this post was submitted on 21 Apr 2026
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Here's the paper for anyone interested. TLDR: In 2001 cocain residue was found alongside tobacco and hemp residue. There were also refrences to drugs in art and poems that the author supposes are cocain and cannabis. Fastwarward to 2023 when traces of cocain THC & CBD were found in bones from Milan. Today the author of the 2001 study is using the 2023 results to support his findings. As far as I can tell no one else has tried to test the pipe fragments.
Wait, how can that be right? Shakespeare had access to coca leaves and was smoking them? I know it's not literally impossible but it seems unlikely...
Francis Thackeray, in his 2025 article, suggests Sir Francis Drake could have acquired it when sailing in the area. Since traces of it were also discovered in 1600s Milan its possible that the spanish were circulating it. This 2024 study discusses how the Spanish at least knew of it as early as 1499.
Imagine it was all tested in the same lab, contaminated by the same coked up pothead lab tech.
Contamination may actually be a concern here since AFAIK no independent analysis of the clay pipe fragments or the bones has been done yet, but it'd have to be 2 coked up pothead lab techs since the clay pipe fragments were tested in a police narcotics lab in South Africa while the bones were tested at the excavation site in Milan.