Medievalst .net have this, well worth a read, short piece on cannabis use and law in Medieval Egypt
Drug Use and the law in medieval Egypt
The views of Mamluk sultans and local officials in Egypt regarding the permissibility of hashish fluctuated over time. While some adopted strict stances, with certain sultans advocating for severe penalties such as the death penalty or dental extraction for possession, others displayed leniency. For instance, during a plague outbreak in 1419, a local market inspector merely restricted the open sale of hashish, suggesting tacit approval if consumed within private premises.
Those advocating for restrictions on hashish faced an uphill battle. By the 15th century, the drug became increasingly available and widely consumed, often at public baths or private gatherings. Consequently, a subset of society, often associated with the lower classes, emerged as addicts, congregating at specific locations to satisfy their cravings.
The historian al-Maqrizi, noting how widely hashish was being used in the early part of the 15th century, complained that this was ruining society:
Character and morals became overwhelmingly vile, the veil of bashfulness and shame was lifted, people used foul language, boasted of faults, lost all nobility and virtue, and adopted every possible ugly character quality and vice. Were it not for their human shape, nobody would think them human. Were it not for their sense perception, nobody would adjudge them living beings.
However, the words of another medieval poet shed light on what the ordinary person may have thought about the drug:
I said to the man occupied with hashish:
Woe unto you! Do you not fear this grain?
People are dying of a plague that has appeared.
He replied: Let me live eating this lump.
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