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[Mark Kohut]

2. Was the Bard a pothead?"Experts have long speculated whether drugs played a role in Shakespeare's genius," says Kai Ma at TIME. The theory seems to be supported by lines in his sonnets referring to a "noted weed" and "a journey in his head." And a South African anthropologist, Francis Thackeray, thinks the playwright definitely had an affinity for marijuana. In a 2001 study, Thackeray said he found cannabis residue (along with cocaine) on clay pipe fragments from Shakespeare's garden. The high-inducing plant was certainly available back in the Bard's time, as it was used to make textiles and rope. ---This Week mag, next week.