Drug use of one sort or another has occurred for a very long time – probably ever since the time that early humans, eating plants that grew around them, found that some plants had medicinal properties and that some made them feel different. Since that time, drug use has been part of the human lifestyle, with different societies using different ‘natural’ intoxicants depending on the indigenous flora. A few of these drugs have become familiar to many, beyond the confines of their original use. Opium, alcohol and cannabis spring immediately to mind; they have been used for centuries and are still widely used today. So too is coffee, which although it is bought in packets and jars as a food, fits all five definitions of the word ‘drug’ given in Chapter 1.

Coffee is indigenous to Ethiopia where it was first consumed by chewing the beans or infusing the leaves. It was certainly known to the Arabs in the sixth century and its medicinal properties were described by the Persian physicians, Razi (or Rhazes; 850–922) and Ibn-sina (or Avicenna; 980–1037). In the fourteenth century the technique of roasting and grinding coffee beans was developed and only then did coffee drinking become prevalent. By this time, the cultivation and use of coffee had spread to Arabia where its popularity was enhanced because the use of alcohol had been banned by the Koran. Coffee was used medicinally as well as for religious purposes, particularly by the Dervishes to keep themselves awake during long religious rituals. With the increasing popularity of coffee, coffee houses were established which soon became meeting places for intellectuals.