A fascinating and informative history of humankind's checkered and often ambrivalent relationship with psychoactive plants and drugs. From the role of the poppy in ancient Mesopotamia and the ergot-based mystery cult of Eleusis, through the opium wars in China and the persecution of medieval herbalist witches, up to the 'psychedelic rebellion' of the sixties and the insanities of the current 'war on drugs'.