Did the Ancient Romans Smoke Weed?

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Dear Stoner: I've been obsessed with the Roman Empire lately, but where was the weed? I've heard about all the drinking and orgies, but haven't seen anything about weed.
Romulus 

Dear Romulus: You'll find a cannabis connection to most empires that conquer roughly one-fifth of the world's population and span half a century, but historians have had to look hard in this case. Although the Julio-Claudians probably didn't fashion joints over wine, there is recent evidence pointing to Romans infusing cannabis with wine at times. And while references to industrial and textile hemp are more abundant in historic artifacts, most scholars agree that ancient Greeks and Romans likely consumed cannabis and psychedelics for pharmaceutical, recreational or spiritual purposes.

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Many ancient Roman inventions and customs live on today, but connections to cannabis are hard to find.

Flickr/mermaid99

University of Colorado Denver professor Alan Sumler found enough references to the reefer in Greek, Latin and Roman texts to write a book about it in 2018: Cannabis in the Ancient Greek and Roman World. According to Sumler, there is no “smoking gun” for cannabis in ancient Greece and Rome, but "cannabis remains have been identified," which is hard to do in places of continuous habitation. It seems that cannabis may have been too taboo for the mainstream in Rome. Sound familiar?

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