The Forbidden Game

The Forbidden Game The Psychedelic Library Homepage Books Menu Page The Forbidden Game A Social History of Drugs Brian Inglis http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/lsd/inglis.htm (1 of 2)4/15/2004 11:52:52 AM The Forbidden Game Contents Introduction 1 Drugs and Shamanism 2 Drugs and the Priesthood 3 The Impact of Drugs on Civilisation 4 The Impact of Civilisation 5 Spirits 6 The Opium Wars 7 Indian Hemp 8 The Poet's Eye 9 Science 10 Prohibition 11 The International Anti-Drug Campaign 12 Heroin and Cannabis 13 The Collapse of Control Postscript Acknowledgements Sources Bibliography The Forbidden Game ©1975 by Brian Inglis Published by Charles Scribner's Sons, New York ISBN 0-684-14428-X Send e-mail to The Psychedelic Library: [email protected] The Psychedelic Library | Books Menu Page http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/lsd/inglis.htm (2 of 2)4/15/2004 11:52:52 AM The Forbidden Game - Introduction The Psychedelic Library Homepage Books Menu Page The Forbidden Game Brian Inglis Introduction WE TAKE DRUGS FOR TWO MAIN REASONS; EITHER TO RESTORE ourselves to the condition we regard as normal—to cure infections, and to take away pain; or to release us from normality—to enable us to feel more lively, or more relaxed; to alter our mood, or our perceptions. It is with this second category (of drug use, not of drugs; the drugs themselves may be the same) that I am concerned. For some reason, there is no generally accepted colloquial description. 'Narcotic' is quite familiar, but it has acquired a pejorative tinge, and in any case it should properly be used only about a drug used to induce drowsiness or stupor. For a while 'dope' did service, but by the time Tom Lehrer was singing about the old dope peddler spreading joy wherever he went, it had begun to slip out of favour, and is now more commonly used to describe what is taken by athletes to improve their form, or given to racehorses to upset the odds. I have stuck simply to the term 'drugs'. I have used words like 'addiction' in their colloquial rather than their more specialised clinical sense; and I have tried to avoid the jargon of the pharmacologists, except when quoting it. Their term for the mood-altering drugs, 'psychotropic', has established itself; but they have yet to agree on how best to describe a drug used to alter perception. The term most often employed, 'hallucinogen', is both ugly and misleading, as the experiences are not necessarily hallucinatory; but the commonest alternative, 'psychotomimetic', is even uglier and more misleading, as the experiences do not often resemble psychosis. 'Phantastica', which Louis Lewin tried to popularise, has not caught on; nor, mercifully, have 'psychotogenic' or 'psycholitic'; and Humphrey Osmond's 'psychedelic' has shifted its meaning, in popular usage. I have preferred 'vision-inducing'. There is another category of drugs which I had intended to include; aphrodisiacs. I found, though, that virtually all the drugs known to man, not to mention all sorts of http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/lsd/inglisi.htm (1 of 2)4/15/2004 11:54:00 AM The Forbidden Game - Introduction foodstuffs and drinks which are not ordinarily regarded as drugs, have had the reputation at one time or another of stimulating sexual appetite, or improving sexual performance. As the same drugs, at other times, have often had the reputation of diminishing desire, and spoiling performance, it is doubtful whether the category of aphrodisiac can be accepted, except subjectively. I have also dealt only in passing with the economic consequences of drug use. For centuries, a vast acreage has been given over to growing the plants which provide the raw material of drugs. Huge sums have been spent on processing, distributing and retailing the finished products, and on providing the accessories, from public houses to hubble- bubbles. States have extracted immense revenues from drug duties and used them to pay for everything from social services to guided missiles. Obviously the influence of drugs on the world's economy has been incalculable; but to deal adequately with this aspect of the subject would require another, and a very different, book. The reasons for some other omissions will be found in the section on sources. But there is also one inclusion, which I find sometimes causes surprise. Alcohol is clearly a drug; the drug, of our civilisation and many before. But it has also long been consumed, often primarily, as a beverage. I have dealt with attitudes to drink, and legislation designed to control drinking, only when they have been inspired by fears of its effects when used as a drug. Chapter 1 Send e-mail to The Psychedelic Library: [email protected] The Psychedelic Library | Books