6. Charles Baudelaire
Another one of the club’s esteemed members, Baudelaire was one of many authors who smoked weed. Admittedly, he was a more reluctant fan of the herb. In addition to penning Les Fleurs du Mal, Baudelaire wrote about his drug experiences in “Les Paradis Artificiels.”
In it, Baudelaire compares alcohol and hashish. He criticizes both substances: “on one side liquors, which rapidly excite gross frenzy and lay flat all spiritual force, and the perfumes, whose excessive use, while rendering more subtle man’s imagination, wear out gradually his physical force.”
Baudelaire had a complicated relationship with the “spiritual force” that is marijuana, going on to describe it as a demon.
He concludes that hashish leads to the feeling that “every philosophical problem is resolved. […] Man has surpassed the gods.”
