Yes, they were in wide use throughout the world. But contrary to the cannabis link, which apparently is written by Jews, the bible itself is pretty clear on what is observed, what is dreamed, and what is prognosticated. So for example, the burning bush is directly observed and not part of any drug induced fantasy. Though loser pot heads love to push bullshit for the sake of normalization.
It's in the realm of prognostications in which drugs may or may not have been used. In general, however, prognostication is considered witchcraft and not something commonly accepted in the biblical world of the Hebrews and Israelites.
That said, pot has always been commonly used throughout most of the world. But its THC levels were historically very low. So it's more like a modest stress relief event rather than some psychoactive escapist experience. The Levels of THC in pot has exploded since the 1900s. Today's pot is not really comparable to historical plants previous to the 1800-1900s.
Higher THC only means you need to use less to get high
But that's not how it's used. Higher THC levels are used to create faster, more intense highs. Well beyond that of simple buzzes from the original very low levels of THC traditionally present. If your statement were true, the volume of pot consumption per person would have been in steady decline. When in fact it has steadily risen. People are consuming much higher levels of THC and more frequently.
Starting from the 60s, there was lots of focus to significantly increase THC levels in pot. It has steadily increased ever since. Prior to this there were modest efforts to do this but they generally didn't increase very much simply because in the western world there wasn't a serious "pot culture." It was simply something one did from time to time. Sometimes even medicinally.
I haven't touched pot in 20 years and I thought it was kind of funny couple years back when I heard a guy asked someone how they take their pot. I said how do you think you take it you smoke it and he just kind of snickered he goes man where have you been. Apparently there's 90 different ways to ingest it now. And we used to worship White Widow when we were in our twenties now I guess compared to the stuff out now that's amateur hour.
five hits of one compared to one hit of another, same effect
When I used to smoke it was more about hanging out with your friends and spending the time breaking up the weed picking all the shit out just getting the leaves trying not to get all of crystals all over your fingers rolling the blunt we're packing the bong and just having a little social half hour. I don't know what it's like now but I'd imagine with all the new avenues of ingestion it's a little less communal. I could be wrong because I'm just not around it anymore.
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