Drug Usage through the Ages

Alcohol is part of European culture and tradition. Ten thousand-year-old jugs have been discovered in many parts of the world showing traces of strong beer. Since the Ancient Greeks, we have used it not just for pleasure but as the basis of perfumes and medicines. It is at the heart of Christianity, where it is used as part of the most important celebration of Jesus Christ’s promise to humanity of eternal life. What’s more, for hundreds of years, beer and wine were a much healthier alternative to water, which often carried disease, so that children went straight from their mothers’ milk to weak beer. (We should remember that beer contained about 1% alcohol before the nineteenth century, whereas it is typically not less than 4% today.)