Noses sliced off in Russia for smoking. Teeth yanked out in Egypt for hashish. Victorian ladies denouncing alcohol in public — then sneaking home to sip opium wine.

Welcome to The Seven Sisters of Sleep (1860), a forgotten Victorian catalog of intoxicants: opium, hashish, betel, tobacco, coca, Amanita, and alcohol. It’s outrageous, it’s true, and it proves one thing: governments have always feared plants more than people.

Why listen? Because the myths, fears, and punishments of the past are the same ones shaping policy and culture today. The “drug debate” hasn’t changed — only the costumes. Spend twenty minutes here and you’ll walk away with jaw-dropping stories, a clearer lens on how power rewrites nature, and maybe a new way to see your own habits.

www.unidelics.com