In Ridley Scott’s historical epic Napoleon, the titular French conqueror, played by Joaquin Phoenix, marches into the deserts of Egypt and orders his soldiers to aim their cannons at the pyramids. The whole scene is a fabrication – one Scott, who directed the equally sensational Gladiator, also starring Phoenix, has already been called out by historians. But even if Napoleon Bonaparte did damage these world wonders, this wouldn’t have been the strangest thing to happen during his excursion into Asia Minor.

The imperial French army invaded Egypt in 1798 after capturing the Mediterranean port of Malta with two purposes: to break up trade routes between India and England, and to establish French rule in the Middle East. Ultimately, Napoleon’s biggest obstacle wasn’t the Egyptians themselves, but their love of hashish – a love that spread to his own soldiers, and which he eventually resolved to ban, thus laying the foundation for Western Europe’s approach to cannabis. 

Rather than forcing their own customs onto the Egyptians, Napoleon urged his administrators to embrace the local culture. French forces, including scholars and scientists, established libraries and research centers to nourish their genuine interest in the many traditions and inventions of the Islamic world. Lacking access to their French wines and liquors, they also learned about hashish, and soon began frequenting the cafés, markets, and lounges where the substance was typically found. 

Legend has it that Napoleon issued a ban on hashish because his soldiers were too stoned to fight, but this is as much of a misconception as Ridley’s film. In truth, hash did not become illegal until after the campaign had come to an end; the ban itself wasn’t implemented by Napoleon, but one of his generals; and its goal wasn’t to protect French citizens against the drug’s “corroding influence,” but exert control over Egypt and Syria by pitting its own citizens against each other.

As Ryan Stoa explains in his article A Brief Global History of the War on Cannabis, written for The MIT Press Reader, hashish in Egypt was “associated with Sufi mystics and looked down upon by the Sunni elite.” The general Napoleon left in charge of Egypt, Jacques-François Menou, saw the hashish ban as an opportunity to kill “two birds with one stone.” In addition to improving a perceived public health problem, the general, married to a Sunni elite, also hoped to earn the respect of his in-laws. 

Issued in 1800, Menou’s mandate is often considered the first drug prohibition law of the modern world. It’s also one of the most uncompromising, prohibiting the cultivation, sale, and consumption of cannabis in one fell swoop. Egyptians weren’t allowed to smoke cannabis itself, nor were they allowed to mix it into their liquor. “Those who are accustomed to drinking this liquor and smoking this seed,” the mandate read, “lose reason and fall into a violent delirium, which often leads them to commit excesses of all kinds.”

The ban, like many other idealistic goals pursued by Napoleon’s administration, didn’t work out. According to Stoa, hashish continued to be grown, traded, and used across Egypt – a practice that, if archeological finds can be believed, dates back as far as 3000 BC. Not only did French soldiers fail to prevent Egyptians from smoking hash, but they also ended up introducing the substance to Western Europe, not unlike some of the American veterans returning from Vietnam. 

The French were no more successful at banning cannabis at home than abroad. In Paris, the open-minded writers and painters that made up the Romantic movement, which rejected the cold-blooded rationality of the Enlightenment in favor of emotion and spirituality, tolerated and at times celebrated the drug that their government was trying to eradicate. They proudly referred to their intellectual circle as the Club des Hachichins, the “Hash-Eaters’ Club” in English. 

Despite pressure from their own government, the Egyptian city of Cairo blossomed into one of the biggest hash markets in the world. Rivaled only by Istanbul, in Turkey, Cairo’s cannabis industry survived well into the late 1800s, when a compounding list of prohibitions, penalties, and crackdowns caused its organizers to search for a new base of operation. Migrating along the coast of Northern Africa, they eventually settled in Morocco, where they remain to this day. 

Hash wasn’t the only cannabis product that played an unlikely role in the Napoleonic Wars, however. Even more important was the hemp plant itself, which could be transformed into bags, rope, cordage, sails, and other materials that are tantamount to waging a successful war. Flourishing trade between England and Russia, Europe’s top hemp producers, was a major concern for Napoleon as he marched his forces into the Russian heartland on their way to Moscow. 

