Hashish in medieval Egypt

when the naive drug pushers were trying to push Massachusetts to legalize marijuana as harmless and non addicting years ago, an Egyptian doc who had worked in the slums of Cairo testified about the severe social problems from the drug's use, and the idea was stopped.

Nowadays, the Open society (Soros money) is pushing it via the stalking horse of medical marijuana, alas. and those who see the problems won't be allowed to testify on the neighborhoods and Indian reservations destroyed by drug use.

But none of this is new: Medieval net has an article on hashish use in medieval Egypt.

While medieval physicians knew about the health benefits of cannabis – it was used as diuretic for instance – they often also warned people about the bad effects of hashish. A 14th-century Egyptian, az-Zarkashi, gives a complete list of all the problems the drug caused:

It destroys the mind, cuts short the reproductive capacity, produces elephantiasis, passes on leprosy, attracts disease, produces tremulousness, makes the mouth smell foul, dries up the semen, causes the hair of the eyebrows to fall out, burns the blood, causes cavities in the teeth, brings forth the hidden disease, harms the intestines, makes the limbs inactive, causes a shortage of breath, generates strong illusions, diminishes the powers of the soul, reduces modesty, makes the complexion yellow, blackens the teeth, riddles the liver with holes, inflames the stomach, and leaves in its wake a bad odor in the mouth as well as a film and diminished vision in the eye and increased pensiveness in the imagination. It belongs to blameworthy characteristics of hashish that it generates in those who eat it laziness and sluggishness. It turns a lion into a beetle and makes a proud man humble and a healthy man sick. If he eats, he cannot get enough. If he is spoken to, he does not listen. It makes the well-spoken person dumb, and the sound person stupid. It takes away every manly virtue and puts an end to youthful prowess. Furthermore, it destroys the mind, stunts all natural talent, and blunts the sharpness of the mental endowment.

nothing much has changed.

Ironically, he problem of intoxication was why the Prophet forbad his followers from using Alcohol (similar to how the Baptists and Methodists, seeing the probem of alcoholism in the poor, insisted on not using alcohol.)