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"Now no man was allowed to enter the Garden save those whom he intended to be his ASHISHIN. There was a fortress at the entrance to the Garden, strong enough to resist all the world, and there was no other way to get in. He kept at his Court a number of the youths of the country, from twelve to twenty years of age, such as had a taste for soldiering... Then he would introduce them into his Garden, some four, or six, or ten at a time, having first made them drink a certain potion which cast them into a deep sleep, and then causing them to be lifted and carried in. So when they awoke they found themselves in the Garden.

"When therefore they awoke, and found themselves in a place so charming, they deemed that it was Paradise in very truth. And the ladies and damsels dallied with them to their hearts' content...

"So when the Old Man would have any prince slain, he would say to such a youth: 'Go thou and slay So and So; and when thou returnest my Angels shall bear thee into Paradise. And shouldst thou die, natheless even so will I send my Angels to carry thee back into Paradise.'"

(from The Book of Ser Marco Polo, the Venetian, translated by Henry Yule, London, 1875.)

Since you were the one suggesting google, I hope you follow your own advice and search for http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&safe=off&q=hashish+assassins&spell=1

You should see several sites who debunk this myth. Also excellent book resources: 1 Omar Khayyam - as quoted in the Calcutta Review, No. 59, from Mirkhond's History of the Assassins.

2 Edward Burman, The Assassins - Holy Killers of Islam

3 FARHAD DAFTARY, The Assassin Legends: Myths of the Isma'ilis (I. B. Tauris & Co. Ltd: London, 1994), 213 pp

4 Marco Polo - on his visit to Alamut in 1273

The few parts I've read suggest to me that what they used were something far stronger than MJ.

Regards