The hash culture in Egypt

Hashish used to be a part of the rituals the ‘Hashashin’ would undergo before a mission. The Hashashin were the Middle Eastern cloak-and-dagger equivalent of the assassin, and that same term is derived from their name and their habitual hash smoking, or so the myth goes.

In reality, marihuana is one of the oldest narcotics used by man. Throughout the ages there have been many people who are rumored to have taken inspiration from drug use, such as Lewis Carroll, who wrote Alice in Wonderland, and Mary Shelley, responsible for the Fankestein novel.

In Egypt, it is illegal to use recreational drugs. In fact, Egypt has the oldest established drug agency in the world, the Anti-Narcotic General Administration, founded in 1929. Officially, Egypt takes a very strong stance against drug trafficking and recreational drug use, with official sources citing the cost to Egypt’s economy at $800 million in 2003.

The stance taken in Islam is not universal. Many claim that passages within the Quran which tackle the issue of narcotics does not explicitly tie in marihuana. Among the more fundamentalist sections of Islam, drug us in general is seen as ‘haram’ (unlawful), subverting the work ethic of the masses.

Sufi Islam is one such sect which regards the consumption of certain narcotics as a part of their culture, according to essayist Peter Lamborn Wilson. In the early days of Sufi Islam, the Sufi were known for their ingestion of coffee, wine and marihuana and are usually credited with the invention of drinking coffee for its caffeine, his book ‘essays in Islamic heresy’ reveals.

The use of hashish and ‘bango’ (the local equivalent of marihuana) is so widespread amongst the lower strata in society, it is hard to avoid on a day to day basis.

“Smoking (hashish) helps me work,” an Egyptian stable master and hash dealer told Bikyamasr.com. “The long hours at night are so boring. Smoking helps me deal with time.”

According to the stable master, the hash culture has been around longer than Islam, and is so engrained in the culture that “it would be impossible to stop. Police don’t care, politicians, army, they all smoke too.”

“Hashish helps focus, it makes my long hours tolerable,” Ibrahim, a 27-year-old microbus driver told Bikyamasr.com. “Mubarak knew if he ever tried to stop us from smoking, he would have been removed. I just hope the new government will realize this too.”