Greece was a hashish-producing center from the late 1800s until Greece's golden age of hashish use during the 1920s and 1930s. Greek hashish very rarely entered the Western hashish trade. The peak period of Greek hashish use coincided with the flowering of rebetika music. Rebetika is a folk music with lyrics that often sang of hashish and that appealed to audiences and musicians who used hashish. Stefanis et al. (1977) present a well documented history of hashish in Greece:
It is probable that the cultivation of [Cannabis for] hashish [production] was introduced to Greece around 1875 by immigrants from Egypt, Cyprus, and other
eastern areas. By the last decade of the nineteenth century, hashish was openly cultivated for local use and export (Stringaris 1933). Papadopoulos (1959) estimates that before 1915, approximately 26,000 acres (more than 10,000 hectares) in Greece were put to hashish cultivation.
O n March 27, 1890, following a decision of the Medical Council, the Greek Department of Interior issued a circular prohibiting the importation, cultivation, and use of hashish as an imminent threat to society (Stringaris 1933). Despite passage of this restrictive law, in force until 1920, hashish was regularly used in the tekedes
(cafes frequented by hashish smokers), in the harbor area of Piraeus, and in the center of Athens (Petropoulos 1971)
In view of close similarities between the development of Smyrna and Syros (in Turkey), the use of hashish by the inhabitants of Smyrna cannot be dismissed. This view is strongly supported by reports that many of the Asia Minor Greeks repatriated in 1922 were hashish users.
Hashish use flourished during the decade following WWI. Greek soldiers, returning home after the war in Asia Minor, brought back hashish smoking habits
they had learned in Turkey (Couretas 1937).
During the years that followed, hashish use continued despite prescriptive legislation. The retail price was low, making it accessible to many (Vouyoucas 1971).
During the 1920s and 1930s, the highest-quality domestic Greek hashish was sieved from plants grown on the island of Syros. The best hashish available, however, was made in neighboring Turkey (also by sieving). Most of the hashish smoked in the tekes
during the 1920s and 1930s was smuggled from Turkey. The heydays of rebetika teke was short-lived. Hoist (1975) reported that by the late 1930s:
...the days of the tekes were almost over. During the war there was some relaxation of the laws against hashish, but the severe prosecutions of the Metaxas dictatorship (1936-41) had forced many of the tekes to close, and many of the smokers as well as the musicians had fled to Thessalonika, where conditions were somewhat easier. The local police chief Vassilis Mouskoudis, was a rebetika fan, and was prepared to supply musicians with hashish in order to listen to them play buzuki.
Hashish! / Robert Connel Clarke
