Smoking Legal Herbs and Herbal Potpourri
A history of herbal potpourri smoking would have to begin with Asia. The Chinese and people living in Central Asia were getting high smoking incense blends of all kinds of plants of herbs as far back as 2,500 years ago. Ancient Chinese shamans used potpourri smoke to connect with the Perfected Immortals, and Taoist wisdom texts reference the smoking of various substances thought to be cannabis beginning around the 4th century A.D.
But the Chinese weren't the only ones getting high smoking various forms of herbal buds back then. Indian worship rituals involving smoking herbal blends have been a part of Hindu ceremonies since around 2000 B.C. as well. Even today, festivals in India (such as the Shivrati festival) involving offering what is essentially legal herbs to the deity Shiva. During the Indian festival of Holi, worshipers actually drink instead of smoke potpourri mixtures made of sacred plant tops and flowers. In spite of current negative prevailing attitudes toward cannabis and its alternatives, western society has long had a history of smoking herbal mixtures of plants and herbs. Germanic culture has at its roots ancient Viking gods and goddesses, and the worship of these often involved what was essentially herbal smoke mixtures. There is even linguistic evidence that the smoking phenomenon is tied to European peoples: the English word hemp is derived from the same ancient German word that cannabis comes from.
Although the names today are things like Spice Incense or Herbal Incense Blends, the truth is that nearly every culture has had some form of smoking herbs as a way of getting in touch with the religious or spiritual. Only a few sub-cultures such as the Rastafarians have had the hutzpah to come right out and continue to maintain their position that there's nothing wrong with finding ways to get a legal high. Advocating the disobedience of civil codes in society can be rather hazardous, and members of the Rastafari movement have paid a price for their honesty. But most people don't want to start a social movement—they just want to relax and smoke potpourri incense after a long hard day at work. The choices available to a law-abiding citizen are fairly limited: alcohol, cigarettes, or something like a legal smoke alternatives are about the only things available to help one relax. The negative health effects of alcohol (liver damage, alcoholism) and cigarettes (lung cancer, emphysema) are well-documented. Little wonder then that when Spice legal herb first appeared on the scene in 2004, retailers could barely keep it on the shelves.
Potpourri smoking is a trend that is not likely to disappear anytime soon, then. Opponents of legal smoke alternatives continue to try and outlaw the various forms of herbal potpourri or herbal incenses, and manufacturers continue to tweak their formulas to try and stay as close to 50 state legal as possible. Clearly, using and smoking legal alternatives will remain an attractive option for anyone wanting to get in touch with the spiritual or religious side of the life.