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The Online Reefer Madness Teaching Museum
The
American Journal of Clinical Medicine
- Nov. 1907 - Vol. 14 page 1334
Original
Newspaper Reefer Madness Propaganda Circa 1918
Cannabis Indica
A description of
this powerful remedy, giving its physiologic action
and outlining its
therapeutic uses.
By J.M. French,
M.D., Milford, Massachusetts
CANNABIS indica, or Indian hemp, c as used in medicine is
the flowering tops of the female plant of Cannabis sativa, grown in the East
Indies. This is an annual herb,
coarse, pubescent, and somewhat viscid, belonging to the natural order
Urticaceae, growing to the height of eight or ten feet, and having a peculiar
odor and a slightly acrid taste. As
found in the markets, it consists of the dried tops, cut off after flowering.
Cannabis americana is the same plant grown in the Southern States of
America. Cannabis sativa is
indigenous to Persia and northern India, but is cultivated in many other
countries. It has been naturalized
in Europe, America, and Brazil. The plant grown in India seems to have the same general
properties as has its American cousin, but the latter is not used on account of
his deficiency in active principles.
Chemical
Constituents of Cannabis Indica
Cannabis indica contains one or more resinoids
[resins?---ED.], a volatile oil, gum, sugar, and potassium nitrate.
The principal resinoid is known as cannabin, From the volatile oil are
obtained cannabene. a light hydrocarbon, and cannabene hydrate, a crystalline
body. The active principle has
proved hard to find, though many have sought to isolate it, and some have
believed that they had succeeded. The
virtues of the plant have been in turn attributed to a resin, a glucoside, and
one or more alkaloids; but the results obtained by each of these observers have
failed to be confirmed by his successors, and the problem is still unsolved.
Cannabin, cannabene, and cannabindine, have each been put forward as the
active principle. Wood, Spinney,
and Easterfield, in their recent investigations, discovered a number of terpenes,
and a red oil or resin boiling at a high temperature, which they term cannabinol,
and this has been found by Marshall to produce the typical effects of the drug
both in men and animals. These
results are as yet unconfirmed, however, and only further study can decide the
truth of the claim. It is probable
that no one single principle represents the entire activity of the plant, but
that the resinoid cannabin comes nearer to this than any other.
Cannabis indica acts
upon the nerve-centers in a manner somewhat similar to opium, producing a
curious mixture of stimulation and sedation, or first stimulating the nervous
system, and afterward depressing the vital forces. The secondary depression is much less than that produced by
opium. Its action on the pulse is
variable and irregular, causing it to beat sometimes faster and sometimes
slower, or at first faster and then slower.
In a similar manner the respirations may be either accelerated or
retarded. Upon the kidneys it acts
as a stimulant, producing a marked increase in the secretion of the urine.
It is commonly reckoned, and, by some most emphatically so, as an
aphrodisiac, though other authorities deny this action.
Brunton gives what is probably the correct explanation, namely, that
aphrodisia is more often induced in Asiatics than in Europeans, owing to their
peculiar physical and mental characteristics; or perhaps the broader statement
would be, that its effects in this direction depend chiefly upon the disposition
and personal characteristics of the individual.
Upon the temperature cannabis indica acts in a similar contradictory
manner, elevating it when the subject is in motion but not when he is at rest. As sleep comes on the temperature is slightly lowered.
Potter
states that cannabis indica increases motor activity, stimulates the vasomotor
nerves, and strengthens the energy of the uterine muscular fiber, but has no
power to initiate uterine contractions.
The
special senses are all exalted by a full dose of cannabis indica.
But
the most marked and peculiar of all the actions of cannabis indica is upon the
mental faculties. H. C. Wood states
that when given in full doses, it produces a feeling of exhilaration, with a
condition of reverie, and a train of nervous and mental phenomena which varies
much according to the temperament and idiosyncrasies of the subject, and very
probably also to some extent according to the nature of his surroundings.
