|
Custom Search
******************************
|
 Listen
Right Here Online
From The 1930's Thru
1950's To The Real Original
"Reefer Madness" Radio
Shows & Programs
*************************
Reefer Madness Teaching Museum Main
Page #1
*************************
Reefer Madness Teaching
Museum Main Page #2
*************************
Reefer Madness
Propaganda Comic Books
Readable Online
*************************
The Ebers Papyrus Oldest (confirmed) Egyptian
Medical Textbook About
Marihuana Dated From
Around 1,550 Years BC
*************************
Table Of Contents
Lists Every Page
*************************
OnlinePot
Home Page
Visit Our Sister Website
www. OnlinePot.org
The Complete Guide
To Medical Marijuana
*****************************************
Chris Kenoyer. Owner
MMJ Patient Activist
Online Patients Advocate
Online News Journalist
My Medical Bio
Email Us Here At
olpwebs@yahoo.com
*****************************
To translate text or
a web page go to:
Language Tools
Google Translations
*****************************
1999-2012 Copyright ©
All Rights Reserved.
No part of this site maybe used or reproduced in whole or in part without
the written consent of the Copyright Owner
Chris Kenoyer
Or www.onlinepot.org
| |
The Online Reefer Madness Teaching Museum
The
British Journal of Inebriety
-
1929-30 - Vol. 27
CANNABIS INDICA:
AN HISTORICAL
AND
PHARMACOLOGICAL STUDY
OF THE DRUG.
By PAUL B. WILKINSON,
Senior
House Physician, National Hospital, Queen's Square, London.
THE
present paper has been prepared at the suggestion of the Editor of this Journal.
It aims at presenting in a condensed form the essential facts known
regarding cannabis indica, which under such names as bhang, hashish, and ganja,
is used as a drug of addiction.
Historical Review.
The
medicinal properties of cannabis indica have been known from time immemorial.
One of the earliest references to it in a Chinese herbal compiled about
500 years B.C. It has also
been shown recently that the Assyrians were
aware of its uses as early as the seventh or eighth century B.C.
They used it as incense, and apparently obtained its narcotic effect by
inhalation. This fact throws light
on a curious passage in Herodotus (486-406 B.C.) which runs thus: "When the
Scythians obtain the seed of this kannabis, they throw it on to red-hot stones
in the fire. It burns like incense,
sending up more smoke than any Greek vapour bath.
This they then inhale and begin to rave."
Diodorus
Siculus also refers to the drug in this passage:
"Homer
says that Helen obtained the drug nepenthes from the Egyptians through Polydama,
the wife of Thon." Speculation has been rife as to the exact
pharmacological identify of nepenthes, but it was possibly either cannabis
indica or a compound containing cannabis indica.
Galen,
writing, in the second Century A.D., mentions the plant under the heading
"De cannabis semine": "Its fluid extract is poisonous.
Yet mixed with other drugs, it is eaten after meals by some people to
induce pleasurable sensations. Shortly
after taking it they experience a feeling of warmth and finally lose
consciousness."
Exactly
how the knowledge of the drug spread is not known, but it seems probable that it
was used in Assyria, Arabia, and the districts south of the Caspian Sea before
it reached India. It was certainly
known and used in India by the first century A.D.
Marco Polo in his "Travels"
tells the story of how the drug, was used by Hasan, son of Ali, one of the
descendants of the prophet. He had set up an independent sovereignty in Alamout, an
isolated fortress in Syria, where he ruled as "the old man of the
mountains." To maintain his
power he had recourse to the drug with which he used to
stupefy his servants. Some
of their crimes were doubtless committed under the influence of the drug, but
Hasan relied mainly on the psychological impression produced by the visions
which followed its use. Silvestre
de Saey showed in 1809 how the word assassin is
derived from the various names given to these followers of
Hasan---Assassini, Assissini, Heissessini.
Arnold of Lubeck, writing in the twelfth century, also quotes this story
in the "Chronicit Slavorum, in which it is mentioned twice.
References to the drug and its uses become more frequent in the middle
ages.
Garcias
ab Horto, writing in 1563, describes the effects of eating bangue, which he
calls "a plant not very different from hemp."
