[Monty22]

I'll call your post and raise it:

http://www.webster.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?va=assassin

[SkyRat]

The verb is khashîsh, "Hashish", means in Arabic no more than dried herb. Wich could be anything. The greek also had "Kannabis", which, I believe, means mushroom.

Anyway, what I tried to say was that I think it's highly unlikely the assassins used Hashish in any special way. As I said probably more something like opium, perhaps some other herb as belladonna.

So, I think Webster is actually wrong with the entry 1.

Reminds me, some time ago Webster defined atheist as someone "who denies the existence of a god".

History books are better for solving this question.