Club des Hashischins

The Club des Hashischins (sometimes also spelled Club des Hashishins or Club des Hachichins, "Club of the Hashish-Eaters") was a Parisian group dedicated to the exploration of drug-induced experiences, notably with hashish. Members included Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, Charles Baudelaire, Gérard de Nerval, and Honoré de Balzac.

Several drugs like hashish and opium were increasingly well known in Europe by the beginning of the nineteenth century. At that time, the use of these drugs was widespread among scientific and literary circles for purposes of recreation, though they were driven more by an aesthetic curiosity or the pretensions of a pseudo-science than a smoking lounge. In 1821, Thomas De Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium-Eater appeared, and was translated into French in 1828 by an anonymous author that signed as ADM, which turned out to be Alfred de Musset.

The club was active from about 1844 to 1849 and counted the literary and intellectual elite of Paris among its members, including Dr. Jacques-Joseph Moreau, Théophile Gautier, Charles Baudelaire, Gérard de Nerval,Eugène Delacroix and Alexandre Dumas. Monthly "séances" were held at the Hôtel de Lauzun (at that time Hôtel Pimodan) on the Île Saint-Louis.

Gautier wrote about the club in an article entitled "Le Club des Haschischins", published in the Revue des Deux Mondes in February 1846. The article described his first visit:

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