec codex celebrating the use of hallucinogenic mushrooms.
Trying the new

Psychiatric drugs affect mood. Meanwhile, psychedelics alter reality. We alter brain chemistry for all sorts of reasons. We use substances recreationally, socially, medicinally, and ritualistically. How old is this?

Migrating out of Africa 100,000 years ago, humans explored new lands. And they also found new substances. Thus they discovered the opium poppy in the Mediterranean and cannabis and tea in Asia. Archaeologists have found evidence of opium use in Europe around 5,700 BC.

Cannabis seeds appear in archaeological excavations in 8,100 B.C. in Asia. The Greek historian Herodotus also records it. He says that the Scythians got high on marijuana in 450 B. C. Tea was brewed in China in 100 B. C.

At what time do archaeologists say this may have started? As early as after the Neolithic Revolution in 10,000 B.C. At that time agriculture and civilization were invented.

American Psychedelia

When man arrived in America, a new panorama was opening up. There was tobacco, coca and mate. And the Native Americans were especially fascinated with psychedelics. They included peyote, San Pedro cactus, morning glory, ayahuasca… And over 20 species of psychoactive mushrooms. It was a pre-Columbian festival.

These are the origins of some of the addictive substances in the history of man.
These are the origins of some of the addictive substances in the history of man.

American Indians invented the nasal administration of tobacco and hallucinogens. They were the first to inhale drugs. Peyote buttons subjected to carbon dating show an antiquity of 4,000 B.C. Mexican mushroom statues suggest the use of the Psilocybea fungus, as early as 500 BC.

A 1,000-year-old cache found in Bolivia gives many clues. It contained cocaine, Anadenanthera and ayahuasca. It must have been an incredible trip.

Another kind of drug

Then alcohol came along. Humans invented alcoholic beverages independently. The oldest dates back to 7,000 BC, in China.

Wine was fermented in the Caucasus in 6000 B.C. The Sumerians were brewing beer by 3000 B.C. Eurasian and African civilizations seem to have preferred alcohol. Wine was central to Greek and Roman cultures.

So when did mankind start using drugs? Alcohol and drugs go back millennia, all the way back to early agricultural societies.

One possibility is that the use of psychoactive substances developed in response to the ills of civilization. The problems of large societies especially affected individuals.

Or perhaps, simply, its use responds to a certain human desire to escape, to get away from oneself. Be that as it may, it is a story that has been with us almost from the beginning.

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