ABSTRACT
Every society has its own drugs. People have always used drugs to alter their states of consciousness, eagerly seeking out whatever naturally occurring substances can be used as drugs, and wherever possible deliberately cultivating them. Every part of the Earth that is capable of producing drugs has been used for this purpose, and even where the land is not available, other technologies have been invented to support the production of drugs. Vast areas of Europe are covered by vines. The cannabis plant flourishes in Africa and Asia; and from the Middle East down through Asia the opium poppy grows – both in its wild state and under cultivation. In the cooler, wetter climate of the British Isles some of the best arable land in the country is turned over to the production of that most English narcotic, the hop. In the colder countries of northern Europe where the winters are long and the growing seasons are short, spirits are distilled. In the Americas there are plantations of the coca plant, tobacco and cactuses containing mescaline, and throughout the world there are mushrooms containing other hallucinogenic drugs. The only people with no traditional drug of their own would appear to be the Inuit, who live in a land so bleak and uncompromising that it does not permit the cultivation of any intoxicant.
