BM Stoners?

[Nosferatus]

In the middle age people smoked, smoked herbs, smoked pipes, and this gives some good situations in which use it.

For europe that's not documented i believe.
From 13th century cannabis smoking was introduced in subsahara africa mainly the horn of africa by eastern traders. (cannabis originates from the area of modern day india's north eastern states/assam.)
Tobacco was introduced about 2 centuries later by european traders (from the americas).
In fact, smoking tobacco only became popular around the 17th century in europe, the arabs got popularly 'hooked' on tobacco much quicker.

Smoking is as old as human civilization for the americas(tobacco and the billions of cool plants they get from the amazone) and eastern Asia(china and india, cannabis) but europe/meditereanan civilization only got introduced to it much later.

The romans where also well familiar with canabis and hemp threw trade with india(they used it for alot of things on a huge scale), but as far as i know they didn't smoke it, for recreational use they ate it in a preparation with dried fruits and ghee(purified butter) like most indians around that time. (even in india smoking canabis threw mostly chillums is only about 2 k years old)

Perhaps some heretics burned herbs earlier, but they didn't directly inhale it threw a pipe for example(which i define as smoking), that happened much later in europe.

A shame i am 25 min late with this post...
But you know what they say about timing and stoners...

[vanKaya]

Nope, I will have to disagree. There is plenty of physical evidence of weed in Europe.

The earliest physical evidence of weed Ever was found in modern day Romania, no doubt as it was the eastern most part of the Mesopotamian empire whose western most regions included india where weed was quite common for spiritual and medicinal purposes.

Furthermore, Greek scholars describe their Thracian neighbors ( ie. Modern day bulgaria, Macedonia) throwing a plant on a fire and inhaling it's fumes that would cause them to dance and shout the whole night. Homer also references a plant that is most likely marijuana in the illiad.

You're right the romans consumed weed but they didn't just use it in food, it has been documented as a medicine for them as well which indicates they took advantage of it's psychoactive properties.

As for the middle ages there isn't as much evidence, mostly because of the prominence of the catholic church and it's position on mind altering substances.

However, there is an Italian journal written by a clothes maker during the renaissance that extolls the virtues of marijuana and is evidence of it's prominence throughout Italy. The journal describes not only cannabis' textile value but it's recreational value as well.

Essentially what I'm saying is that weed has been globally proliferated for millennia. If there was a lull in it's popularity (or more likely, simply a lull in it's documentation) it is trivial in the broad scope of things.

[vonGenf]

modern day Romania, no doubt as it was the eastern most part of the Mesopotamian empire

Huh... that's quite an... interesting re-reading of world history and geography.

[Fleugs]

The earliest physical evidence of weed Ever was found in modern day Romania, no doubt as it was the eastern most part of the Mesopotamian empire whose western most regions included india where weed was quite common for spiritual and medicinal purposes.

Two remarks;

• Most eastern part of the "Mesopotamian Empire". What? What what what? Que? Quoi? Wat? Would you mind explaining each and every word of that claim. What is the "Mesopotamian Empire"? Never heard of it. How on earth was modern-day Romania "Mesopotamian"? You know where Mesopotamia is, right? And that they didn't have, like, phone lines and stuff. Hardly any roads.
• You contradict yourself; earliest evidence "ever" vs "common" in India. Also, India, hardly the "Western" part of the "Mesopotamian Empire". Actually hardly any part of any Mesopotamian Empire. Actually, no Mesopotamian Empire. Just a little cradle of civilisation, really.

Thanks for the lols though. Did you know, by the way, that Jesus smoked weed?

[vanKaya]

Apologies, i wasn't super clear.

Firstly, fleugs I did not contradict myself, you misread.

The earliest physical evidence of marijuana were charred seeds found on a ritual brazier that dated 2500 bc in modern day Romania.

The earliest documented evidence of marijuana comes from much earlier in china, as a medicine and as a textile, and India, as a spiritual aide. (the Bengal people of India are named after Bhang, an Indian variant of prepared cannabis, Bangladesh means "bhang land people")

 I did make a mistake in referring to the Mesopotamian empire. What I meant was Mesopotamian Empires and what  I was trying to convey by that was the collection of Mesopotamian cultures that existed during the period, ie. Assyria, Babylon, Akkad.

To clarify:

The charred seeds were dated from approx. 2500 bc, a period categorized as the early to mid bronze age. This period witnessed the rise of imperialism in powerful Mesopotamian civilizations, which in turn resulted in a heightened cultural exchange between eastern Europe and the Indian subcontinent, the east and west fringes of the expansive spheres of influence of these empires. The physical evidence in Europe and the written testaments collected from ancient Asian cultures indicates that the first real transcontinental exchange of cannabis most likely happened during this time, most likely via the Assyrian people.

(if you want to know why it's assumed to be the Assyrians it has to do with documents found in Assubanipal's medical library, as well as their cultural association with the Scythians who according to herodutus were the big time European stoners of the ancient age.)

Also, you're right. They didn't have phone lines, or roads. I'm referring to cultural exchanges that happened through trade and migration.

[Fleugs]

Ah yes, the Scythians. I call all my units in BM "Kapnobatai". Maybe you know what it means?  Anyway I was just mocking you a little... figured you might have been stoned while writing. 

[vanKaya]

ah kapnobatai! it sounded familiar when I read it so I looked it up and I have actually heard of them. I think I stumbled upon them looking up Dacian history but I dont know much about them other than they were some of the first heavy cannabis users in Europe.

And, actually, I was stoned when I wrote the second post, not the first haha

hope it was clearer the second time around.