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Recreational drugs also included other forms, including types of mushrooms. In the Sahara and sub-Sahara Africa, mushrooms containing psilocybin were used as a hallucinogenic by nomadic groups. Rock art from 9000-7000 years ago, before the Sahara became a vast desert and was still relatively fertile, may suggest that mushrooms were ingested in North Africa as part of rituals and visions seen and painted. Representations of mushrooms are also shown, which would suggest their use as part of the visions or drawings shown in rock art.<ref>For more on rock art and other forms of recreational drug use in Africa, see: http://www.artepreistorica.com/2009/12/the-oldest-representations-of-hallucinogenic-mushrooms-in-the-world-sahara-desert-9000-%E2%80%93-7000-b-p/</ref>

While opium was likely the most common drug in the Old World, recreational drugs in the New World included cocoa leaves that were chewed in South America as early as about 8000 years ago. After 3000 BC, cocoa was commonly chewed and consumed by cultures east of the Andes. Later, it was introduced to the Incas and was added as part of tea or commonly chewed. The Incas considered it a divine plant and likely saw the psychedelic effects as a divine influence or ways to communicate with the gods. Similarly, though, the Incas likely used it for recreational purposes. The Incas created a monopoly of production, and cocoa was more limited in its use, where perhaps mostly the upper classes and nobles used it. After the collapse of the Incas, the use of cocoa likely spread across South America, and there was less control of the market.<ref>For more on cocoa and its use in history, see: Afoakwa, Emmanuel Ohene. 2014. <i>Cocoa Production and Processing Technology</i>. Boca Raton London New York: CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, pg. 9. </ref>