Why Do You Think People in Almost Every Culture Use Psychoactive Drugs and Search for Altered States of Consciousness?

African Culture

Africans culture uses psychoactive drugs and search for altered states of consciousness for treatments and for personal use. An example of one drug is khat, which is a flowering plant native to the Horn of Africa and have been used in traditional medicine for the treatment of depression, fatigue, and hunger in areas with meager food supplies, obesity, and gastric ulcers. It also may help enhance male fertility by revving up men's sperm. In Africa, it is also taken in old age, stimulating and improving mental function. It contains many quantities of cathinone, an alkaloid that stimulates mental activity much like amphetamine before rippling the user onto a wavelength of stoned introspection and sometimes manic hyperactivity. Its fresh leaves and tops are chewed or dried and consumed as tea in order to achieve this state of euphoria. Leaves of the khat shrub are typically chewed and held in the cheek, like chewing tobacco, to release their stimulant chemicals.

The khat plant contains psychoactive alkaloids with psychostimulant properties, and has been used for centuries as a recreational and religious drug, mainly in some African countries. Khat use is still highly prevalent in Africa, and in African groups. Its addictive potential as well as possible psychological, psychiatric and medical consequences related to stimulant use; however, existing epidemiological do not focus on the prevalence of problematic use or dependence. Khat dependence is associated with high morbidity and societal and economical costs. The history of psychoactive substance use in Africa is relatively short except for the reports on the use of traditional substances such as alcohol, cannabis and khat. The introduction of prescription drugs to Africa drastically increased the availability and use of psychoactive substances.

Another example of psychoactive drug that the African culture uses is cannabis, which is marijuana and is the oldest known psychoactive plant. Marijuana is known to have been used in religious rituals, as well as in medicinal preparations. It is highly revered for its ability to improve mood, alter perception and consciousness, as well as treating symptoms such as nausea, respiratory ailments, fever, and pain. African tribesmen chewed cannabis leaves, but they soon learned the art of smoking the plant, which changed African culture in many ways. New skills, like pipe-making, had to be learned

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