Pour une histoire du cannabis

What is known about the history of hashish in France or, more precisely, the history of the relationship between cannabis and the inhabitants of France? Which aspects of these relationships deserve more detailed investigation by historians? Which periods have been most extensively studied and which periods have been neglected? To answer these questions, this article is essentially based on the author’s contribution to Cannabis et adolescence. Les liaisons dangereuses. Before the 19th century, although lndian hemp was not completely unknown in France, it was very poorly known and essentially described in travellers’ tales. For example, no trace was found in the medical literature before the book by Aubert-Roche, De la peste et du typhus en Orient published in 1840. Five years later, the publication of Du haschisch et de l’aliénation mentale by Moreau de Tours raised a certain amount of interest in the medical world. This “alienist”, working at Bicêtre and then at Salpêtrière hospitals, played a major role in the introduction of cannabis in France. The history of this substance therefore begins in the middle of the 19th century. The author distinguishes three levels of analysis, which, although related to each other, possess a certain degree of independence. The author examines the place of hashish in scientific and more particularly medical thought and practice and then examines the place of hashish in literary and artistic representations. Finally, the sociological aspects of hashish consumption are studied. These three aspects obviously do not exhaust the subject. For example, cannabis in relation to the law and public policies constitutes another especially heuristic aspect.