In the 1880s smoking hashish was legal, but not generally accepted. This image was published in the Illustrated Police News on December 2^nd, 1876. Five young women, elegantly dressed, lie in intoxicated condition in an exotically styled room. At first glance, one might think this is an image celebrating contemporary cannabis culture. The print was, however, demonizing the new phenomenon and described the scene as a “secret dissipation of New York belles: Interior of a Hasheesh Hell on Fifth Avenue”.