Artificial Paradises

Explanation: In the readings, Iran’s drug policy is shown to have shifted after the Iran–Iraq War, when the state moved away from purely punitive approaches toward more pragmatic policies. This included partial decriminalization and harm-reduction measures, shaped by the massive social and medical consequences of war, addiction, and trafficking rather than by religious doctrine alone. (Reading: Ghiabi, Pluriverse). Quote: “Post-war Iran gradually adopted pragmatic and harm-reduction–oriented drug policies.” (Ghiabi, Pluriverse). (רדיקליזציה היא תהליך שבו אדם או קבוצה מאמצים בהדרגה עמדות, רעיונות או דרכי פעולה קיצוניות יותר ויותר, שלרוב דוחות את הנורמות המקובלות בחברה.)

Explanation: In the readings, the French expedition to Egypt (1798–1801) is presented as a decisive moment in which European soldiers, administrators, and scholars encountered hashish firsthand. These encounters generated medical, psychiatric, and Orientalist writings that reframed hashish use as an object of scientific inquiry and social concern. From this point, intoxication was increasingly interpreted through medicalized categories—pathology, degeneration, and discipline—rather than as a routine cultural practice. (Readings: Guba; Ram). Quote: “The French encounter with Egypt marked a turning point in the medical and scientific framing of hashish.” (Guba, Antoine Isaac Silvestre de Sacy and the Myth of the Hachichins).

Explanation: In the readings, early modern rebellions in Yemen and the Fertile Crescent are described as contexts in which wine and opium were common intoxicants among fighters and surrounding populations. Hashish was not the dominant substance in these settings, and there was no systematic attempt to prohibit drugs during these revolts. Instead, intoxication formed part of broader social, military, and cultural practices of the time. (Reading: Ram, Middle East Drug Cultures in the Long View). Quote: “Wine and opium were widely consumed in early modern Middle Eastern societies, including during periods of rebellion.” (Ram, Middle East Drug Cultures in the Long View).

Explanation: In the readings, British officials approached hashish in Egypt through interpretive frameworks they had already developed in India. Rather than treating Egypt as a completely unique case, they transferred colonial knowledge, assumptions, and administrative practices from the Indian context, applying similar moral, medical, and political understandings of hashish use. This continuity illustrates how imperial governance relied on circulating colonial expertise across regions. (Readings: Kozma; Ram). Quote: “British perceptions of hashish in Egypt were shaped by prior colonial experiences, especially those developed in India.” (Kozma, Cannabis Prohibition in Egypt, 1880–1939).

Explanation: In the readings, the Parisian Club des Hashischins is presented as a cultural and literary circle whose members used hashish as a form of aesthetic and social experimentation. Their consumption was tied to Romanticism and bohemian culture and functioned as a critique of bourgeois values such as discipline, rationality, and moral restraint. Hashish became a symbol of opposition to middle-class norms rather than a medical or purely hedonistic practice. (Reading: Boon, The Road of Excess). Quote: “Hashish functioned as a means of cultural rebellion against bourgeois norms within Parisian literary circles.” (Boon, The Road of Excess).

Explanation: In the readings, cannabis use in Israel during the late twentieth century was initially associated mainly with Mizrahi Jews—first- and second-generation immigrants from Middle Eastern and North African countries. This association reflected ethnicized and class-based perceptions of drugs, in which cannabis was framed as a “cultural” or “Oriental” substance before later becoming more widespread and normalized among broader segments of Israeli society. (Reading: Ram, Intoxicating Zion). Quote: “Cannabis consumption in Israel was initially identified with Mizrahi communities rather than with the Ashkenazi middle class.” (Ram, Intoxicating Zion).

Explanation: In the readings, jazz musicians in the early twentieth-century United States were closely associated with marijuana use, which was framed as a tool for creativity, improvisation, and altered musical perception. This association later became racialized and criminalized, as cannabis was linked to Black musicians and portrayed as a threat to social order. The cultural practice of jazz thus played a key role in shaping early American anti-cannabis discourse. (Reading: Breen; Boon). Quote: “Marijuana was widely associated with jazz musicians and understood as enhancing musical creativity and improvisation.” (Breen, The Age of Intoxication).

Explanation: In the readings, Silvestre de Sacy is shown to have advanced speculative Orientalist interpretations that linked hashish to the Nizari Ismailis and to the Assassin myth, while relying on selective, indirect, and often unreliable sources rather than rigorous historical evidence. These claims were later repeated and naturalized in European scholarship, turning conjecture into authoritative knowledge. (Reading: Guba, Antoine Isaac Silvestre de Sacy and the Myth of the Hachichins). Quote: “De Sacy’s arguments rested on conjecture and Orientalist philology rather than firm historical proof.” (Guba, Antoine Isaac Silvestre de Sacy and the Myth of the Hachichins).