He found its use widespread among, the Indians, and gives an admirable
account of the gaiety induced in the early stages of the intoxication and of the
final stupor.
Prosper
Alpinus, in his "De Medicina Aegyptorum," also gives a picture of the
effects which follow the taking of cannabis indica. Like Garcias ab Horto, he compares the early stages to those
of alcoholic intoxication, but he stresses the fact that the visions obtained
are dependent largely on the mental level and on the mental background of the
patient. He also describes the
furious anger shown by some cases in the later stages of poisoning, and the
subsequent intense depression.
Coming
to modern times, we find the drug once more came into notice during the
Napoleonic campaign in Egypt. The
first description of it and its action by a physician was that given by
O'Shaghnessy in 1840 in India, where he had an extensive experience of its use
and prepared a potent alcoholic extract. He
also ascertained that the active preparation was not an alkaloid.
From thence onwards accounts have been fairly numerous, some of the best
being those given by non-medical observers.
Of these, Theophile Gautier's description of the effect of the drug on
himself is one of the most notable. Its
effects have also been described by Bandelaire, whose account we shall examine
in dealing with the action of the drug.
The
name KarraBiz given to the plant in Herodotus is presumably cognate with the
term Qonnoubon or Qunnuabon; and this in its turn comes from the Iran Konaba.
KarraViz is probably another form of the Greek word Ko'vaBos---noise.
Possibly there is some reference here to the "shouts " uttered
by Herodotu's Seythians when under the influence of the drug.
From KovaBoz the modern French chanve and chanvre come through the Latin
cannabis; and probably the old German Hanapas and the modern German Hanf have
the same origin.
Pharmacology of Cannabis Indica.
Cannabis
indica, or Indian hemp, is outwardly the same plant as Cannabis sativa.
The plant grows widely throughout Asia, Africa, and Asia Minor.
The botanical characteristics of Cannabis sativa, which can be cultivated
readily in temperate climates such as that of France, are identical with those
of cannabis indica. The resinous
substance elaborated in the flowering tops of the female plant possesses very
much feebler narcotic properties when obtained from Cannabis sativa.
They are not, ver, completely lost, but much large doses must be given to
produce any effect at all.
The
three most used preparations in India are bhang, charras, and ganja.
Bhang consists of the coarsely powdered leaves of the female plant mixed
with some resin. It is used mainly in preparing narcotic draughts.
Charras is the resin extracted from the flowering tops of the female
plants, and ganja, which consists of the Lowering tops of the non-fertilized
female plants coated with resin, is used chiefly for smoking.
Haschisch is it collective term applied to almost any preparation of the
plant which can be eaten or drunk.
The
active principle resides in the resin from which it can be extracted with
petroleum spirit. Wood, Spivey, and
Easter-field working in this way obtained an extract which, when evaporated to
dryness and fractionally distilled, yielded a reddish oil.
This oil they called cannabinol. It
appears to have a constant composition and to produce the effects of the crude
drug when given in small doses. Cannabinol
is obtained in that part of the distillate which comes over between 210°
and 240°C.
Cannabinol oxidizes readily on exposure to air and at the same time loses
its toxicity. Frankel considers it
to be a phenolaldehyde of the formula CH.C2OH28.CHO.
Professor Marshall of Aberdeen working with this oil a year after its
isolation found that it produced a typical cannabis indica effect on himself,
and also gave rise to the usual symptoms induced by cannabis indica in dogs.
Enormous
variations in the action of the drug have been noted by different workers.
These are due to the fact that resin of different seasons and from
different places contains different amounts of cannabinol.
The amount of resin is no guide to the toxicity
of the drug. Again, resin which is
brought from the Orient to Europe may undergo slow oxidation in transport.
These facts account for the numerous cases
on record where symptoms of acute intoxication have followed the ingestion of
such small doses as 7 or 10 minims of the fluid extract.
All specimens needed for pharmacological work have, therefore, to be packed
in air-tight containers. Another
point which has to be taken into consideration is the temperament of the person
taking the drug. While one man may
get a marked effect by taking a certain specimen of resin, another, after taking
the same resin, may experience nothing at all.
THE
USE OF CANNABIS INDICA.