These sensations are generally spoken of as very pleasurable; often
beautiful visions float before the eyes, and a sense of ecstasy fills the whole
being; sometimes the venereal appetites are greatly excited; and sometimes loud
laughter, giggling, and other indications of mirth are present.
Another effect of
cannabis indica upon the mentality of the subject is seen in the rapid flow of
ideas, which follow each other in such rapid succession as to produce a sense of
great prolongation of time, minutes seeming as hours or even days.
With these sensations often also occur increased sexual desire and
uterine activity, also sensations of double consciousness and enormous
dimensions. Sleep or coma,
according to the size of the dose, follows in most cases, but death from acute
poisoning has very rarely or never been known to take place.
The
secondary or after-effects of cannabis indica are dulness, heaviness and
confusion of mind, cutaneous anesthesia, and diuresis; but without the nausea,
vital depression, and constipation, all of which are common from the use of
opium. The continued use of the
drug produces mental weakness and sexual impotence, as results of
over-stimulation. One of its early
effects is a ravenous appetite. In
some cases it has also been thought to be the cause of insanity.
In
the Eastern countries cannabis indica has been used for an intoxicant from
unknown time, and under various names, as hashish, bhang, ganja, charas or
churrus, it is said to be habitually indulged in by from one to two millions of
people. In some of these
preparations the essential ingredients are smoked, either alone or mixed with
tobacco; in others it is taken in the form of an intoxicating drink, while in
still others it is mixed with sugar or honey and taken as a confection.
Dr. Lees has called attention to the fact that the aqueous preparations
of the drug, which contain but little of the resin, are much used by the natives
of India for stimulating and intoxicating purposes, and he argues from this that
the volatile oil and not the resin is the true active principle.
Cannabis
indica belongs to the class of symptom-remedies rather than that of
disease-remedies. That is, its
chief use is to alleviate symptoms rather than to cure disease.
In its general actions and uses, as well as its limitations, it closely
resembles opium. It is, however,
productive of much less secondary depression than opium, and is a less dangerous
drug. Its chief uses may all be
included under one or the other of the two following heads, namely:
1.
As an analgesic, to relieve pain and lessen spasm.
2.
As a hypnotic, to quiet the nervous system and induce sleep.
As a palliative it may be employed in a wide range of
affections, but its most marked and favorable effects are to be seen in painful
and spasmodic affections. It is
useful in neuralgic pains, and in some cases of headache, notably sick-headache,
or migraine. To be of benefit in
these cases it must be employed for a considerable length of time.
It is sometimes used to promote euthanasia in advanced cases of phthisis.
As a remedy in irritable and spasmodic coughs,
it is fully as effective and much safer than opiates. It is useful in gastralgia and enteralgia, renal and hepatic
calculi. In fact, Germain See
pronounced it a specific for pain below the diaphragm.
Taken internally it stops the itching of eczema and of senile and many
other forms of pruritus. It
is useful in disordered mental states resulting from disturbance of the nervous
functions, and in conditions of melancholia; in the wakefulness of old age and
the restlessness of nervous exhaustion; also in disorders of motility, as
involuntary muscular movements, especially those of a painful nature; to relieve
the pains of locomotor ataxia, Pott's disease and other hip-joint
disease, and tickets; in epilepsy, and paralysis
agitans; to allay abnormal sexual appetite; in neuralgic dvsmenorrhea, and
irritable coughs.
The extract is perhaps the most reliable official
preparation, though, like all the preparations of this drug, it varies greatly
as to medicinal activity in different specimens. The dose varies from 1-8 to one grain.
The fluid extract is also extremely variable.
Potter says that if the precipitate formed, when the alcoholic extract is
added to water, is of a dirty, yellowish brown color, the sample will prove to
be almost inert, while if it be of a decided olive-green color, the preparation
will be active.
Cannabin, and cannabin tannate, are given in doses of from
five to ten grains as a hypnotic. The
standard granules in use by the alkaloidists contain 1-67 grain, and these are
administered in doses of three to six even, two hours until effect.
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