HIGH TEA, SCONES AND MORPHINE

From opium-smoking in ancient Egypt to the taking of morphine and tea at
18thcentury Paris parties, mood -enhancing drugs have always been a fact of
life. The author of new research talks to Patricia Danaher

The idea that recreational drug-taking is a 20th-century problem among
society's misfits is a fallacy which will be highlighted when the research
of a British academic is published next month.

It is utterly meaningless to talk about a "war on drugs", according to
Richard Rudgely. Criminal sanctions will not stop the consumption of
mood-enhancing drugs and it makes even less sense, he says, to marginalise
those who do take them.

"Quite simply, man has always sought to reach an altered state of
consciousness. It is something purely instinctive," he comments, tracing
humankind's use of drugs for ritual or relaxation back to Stone Age man.

Rudgely's The Encyclopaedia Of Psychoactive Substances is an astonishing
A-Z (from Adam to Zombie) of the different kinds of drugs which have been
consumed since man first stood up straight. Stone Age man, it seems,
enjoyed being stoned; the ancient Egyptians used opium to unwind and to do
business; smoking tobacco was compulsory among Etonian schoolboys in the
17th century and Hitler and JFK were both speed freaks. During the Suez
Crisis, the British Prime Minister Anthony Eden took to the Benzedrine
(Brendan Behan was also said to boast of taking the amphetamine). These are
just some of the anecdotes which the author includes to illustrate the
ubiquitous nature of drugs as well as the long history of consumption.

In 18th-century Paris, bourgeois ladies' afternoon tea parties had morphine
on the menu alongside the orange pekoe. "The fashion consists of the
formation of what may be termed a morphine club. A number of ladies meet
about four o'clock every afternoon, tea is served, servants are sent out,
the guests bare their arms and the hostess produces a small hypodermic
syringe with which she administers an injection to each person in turn."
Cocaine has had a long history among royalty and clergy. Appearing in a
number of diverse concoctions, the most famous was vin mariani, a wine
laced with both coca and cocaine. This wine was enthusiastically quaffed by
the likes of Queen Victoria and the Shah of Persia. Pope Pius X was a big
fan of this vintage as was Pope Leo XII who gave a gold medal to its
inventor in thanks. Even Freud was known to be fond of cocaine and denied
it was addictive.

And it's not just humans who are partial to suspending their reality
through drug use. There are many cases of cows, deer and sheep seeking out
fields containing magic mushrooms or berries and happily munching on these
as a break from the cud.

Not only do they consume psychoactive substances, animals are also a source
of many, including toads, scorpions, newts, salamander and beetles (for
making Spanish fly), which perhaps explains witches brew. Dreaming during
sleep - without the help of drugs - is an example of altered states of
consciousness par excellence, says Rudgley. "Dreaming itself is usually
such a pleasant condition, that it's hardly surprising that people try to
replicate it during their waking
hours." Prayer and fasting are also routes to these altered states, which
have frequently been taken in Islam and Christianity, but they can take
considerably longer. "The ecstatic route is generally considered to be a
pagan one."

Some of the more unlikely seeming stories included in the encyclopaedia
feature the likes of the Etonian schoolboys in the 17th century who were
flogged if they didn't bring their pipes to class. "Tobacco was thought to
have great curative powers at various early stages of its introduction to
Europe. It was thought during these boys' time that tobacco helped ward off
the plague."

Opium use goes right back to Neolithic man and has not only inspired cave
paintings, but was widely used in trade in Asia and the Middle East in
particular. Morphine was often buried among the effects of a dying person,
perhaps partly to alleviate pain, but also as an offering in the next world.

Instead of fighting this phoney "war" on drugs, the consumption of which is
as old as humanity, Rudgely feels we should be trying to learn more about
what is there already. "The zealots who talk of drugs being a danger to the
very fabric of society are wasting their breaths. They should consider
instead the antiquity of man's relationship with these substances. This way
we can hope to learn something about the undoubtedly more potent drugs
which our descendants will be taking in the future."

Richard Rudgely is no Aldous Huxley and despite having written two books on
man's relationship with assorted chemical substances, he says his interest
in the subject is in trying to unravel the distorted understanding of the
subject which people have today. He says he also wants to correct the idea
that people consumed alcohol long before cannabis and opium arrived from
the east during the 18th and 19th centuries.

Before coming to power last year, Labour in Britain had pledged to look at
the legalisation of cannabis. But there has been no sign of it on the
government's agenda since, although the In- dependent On Sunday newspaper
has been campaigning to have the ban lifted. "The blanket ban on cannabis
is plainly ridiculous," comments Rudgely. "It has many medical advantages
which many sober people can vouch for and yet it is lumped in with all
other drugs. While this remains the case, it isn't even possible to do
research on it. I mean, despite the medical benefits, there is evidence
that it may be carcinogenic, but this can't even be investigated."
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The Encyclopaedia Of Psychoactive Substances is published on March 5th 1998
by LittleBrown (£18.99 in UK).