Weed
I am more inclined to believe it was something similar to tobacco that they were smoking, at least in the books. In the films, it seems PJ tried his hardest to make it marijuana. I think people like PJ (and me), who were young and smoking pot when they first read LotR are more inclined to imagine it as weed, while Tolkien, who was old, Roman Catholic, and smoked a tobacco pipe, probably intended it to be tobacco. Although I do like Gandalf's "before you knock it, try it first" (to paraphrase) line to Saruman in UT.
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