Just as the French Emperor had sought to regulate the consumption of hash, so too did he attempt to gain control over the production of hemp. In the so-called Peace Treaty of Tilsit, signed in 1807, before France’s invasion of Russia, Napoleon actually demanded that Russia’s Czar, Alexander I, cease to do business with Great Britain. No business with Britain meant less hemp, less hemp meant a weaker army, a weaker army meant a greater chance at victory. 

Maybe, if the Czar had accepted these terms, Napoleon would have made it to Moscow after all. 

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An Ancient Egyptian vase with a face resembling the deity Bes was found with traces of a mixture containing several psychedelic compounds.

A recent preprint of a study intended for peer review, scientists discovered direct evidence inside a vase, indicating that the Ancient Egyptian cult of fertility god Bes used Syrian rue, Egyptian lotus, and royal jelly to trip on during religious ceremonies. Ptolemaic-era vases from the Tampa Museum of Art in Florida were analyzed.

Bes (and his female counterpart Beset) was worshiped during the New Kingdom, Ptolemaic period, and Imperial Rome as protector of households, i.e. women and children. Offerings to Bes usually were meant for fertility purposes. In the New Kingdom, Egyptians bore the image of Bes tattooed on their skin, and evidence suggests festivals in honor of Bes.

Researchers found traces of multiple plants and ingredients known for their hallucinogenic properties. “Our analyses revealed traces of Peganum harmala, Nimphaea nouchali var. caerulea, and a plant of the Cleome genus, all of which are traditionally proven to have psychotropic and medicinal properties,” researchers wrote. “Additionally, the identification of human fluids suggests their direct involvement in these rituals.”

Other Egyptian cults and Ancient Mayans also used Nimphaea nouchali var. Caerulea for psychedelic purposes. Researchers also detected cow DNA, and speculate the vases may have contained a fermented milk or some other cow product. Traces of royal honey or royal jelly was also found in the vase, known for both hallucinogenic effects and for increasing sexual vitality, (though the FDA warned about hawkers mixing it with Cialis). Some of royal jelly’s benefits, however, are backed by science.

“Furthermore, metabolomics and SR μ-FTIR analyses also revealed the presence of fermented fruit-based liquid and other ingredients such as honey or royal jelly,” researchers wrote. “The identification of specific chemical compounds, such as alkaloids and flavonoids, provides insight into the psychoactive and therapeutic uses of these in ancient ritual practices. This multidisciplinary study highlights the complexity of ancient cultures and their interactions with psychoactive, medicinal, and nutraceutical substances. These findings contribute to our understanding of ancient belief systems, cultural practices, and the utilization of natural resources, ultimately enhancing our knowledge of past societies and their connection to the natural world.”

Along with the Egyptian or blue lotus, the most popular psychoactive plants we know about among the Ancient Egyptians are opium, tobacco, and coca.

Ars Technica reports that ceramic vases and similar vessels depicting Bes have been found and now populate museums and private collections across the world. Researchers speculate they held beer or an elixir. He’s usually depicted with a bearded dwarf and sticking his tongue out, sometimes with a phallic symbol.

“The familiar image of Bes is a composite of anthropomorphic and theriomorphic elements, part dwarfish, part feline,” the report reads. “He emerged from the magical realm of the world of demons as a guardian figure, and gradually seems to have obtained a more numinous status until, in the Roman Imperial age, he sporadically acquired divine worship. In terms of his functions, Bes provided protection from danger, while simultaneously averting harm, and being able with his power to prevent evil. In critical circumstances, he was also placating in nature as told in the well-known Myth of the Solar Eye, when he stopped the wrath of bloodthirsty goddess Hathor serving her an alcoholic beverage, spiked with a plant-based drug, disguised as blood to a deep forgetting sleep on her.”

Chambers painted with the image of Bes were built at the site of Saqqara near the Egyptian capital Memphis, south of Cairo, but little is understood about the religion specifics.

Expanding the sampling chemical study to other examples of similar times would show a clearer picture, researchers said.

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