michal pollen is the author of "botany of desire", a book about humans eons long interactions with plants.. he contends that plants, have evolved strategies for animals to transport and nurture their seeds. (squirrels with oaks, say)
in the book, he focused on plant qualities that humans value, and how plants meet our needs. specifically four desires, sweetness, (the apple), beauty (the tulip), nurishment (the potato) and intoxication (marijuanna).
there are plenty of other plants that could be substituted, (cane or beets say for sweetness, but apples are more universal, corn, or wheat or rice for nurishment, but he didn't want a grain).
he had a lot of documentation to support the idea that witches' were the old herbalist healers, who found themselves being put out of business by the catholic church, for several reasons.
their herbal remedies, harkened back to, and used recipes from pagan times, people were supposed to pray for healing from god, and not look to earthly cures (an idea that persisted in christianity, right up to 150 years ago, when many doctors and theologians thought it wrong to use any pain relief drugs during childbirth, since in the bible it states childbirth is part of the punishment for eve's sin)
and finally, the remedies often included drugs like opium and marijuanna, the were mind altering... again, a religious no no.
and to make matter worse, was how the drugs were taken. to get past the problem of use, (if you ingest, most of active ingrediants will 1) either make you sick, and cause you to vomit them out, or 2) will be neutralized by the liver before they have much effect.)the witches used
'broomsticks' coated with mixtures of opium and herbs (marijaunna, mushrooms and others botanicals) and took the drugs internally, by passing the digestive system all together. the flying-- was metaphoric, but i suspect they often got "high as kite"... and for a religion that frowns on satisfying sexual desires, the means of taken the drugs made them.. well punishable by death.
the aztecs and majans also used drugs, and they too took them interally, usually via an emema. (there was a facinating article, unfortunately not available on line about the mezo americans drug use in Natural History earlier this year) and the spanish were appalled by both the drug use, and the way it was administered!
but this is pretty far off base for a word forum!
