I was thinking about this. When mankind regularly used things they found in the wild, medicinals like marijuana or opium thousands of years ago, did they even think of them as drugs or as creating a dependency if used regularly?

Or were they just… plants?

Back then, if something came from nature and had a positive and noticeable effect, it was probably just seen as useful. Something with value. Something worth keeping around. A lot of it was probably just trial and error, figuring out what helped, what hurt, and what made you feel a bit better or different. And these things probably were not abused or used excessively because they were not being farmed or cultivated. Hunter gatherers only had access to what they could find in the wild, which probably was not much. So whatever they did find was probably cherished.

I doubt anyone was sitting there trying to categorize any of it as good or bad based on social rules that had not even been invented yet. There was no concept of addiction, legality, or any of the labels we use today in civil society.

At what point did we start drawing that line? Somewhere along the way, certain plants went from being part of everyday life and nature to being labelled as substances, then problems, then in some cases controlled and made illegal. The plant itself did not change, only the way man decided to think about it did.

It makes you wonder how much of what we call a “drug” today is actually about the substance itself, and how much of it is just the story society has built around it.

If you go back far enough, it was probably just someone sitting around thinking, “this plant makes me feel nice… I might keep this one.”

Obviously that does not always end well, but it is an interesting shift in perspective.

12 minutes ago, SoCal1990 said:

medicinals like marijuana or opium thousands of years ago, did they even think of them as drugs or as creating a dependency if used regularly?

By some groups, marijuana was not used "regularly" (ie daily) and it was not used just to get a high, ie for escapism.

It was used in a specific way, which I won't get into (too complicated and I don't have the energy).

22 minutes ago, save the frogs said:

By some groups, marijuana was not used "regularly" (ie daily) and it was not used just to get a high, ie for escapism.

It was used in a specific way, which I won't get into (too complicated and I don't have the energy).

Don't have the energy you say?.

You never get your big bum off that desktop chair that's why.

Go for a walk ,go to the gym and wash those dishes piled high in the sink , your house is a absolute mess.

Do something with your life ,it's not healthy to be sitting here all day .

There should be a phone number to call for people on here who have addiction to this forum

Alsohol is a drug, wine has been traced to 8000 bc.

49 minutes ago, georgegeorgia said:

Don't have the energy you say?.

You never get your big bum off that desktop chair that's why.

Go for a walk ,go to the gym and wash those dishes piled high in the sink , your house is a absolute mess.

Do something with your life ,it's not healthy to be sitting here all day .

There should be a phone number to call for people on here who have addiction to this forum

How about 1-800-GG-ASUME, as it's your usual activity, along with a few other choice specimens here?

When I visited nursing homes in the past they would have people come to chat to them about any topic - possibly news events - to keep the elderly engaged. As I have noted before - I feel Asean Now has the same.

Mid 2024 there were new members - Yellow Fever, Mekmong MICK, Yamu - many gone but who all joined at a similar time and started topics that seemed to be to engage content rather than what an expat might want to talk of ..

I think some still linger. Look at recent new topics created by:

SoCal 1990 - joined June 15 2024

123Stodg - June 12 2024

Conan the barbarian - May 12 2024

JK -Trilly - June 11 2024

Alpha1990 - June 13 2024

Bit suspicious of The Cobra too.

Now it's all good - this site may need a push along - they could have a label next to their name saying 'Content Creator'. If this site is a bit slow I get why they may be needed but it can feel like being in an old persons site where others are feeding us gruel to keep us entertained.

 

Coffee was banned in some countries at some points in History. Same attempts to control people's private lives.

Easy answer, when the Pharma Companies started to bribe US Congressmen back in the day. That is all you need to know.

As everything in the universe is governed by the creator's intelligent design, you'd have thought that he/she/it might have at least labelled the good stuff that does you good and the bad stuff that kills you.

11 hours ago, Yagoda said:

Alsohol is a drug, wine has been traced to 8000 bc.

And so is Alcohol.

How did they know it was 8000BC, way before the C bloke was ever thought of.

Just now, wil iam not said:

And so is Alcohol.

How did they know it was 8000BC, way before the C bloke was ever thought of.

Did I misspell something? Wow thanks for being so clever.

Now that you educated me on spelling, Ill teach you about dating. They use a complicated machine

5 hours ago, MIke B Bad said:

As everything in the universe is governed by the creator's intelligent design, you'd have thought that he/she/it might have at least labelled the good stuff that does you good and the bad stuff that kills you.

You can actually catch a buzz I hear from Amanita Muscaria, its just that you dont know when the buzz turns deadly

At least 50,000 years ago.

Probably longer.

The age-old question of what was invented first. Stone tools, or beer.

On 3/28/2026 at 6:02 AM, SoCal1990 said:

At what point did we start drawing that line

Perhaps when human societies became much larger, higher densities, and greater interactions through diverse ethnicity, cultures, religions, work than a 15-person tribe roaming thousands of empty acres of countryside would ever encounter throughout a year.