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→Recreational Drugs in the Medieval and Early Modern Period
Recreational drugs also included other forms, including types of mushrooms. In Saharan and sub-Sahara Africa, mushrooms containing psilocybin were used as a hallucinogenic. They were used by nomadic populations and they could be found in the springtime. Rock art from 9000-7000 years ago may suggest that mushrooms were ingested in North Africa as part of rituals and visions seen and painted. Representations of mushrooms are also shown, which would suggest their use as part of the visions or drawings shown.
==Recreational Drugs in the Medieval and Early Modern PeriodNew World== While opium was likely the most common drug in the Old World, recreational drugs in the New World included cocoa leaves that were chewed in South America as early as about 8000 years ago. After 3000 BC, cocoa was commonly chewed and consumed by cultures east of the Andes. Later, it was introduced to the Incas and was added as part of tea or commonly chewed. The Incas considered it a divine plant and likely saw the psychedelic effects as a divine influence or ways to communicate with the gods. The Incas created a monopoly of production and was more limited in its use, probably the upper classes and nobles.
==How Recent Trends Differed from the Past==
