Famous Friends Of Cannabis
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1. Honore de Balzac
(Friends (B)/Honore de Balzac)
Honore de BalzacNo literary history of Europe is complete without mention of the Bohemian intelectuals that gathered in mid 19th-century France to consume a powerful, preparation of hashish. "The Hashish Club", which lasted from about 1844-49, was founded by Theophile Gautier (?), and included such famous literary iluminati as Alexander Dumas, Gerard de Nerval, Victor Hugo, Honore de Balzac, Ferdinand Boissard, Charles Baudelaire, Eugene Delacroix, Roger de Beauvoir (known as "the idol of Paris") and many others.

This group made up some of the most brilliant minds in France and Europe at the time. These "high" initiates would gather at Paris' Gothic Pimodan House, (Hotel Lazun) in Arabian dress, to partake of syrupy hashish blended into strong Arabic coffee. Many of them left detailed writings of their experiences, or incorporated hashish into their fictional tales.

Club members were clearly familiar with their pot-smoking literary antecedents. Club founder Theophile Gautier wrote of "pantagreulion dreams" passing through his consciousness.

Gautier formed the club after meeting Dr J Moreau - an expert on the effects of hashish. Moreau wrote about how cannabis allowed one to enter "an in-between land where the external life ends and the internal life begins." Moreau also described hashish as "an intellectual intoxication," preferrable to the "ignoble heavy drunkenness" of alcohol.

Monday, 24 November 2008 | 252 Hit(s) | (1 vote) | Read more...