To inhale or not to inhale: Did William Shakespeare smoke weed?

In Romeo and Juliet, the lovelorn hero proclaims that “Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs.”

The line may have actually been inspired by the fumes of cannabis, according to a recently published paper on William Shakespeare and his smoking habits.

The report, which cites a 2001 analysis of early 17th-century pipes from Stratford-upon-Avon and the Bard’s own residence, argues that Shakespeare could have smoked the substance and was probably well aware of its hallucinatory effects.

In some cases, the pipes contained evidence of cocaine, though it remains unclear if Shakespeare himself ingested the substance.

Though the new paper is based on a 2001 study, it advances the argument by citing possible references to drugs in the writings of Shakespeare. The paper also states that Shakespearean scholars were critical of the original study and urges them to reconsider the evidence.

“Literary analyses and chemical science can be mutually beneficial, bringing the arts and the sciences together in an effort to better understand Shakespeare and his contemporaries,” wrote Francis Thackeray, the author of the paper who was also involved with the original study. He teaches in the Evolutionary Studies Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.