Home > Hallucinogenic drug
2 History of use
Hallucinogenic drugs are among the oldest drugs used by humankind, as hallucinogens naturally occur in mushrooms, cacti, and various other plants. Whether the use of hallucinogens is encouraged, unregulated, regulated, or prohibited, and whether hallucinogens are used for recreational, medicinal, or spiritual purposes, varies from culture to culture and nation to nation. In most nations of the world, the possession of many hallucinogens, even those that are common in nature, is a crime punished by fines, imprisonment or in many countries, death. For some religious purposes, however, there are exceptions. For instance, though possession of peyote cactus is illegal for most purposes in the United States, American Courts have upheld the Constitutional right of Native Americans to grow and consume peyote.
2.1 Traditional religious and shamanic use (entheogens)
In human culture hallucinogens have historically most commonly been used in the setting of religious or shamanic rituals. In this context they are more precisely referred to as entheogens, and are used to facilitate healing, divination, communication with the spirits, and coming of age ceremonies. Evidence exists for the use of entheogens in prehistoric times, as well as in numerous ancient cultures, including the Ancient Egyptian, Mycenaean, Ancient Greek, Vedic, Maya, Inca and Aztec cultures. The rise of the Abrahamic religions ( Judaism, Christianity and Islam) caused a decline of entheogen use in their area. Witness the destruction of the Eleusinian Mysteries, or the Great Witch Hunt of the Early Modern Age , in which practitioners of entheogenic rites in Western Europe were accused of associating with the Devil. Nevertheless, some (mainly tribal) cultures have survived this (ongoing) assault and still practise entheogen use. In others, non-religious hallucinogen use, while not exactly encouraged, is tolerated and not seen as uncommon. Present-day, historical and mythological aspects of entheogens are discussed in the entry entheogen.
2.2 Early scientific investigations
Although natural hallucinogenic drugs have been known to mankind for millennia, it was not until the early 20th century that they received extensive attention from Western science. Earlier beginnings include scientific studies of nitrous oxide in the late 18th century, and initial studies of the constituents of the peyote cactus in the late 19th century. Starting in 1927 with Kurt Beringer 's Der Meskalinrausch (The Mescaline Intoxication), more intensive effort began to be focused on studies of psychoactive plants. Around the same time, Louis Lewin published his extensive survey of psychoactive plants, Phantastica ( 1928). Important developments in the years that followed included the re-discovery of Mexican magic mushrooms (in 1936 by Robert J. Weitlaner) and ololiuhqui (in 1939 by Richard Evans Schultes). Arguably the most important pre- World War II development was by Albert Hofmann's 1938 invention of the semi- synthetic drug LSD, which was later discovered to produce hallucinogenic effects, in 1943.
