HJNO Mar/Apr 2022

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF NEW ORLEANS I  MAR / APR 2022 27 ancient India, and also of Haoma, a sacred beverage mentioned in the Avesta, the ancient scriptures of Zoroastrianism. 3,4 Ety- mologically, soma and haoma are the same words. It has long been thought that musca- rine, a cholinergic substance discovered in 1869 inAmanita muscaria (hence the name), was the hallucinogenic compound. In fact, the hallucinogenic compounds are ibotenic acid and muscimol. In Central America, psi- locybe mushrooms were used for the same purposes. Mushrooms of this genus con- tain the psychoactive compounds psilocin and psilocybin. Indigenous people in pre- Columbian Mexico, and also the Navajo in the southwestern United States, used peyote (Lophophora williamsi) to trigger states of spiritual introspection. This cactus contains psychoactive alkaloids, notably mescaline. Medicinal use Some drugs have been used as medi- cations for most of human history. For instance, the medicinal use of opium is described from the earliest written records. Nepenthes pharmakon is mentioned in the 9th century BC in Homer’s Odyssey (4, 221). It is written that the beautiful Helen of Troy had received this potion from an Egyptian queen and that she used it to treat the Greek warriors (“presently she cast a drug into the wine of which they drank to lull all pain and anger and bring forgetfulness of every sor- row”). Since the 18th century, most exegetes have thought that this potion was prepared from opium. Interestingly, this preparation is qualified as a pharmakon, ie, a medica- tion, in the Greek original. According to ety- mology (ne: no, and penthes: grief, sorrow), nepenthes would be an anxiolytic or an antidepressant in today’s parlance. There is general agreement that the Sumerians culti- vated poppies and isolated opium from their seed capsules at the end of the third millen- nium BC; they called opium “gil” (joy), and the poppy “hul gil”(the joy plant). 5 The Ebers papyrus (c. 1500 BC), one of mankind’s old- est medical documents, describes a remedy to prevent excessive crying in children using grains of the poppy plant, strained to a pulp, passed through a sieve, and administered on 4 successive days. Homer’s nepenthes was perhaps similar to laudanum, an opium tincture attributed to Paracelsus in the 16th century. In the 19th century, laudanum was extensively used in adults and children, for numerous indications (insomnia, cardiac and infectious diseases). The working class largely consumed laudanum because it was cheaper than gin or wine, since it escaped taxation. In the early 20th century, encyclo- pedias inWestern countries still stated that persons in good mental and physical health could use opium without risk of depen- dence. Griesinger (1817–1868), a German psychiatrist, one of the founders of modern psychiatry, recommended the use of opium in the treatment of melancholia. 6 Recreational use Some potentially addictive drugs have been used by a significant proportion of the population on a regular basis, to the point that they have been considered staple com- modities. Alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine, being palatable for their mild psychotro- pic properties, are examples of widely con- sumed drugs. As licit psychoactive drugs, they are used mostly by “normal” people, in contrast to illicit “hard drugs,”which are traditionally viewed as the province of the deviant. 7 Alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine have permeated our culture, serving as vehicles for social interaction, shaping our urban landscape, from the Japanese teahouse to the British pub, stimulating the opening of international trade routes. Similarly, hashish “Some potentially addictive drugs have been used by a significant proportion of the population on a regular basis, to the point that they have been considered staple commodities. Alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine, being palatable for their mild psychotropic properties, are examples of widely consumed drugs. As licit psychoactive drugs, they are used mostly by ‘normal’ people, in contrast to illicit ‘hard drugs,’ which are traditionally viewed as the province of the deviant.”