As
we have pointed out earlier the use of the drug appears to have spread through
India, Servia, and Arabia in the early middle ages. Thence it spread to Africa and Asia Minor.
In the thirteenth century Napoleon found its use
so widespread and so deleterious in Egypt that in 1800 he issued ordinances
absolutely prohibiting the smoking or drinking of hemp preparations.
Indeed, such ordinances had been issued intermittently with but little
effect since 1378. The Napoleonic
edicts were equally inefficacious, as have been still more recent prohibitions.
Today
the drug is used habitually in India, Asia Minor, Turkey, Egypt, and in many
other parts of Africa. Its use
appears to be especially prevalent in Egypt and along the North African coast
from Tripoli to Morocco. The drug
is preferred to opium because its effects when it is smoked are more rapid.
All the efforts of the French have failed to stamp out the addiction in
their North African colonies where the drug is smoked under various names.
In the Rif the drug is used by the Senussi in certain religious
ceremonies. This connection between
the drug and religion is even more marked in the Congo district. There the Kassai and the Baluba have gone so far as to
destroy their ancient fetishes, setting up in their place "riamba" or.
hemp. They regard the drug as a
means of protection against all the ills the flesh is heir to, and as a symbol
of peace. They have organized
themselves into a sect called Bena Riamba, and greet each other with the word
"Moio" (life). The
smoking of hemp is, of course, an integral part of the ceremonial of this sect,
though the use of alcohol is forbidden. The
Baluba also have as part of their ritual nocturnal orgies at which hemp is
smoked. At the "feasts of
Riamba" treaties and alliances are concluded, and the drug is smoked in a
large calabash which goes round the company.
Criminals among these tribes are condemned to smoke hemp until they lose
consciousness. So great is the
importance of the drug among these peoples that the pipe accompanies them on all
campaigns and journeys.
In
the more northern parts of the West African littoral the use of the drug is
confined to certain isolated districts. In
East Africa and Madagascar hemp-smoking is prevalent, the only districts free
from it being those in the vicinity of the Great Lakes.
It is, however, grown and used around Lake Victoria Nyanza.
There are various methods used in smoking the drug, each tribe having its
own name for it and as a rule its own method of smoking it.
Water pipes are used in the Loango district; other tribes use ordinary
tobacco-pipes. The Zulus bury a
handful of the prepared drug beneath a heap of burning dung, cover the whole
mass with earth, and then inhale the smoke through small holes made in the earth
with their fingers.
In
India, especially in the North-West, bhang is largely used to make various
drinks. Ganja smoking is forbidden
by law in these provinces. In
Kashmir: Bengal and Nepal hemp is abundantly cultivated and smoked. Farther north in Afghanistan and Baluchistan the addiction is
widespread. Hemp is also imported
into the Pamirs, where it is used by the Kopeks and the Tartars.
In
Turkey, the use of the drug has been forbidden since the end of the nineteenth
century. Needless to say it is
still smoked and eaten under various forms, one of the most popular (Gania)
being known as Esrar or "secret." The plant is still grown in Syria,
and is smoked both in Palestine and Persia.
THE
PHARMACOLOGICAL ACTION OF CANNABIS INDICA.
The
action of the drug differs slightly according to the mode of administration.
All the effects of intoxication come on more rapidly when it is taken by
inhalation. When taken by mouth the
same effects are seen and are more easy to study owing to their more gradual
onset. There are, broadly speaking,
three stages in the action of the drug: the first stage
is that of excitation and loss of self-control; the second the stage of
hallucinations; the third the stage of coma.
Like
all narcotic drugs it obeys the principle of dissolution in its action on the
nervous system. The highest centres
are those first affected, the result being loss of
self-control and judgment. Usually
a short phase of temporary anxiety precedes the onset of loss of self-control.
The subject then experiences a feeling of intense well-being which may
manifest itself in emotional overreaction.
Attacks of convulsive laughter are common, and he will laugh for minutes
on end for no apparent reason. These
paroxysms of laughter may alternate with attacks of uncontrollable weeping.
There is often a desire for motor activity of some sort at this stage;
the patient wants to throw books about the room, to run up and down stairs and
so on, and unless he be restrained he may indulge in the most fantastic actions.
