Drug abuse in the Holy Land?

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Mainly wine or fortified wines and beer. Other drugs did exist, but nowhere near what we have today. Distillation wasn't invented yet, so strong alcoholic beverages didn't exist. Fortified wines did, but that doesn't involve distillation.

It's possible some (read: very few) people used herbs, mushrooms or even hemp, but not in great quantities. It wasn't mainstream then. I doubt very much if people smoked hemp, smoking wasn't discovered as yet.

Opium did exist (poppies), but not as processed opium. It was used at least by the Greeks and Romans for medical purposes. Perhaps some people used it for recreational purposes. As a natural unprocessed product the effects are far less than using the processed product.

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Question:
Was there prevalent drug abuse in the Holy Land at the time Jesus lived? If so, what drug would that be?

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Matthew 27:34,
There they offered Jesus wine to drink, mixed with gall; but after tasting it, he refused to drink it.

During Jesus's crucifixion, Matthew and Mark report the offer of doped wine by the Roman guards who had a container of the drink. Matthew calls it wine mixed with Gall. This was not actual gall, but the drink was so called because of its bitter taste. Mark 15:23, reports that the drink was wine mixed with myrrh. Myrrh was added to the wine in order to give it more potency. This was likely done to weaken the victim and make the execution go faster. Crucifixion was a long slow death where the victim eventually suffocates over many hours as his chest muscles eventually exhaust themselves supporting the victim's weight. The wine was probable offered by the guards, to shorten their watch and speed up the ordeal. If one weren't being crucified the mixture would be recreational and enhance the stupefying effect of the alcohol.

The old testament also talks of "water of gall" which I found references to as water of poppy the plant opium is refined from; but those don't appear in the new testament.

  • Deuteronomy 29:18
  • Jeremiah 9:15; 8:14 ; 23:15
  • Lamentations 3:19

Sources:

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