What's the Deal with Spice Herbal Blends
The oldest acknowledged tradition of smoking legal herb of any sort is found around 2000 B.C. in India, where the holy text the Atharva Veda mentions marijuana as "one of the five sacred plants." In Hindu temples and through particular Hindu festivals, one of the three types of cannabis may be consumed: ganja, bhang, or hashish. Although the first of these, bhang, is a liquid mixture drunk by the worshiper, the other ones are both what amounts to smoking legal herbs. Although smoking herbs such as marijuana is technically against the law in India today, spiritual wise men known as sadhus still partake in the rituals by smoking Herbal Spice mixtures that include cannabis together with other sacred plants.
The next evidence we see for spice herbal incense precedents occurs a couple thousand years later in early Chinese culture. Taoist and other ancient Chinese manuscript describe Herbal Smoking Blends that include cannabis and other sacred plants as a medicine. In addition to the medicinal qualities of the herbal spice mixtures, the Chinese used these plants to commune with the spiritual plane and to "make their bodies light".
In the USA, anyone who wants to know, "What is herbal spice?" should look all the way back to Native American tribes that were here when Christopher Columbus landed. Tribes such as the Cherokee and Mohawk would seal all peace treaties and important agreements by smoking herbal mixtures in the peace pipe. These mixtures included plants as varied as tobacco, lemongrass, and wild lettuce, which the Native Americans believed would carry their terms up to the Great Spirit in the rising herbal smoke.
One detail many individuals are asking is whether or not smoking legal buds will make them ill or have harmful health effects. Certainly there is a place for moderation regarding this new trend in legal smoking highs, but then all things are good in moderation. Why, you can even have negative health effects from drinking too much water! (try googling "water poisoning" sometime). The real question is whether or not Spice Herbal Smoking has health consequences out of proportion to the benefits it offers, and whether or not those consequences are due to improper or proper practices of smoking herbal spice.
Over the years the idea of smoking legal smoke could even be applied to smoking opium. New York's opium dens in the 1800's were famous pits of despair and disease, and London's version of the opium den was popularized by such famed authors as Arthur Conan Doyle (the creator of Sherlock Holmes). Yet these places were surely good examples of a substance whose drawbacks clearly outweighed the benefits, with users becoming hollowed shells of human beings tucked away and astray to society at large.
Though critics would like to paint such a picture for the community of the practice of herbal incense smoking, the reality is that there is little to no evidence it is anything like that. Smoking herbal blends involves no known dependencies that has been proven, has yet to be associated to any particular negative health effects, and is certainly far less damaging than many of the substances that have been lawful at times, as well as marijuana and heroin (opium). In fact, although there have been accusations made by various authorities, no negative health effects have yet been recognized due to smoking herbal smoke for the simple reason that there are no test yet able to determine whether or not a someone has been smoking herbal spice products.
The biggest advantage many people see to spice herbal smoking is that it is lawful in the USA compared to several of the alternatives. That doesn't mean that it's a marijuana substitute, rather that it is an option in the same sense that an alternative to McDonald's is Burger King. The only difference in the spice herbal market is that one alternative happens to be lawful and the other not, presenting a definite market advantage in terms of circulation and availability to the legal alternative.
Most folks want to have the peace of mind that comes with knowing that their spare time habits will not interrupt on the rest of their lives in an unwelcome fashion. The need to pass a drug test is for many individuals a significant hurdle preventing them from considering many of the smoking options, and so spice herbal smoking becomes an attractive alternative. Given that opium smoking is highly addictive (and extremely detrimental to health besides); cannabis is listed as a controlled substance and the presence of THC in the body will cause you to not pass a drug test; and tobacco smoking is for many people a revolting and unappealing habit (although legal) - means that the best and smartest option is the herbal smoking choice.
The truth that people are only now starting to ask, "What is herbal spice?" only shows their ignorance of the history of medical and spiritual matters. When the tapestry of history is considered, including the many uses of herbal smoking by shamans, medicine men, and spiritual guides in the past, it is not surprising in the least that herbal spice incenses have become a accepted smoking alternative.
