Review of Inhalants - ARCHIVES - National Institute on Drug Abuse

use <strong>of</strong> mind altering plant substances in communities ranging from
the fairly primitive to modern Western industrial societies. These
uses are as diverse as those <strong>of</strong> the Jivaro <strong>of</strong> Ecuador, who use
psychoactive drugs in child rearing, and the quest for greater
creative expression that has captivated some users in our own
society. Among the Jivaro, the rebellious young must use these
substances to discern the will <strong>of</strong> their ancestors, which oddly
enough corresponds to the ideas <strong>of</strong> their tribal elders. Among
our own rebellious youth, it is probably safe to say that the use
<strong>of</strong> hallucinogens less frequently results in discovering views
corresponding to those <strong>of</strong> their elders!
Psychoactive plant substances may be used to place oneself in
communication with supernatural beings, to help with divination,
to aid in the diagnosis and treatment <strong>of</strong> certain types <strong>of</strong> illnesses,
or simply to give individuals a culturally acceptable mode <strong>of</strong>
escape from everyday life. In most societies that we know <strong>of</strong>,
this way <strong>of</strong> escape was not one open to all; usually it was reserved
for priests and shamans. That situation could and did
change, however, in response to certain outside economic and
social pressures--one <strong>of</strong> the best examples is the post-Conquest
spread <strong>of</strong> coca use to the common Indians after the defeat <strong>of</strong> the
Inca.
The altered state <strong>of</strong> consciousness which many <strong>of</strong> these psychoactive
plant substances could produce has been perceived as such
a benison that only a god could have given the means to achieve
it. Dionvsus was worshipped in Greece because <strong>of</strong> his gift <strong>of</strong>
the grape, and in Mexico the hongos magicos are <strong>of</strong>ten called the
flesh <strong>of</strong> the gods. In our own time, which has been aptly called
the age <strong>of</strong> pharmacological Calvinism,’ it is difficult to imagine any
drug, either natural or synthetic, being given a divine origin.
In fact, the polar, or at least the nether, opposite would probably
be true.
Richard Evans Schultes, the eminent ethnobotanist <strong>of</strong> Harvard
University, has <strong>of</strong>ten pointed out that the New World has many
more narcotic and hallucinogenic plants than the Old World, and
we have archaeological records to document their existence and
employment for centuries before the Conquest. In addition, there
are undoubtedly many plants, known at least at the time <strong>of</strong>
Sahagun , which now seem to have disappeared, or, at least, to
await further careful ethnographic work to document their present
use. Of particular interest are the narcotic and hallucinogenic
plants which depend on nasal ingestion, that is, sniffing, snuffing,
or snorting, to produce their effects.
One <strong>of</strong> these is tobacco. In prehistoric and early historic times,
tobacco achieved fairly extensive distribution through large parts
<strong>of</strong> the tropical forest, the Andes and the Caribbean, and was
used primarily as a psychotropic agent, usually in a magicoreligious
context. Tobacco can be used in many ways through
15