A Brief History of Drugs – From the Stone Age to the Stoned Age

By Antonio Escohotado

 A concise and very readable version of his own three-volume ‘Historia General de las Drogas’ (General History of Drugs), Antonio Escohotado charts the use of drugs.

 Humanities love affair with drugs and intoxicants from the third millennium BC right up to the modern psychedelics are covered. Some of the most popular drugs, like caffeine and hemp are traced back to their surprisingly early origins.

 The involvement of drugs in the early religious practices is explored, and an analysis is offered about how they’ve made the move from this to a more secular, hedonistic culture. This is accompanied by the parallel vilification of drugs by most modern religions, as well as the hopelessness of all attempts made to make them disappear from future history.