Menu Page http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/lsd/inglisi.htm (2 of 2)4/15/2004 11:54:00 AM The Forbidden Game - Chapter 1 The Psychedelic Library Homepage Books Menu Page The Forbidden Game Brian Inglis 1. Drugs and Shamanism WHY DID MAN FIRST TAKE TO DRUGS ? IT IS UNLIKELY THAT we will ever know for certain; archaeological discoveries—the seeds of drug plants found in pots; cave drawings of the plants themselves—indicate that the practice must be many thousands of years old, and the information is too scanty to justify anything more than speculation. Our main source of evidence about early drug practices comes from explorers, missionaries, traders and colonial administrators, and more recently from anthropological field workers, who have described what they have seen in primitive communities. Unluckily, what they saw was often so alien to the preconceptions which they brought with them from civilisation that they rarely described it with detachment. Still, certain patterns emerge, with a reasonable consistency. From the New World The most revealing accounts of drug use by savages, as they were long described by men accounting themselves civilised, are in the chronicles of the followers of Columbus, reporting what they saw and heard in the Caribbean islands, and later in North and South America. They found a great variety of plant drugs in use there: cohoba, coca, peyotl, certain species of mushroom, datura (jimsonweed), ololiuqui (morning glory), caapi, and others—tobacco being the commonest. None of these plants was known in Europe at the time; nor was any drug in use there for the purpose for which they were most widely taken in the New World, to generate energy. The only drug then in common use in Europe was alcohol; and wine or beer were ordinarily taken mainly for refreshment. The American http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/lsd/inglis1.htm (1 of 11)4/15/2004 11:55:14 AM The Forbidden Game - Chapter 1 Indians, the chroniclers reported, chewed tobacco or coca leaves as a substitute for refreshment—to give themselves a psychological 'lift', as if into a mild form of trance. This, they claimed, enabled them to work long hours, or travel long distances, or fight protracted battles, without the need for food, drink, or sleep. Drugs were also taken in America as alcohol was in Europe, for intoxication—but again, with a difference. As Girolamo Benzoni reported in one of the early published accounts of life there, an Indian would settle down to fill himself up with tobacco smoke until to outward appearances he was hopelessly drunk. But he was putting himself out of his mind with a purpose; for 'on returning to his senses, he told a thousand stories of his having been at the council of the gods, and other high visions'; and such stories were taken very seriously by the tribe. Although the same drug might be taken both for everyday working purposes and for intoxication, it would as a rule be used as an intoxicant only by—or with the supervision of—a medicine man, qualified by character and training to interpret what was seen or heard. The visions, the Indians believed, were glimpses of a world on a different plane of reality, but just as real; inhabited by spirits who had access to useful sources of knowledge. In particular, they would reveal what was in store for the tribe, or individual members of it. The process was described by the chronicler Gonzalvo Fernando d'Oviedo y Valdez. The Indians of Hispaniola, he wrote, had secret means of putting themselves in touch with spirits whenever they wished to predict the future. This is how they set about the matter. When a chief called one of those priests of the desert, this man came with two of his disciples, one of whom bore a vase filled with some mysterious drink, and the other a little silver bell. When he arrived, the priest sat himself down between the two disciples on a small round seat in presence of the chief and some of his suite. He drank the liquor which had been brought, and then began his conjurations, calling aloud on the spirits; and then, highly agitated and furious, he was shaken by the most violent movements . He then seemed to be plunged into a kind of ecstasy and to be suffering curious pains. During all this time one of the disciples rang the little bell. When the priest had calmed down, and while he lay senseless on the ground, the chief, or some other, asked what they desired to know, and the spirit replied through the mouth of the inspired man in a manner perfectly exact. The Spanish chroniclers did not doubt the accuracy of the information collected. They were quite prepared to believe that the drugs induced visions, and that in them, the future could be foretold.

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