I'm wondering if pirates operating in the Caribbeans during the 1600s to 1700s smoked cannabis, or consumed it in any other way.
Alrighty guys, because apparently maturity and self-control are in short supply tonight, I'll go ahead and make this thread-level post.
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Cannabis as a drug has a long history, just not in the Carribean. It probably originated in Asia and eventually spread to India and Africa where it began to see widespread usage. It only made its way to Jamaica in the mid-19th century when indentured Indian servants were brought to Jamaica by the British. Hemp was used in North America earlier than that but its recreational effects were largely not realized until the 20th century.
So no, pirates didn't toke.
Additional question, did pirates in this era consume other hallucinogenic substances?
I can't say that I know about cannabis use in particular, but, I do know that opiates were certainly the drug of choice during that time period. Specifically, laudanum was suspected to be the medicine that Blackbeard demanded as part of his ransom during the siege on Charleston. In coastal areas of China, as opium smoking became the most entrenched within China, the Javanese were known to chew or smoke a substance called "Madak/Madat", which was tobacco mixed with herbs and opium. This early mixture of tobbaco and opium was more common until the late 1800s, when smoking pure opium became more readily indulged in due to the lack of scarcity (opium imports rose from 4,500 chests in 1800 to 40,000 in 1838). Opium produces euphoria, and a sense of emotional detachment, among other effects. A modern opiate derivative that is more commonly known is heroine. Piracy has been intertwined historically with the opiate trade (as exemplified during the Opium Wars), and even in modern times African pirates are widely known for their drug use.
However, as far as I've seen in my own reading, I've yet to find a hard reference to recreational drug use among pirates (other than alcohol, but, that's another subject entirely). In short, as far as I am aware, the most common substances imbibed by pirates were caffeine (tea, drinking chocolate), tobacco, and alcohol. I'm just speaking of my own experience as an interested person who has read several books on pirates, as I am not a qualified historian on the matter.
Marijuana originated in Central and Southern Asia. It was discovered growing in the wild in China. China is known principally for its tea and opium, the great number of its people, it’s massive high-rises, but not really known for the discovery place of marijuana. They were able to spin yarn for clothing, fishing nets, rope and many other uses that we refer to as hemp products. Traces of people smoking Marijuana go back as far as 4500 B.C..