The (not very) long, strange trip of marijuana in the United states

The way drugs and human history have intertwined yields a story as trippy as the effects of candy-flipping LSD and MDMA.

Whether it’s the Incas with their coca stimulants, the Mayans with their mushrooms, or Egyptian royals with their Ecstasy-ish blue lotus flowers, drugs and civilization have been partying together from the get-go. And you don’t have to look far to find links between individual users, cultural achievements, and technological advances.

Researchers found pipes in Shakespeare’s yard that tested positive for marijuana. (Not proof positive that the Bard partook, but ’tis a fact he used the word “high” 246 times in his work.) Thomas Edison drank cocaine-laced wine (legal in... Read More