A HASHISH HOUSE IN NEW YORK

by H.H. Kane

 This short description of a visit to a New York hashish house seems to have been written around 1910. It shows a squalid, dirty city in which there is at least one house with sumptuous furnishings where solid citizens spent their time languishing in hempen dreams and glorious splendor. Contrast that with a hundred years later when the city is relatively clean and orderly, but contains numerous houses full of decrepitude where the poorest citizens spend their time languishing in crack-addled dreams. Progress? Maybe so; maybe no. Our goal should be a clean city full of houses of splendor where all citizens, rich and poor together, spend their time languishing in dreams, induced by all of the wonders of the modern pharmacopoeia.