Society’s Altered Perceptions: The Differences of The Drugs Involved
...inent resource for many. Coffee on the other hand really had no spiritual journey that it assisted in but coffee too in its own was was effected by religion. Coffee was used by Monks to provide stimulation for a more awakened time for prayer. The Catholic church also had an affect on coffee, when it was first introduce to Europe the church felt that the new beverage should be banned, and that the Pope should make a decision. The pope had been a coffee drinker for quite awhile so he blessed coffee declaring it truly christian. Opium was used in enhancing and inducing meaningful dreams. In early societies these dreams where a sign of a true spiritual experience. It has always been human nature to heal the sick, mend the wounded and nurture the weak. Drugs like Tobacco, coffee and opium were accessories in pre-modern medicine. Tobacco was prescribed for the treatment of toothaches, earaches, open wounds, snake and insect bites, stomachaches, lethargic people and many more instances. Tobacco was prescribed by the Shaman who would blow tobacco smoke over patients to see what part of the body needed treatment. Coffee has also been used as a medicine, it has been used for pain relief, colds, asthma and just staying awake. Opium is a prominent component of the treatment in medicine. Thomas Sydenham declared that medicine would be useless without opium. His statement is true, what would medicine be without opium, the answer is nothing. More than fifty alkaloids have been identified in opium. The most powerful of them all is morphine, which as we all know proved itself in the pharmacological world. These drugs have impacted the medical world greatly, but these drugs did not just remain for the healing or even the spiritual being of people. Recreatio...