Giddiness is frequently complained of and some motor inco-ordination now
becomes obvious. The subject is
usually flushed at this stage and may complain of palpitation.
The pulse rate may be increased up to 80 or 90 per minutes and the pupils
may dilate. They remain active,
however, up to the onset of coma.
As
the action of the drug progresses the hallucinatory stage begins.
And here it is necessary to point out that the hallucinations are very
largely dependent on the intellectual level and on the usual mental background
of the subject. Some Occidentals
take the drug and obtain no hallucinations at all; on the other hand, decadents,
like Baudelaire, have the most absurd hallucinations while under the influence
of the poison.
The
first hallucinations are usually comparatively simple.
Visual and auditory acuity, and general sensibility become much
heightened at this stage. Gautier describes vividly how his body seemed to him to
become transparent, thus enabling him to see the mass of haschisch he had eaten
glowing like an emerald in his belly. At
the same time his auditory acuity was enormously increased.
If he spoke the sound reverberated in his head like thunder.
The least whisper sounded like a cataract.
Another curious phenomenon connected with hearing, described both by
Gautier and Baudelaire also says that musical notes appeared to be numbers, and
that one could work out prodigious calculations in a few seconds.
Gautier's
own description is as follows: "My bearing was enormously increased ; I
heard the noise of colours. Green,
red, blue and yellow sounds reached me quite distinctly in waves.
A glass knocked over, the creaking of an armchair, a whispered word
vibrated and re-echoed in me like a peal of thunder; in own voice seemed to me
so loud that I dared not speak for fear of knocking the walls down or making
myself explode like a bomb. More than five hundred clocks sang the time to me in silvery
flute-like voices. Everything, I
touched gave forth the note of a lyre or an /Eolian harp.
I was swimming in a sea of sound in which certain motifs from Lucia or
the Barber of Seville floated like islands of light . . . . Sounds, scents, and
light all came to me through innumerable pipes, thin as hairs, in which I could
hear magnetic currents whistling. As
far as I could make out, this state lasted about three hundred years.
When the attack was over I saw that it had lasted a quarter of all
hour." Gautier also gives till
account of his astonishing visual hallucinations; in the first attack the air
seemed to be filled with a myriad butterflies, whose wings produced faint
rustling, as the fluttered round him. In
his last attack he was surrounded by a hideous and continually changing
collection of mythological birds and beasts---wyverns, griffins, unicorns.
He stresses, as do most other observers, the occurrence of lucid
intervals during the period of intoxication.
The
disturbances of general sensibility are always more or less unpleasant in their
character. The commonest are
paraesthesiae in the hands, arms, and feet, though subjective sensations of
numbness involving the whole body
have been described. The
hallucinations concerning time and space appear to be of almost constant
occurrence. It is probable that the
mere press of images tends to produce the time hallucination.
One lives the lives of several men in one hour.
Hallucinations of being levitated do occur, but rarely.
It is common for the subject to imagine himself to be some inanimate
thing, like a locomotive, a violin, a tree, or a tobacco pipe, and to do his
best to enact the part. In contrast
to this is the drug's curious power of doubling one's personality, of enabling
one to see one's self seated in it room, lying in bed, talking, laughing, and so
on. During the stage of
hallucinations it is by no means uncommon for the patient to have sudden attacks
of intense fear, in which he is in terror of dying on the spot.
As
the intoxication deepens the hallucinations cease, and the final stage is
generally ushered in by a state of indescribable calm and happiness---the state
called "kief" by Orientals. In
this state the patient feels that every philosophic doubt he ever had has been
resolved, that he holds the key to the eternal mysteries, that he has overtopped
God. Very naturally coma ensues
rapidly upon this condition---coma which may deepen into profound
unconsciousness.
This
account gives the points usually observed in acute intoxication with cannabis
indica. But there are many
variations, especially among the inveterate smokers of the drug. In many of these cases three or four inhalations of the smoke
are enough to induce complete loss of awareness to the surroundings.
Villard gives a vivid picture of the chronic smokers, pallid, emaciated,
and hollow-eyed, sitting for hours staring fixedly in front of them.
Other smokers become excited even to the point of mania,
and convulsions have been recorded.
The older observers, like O'Shaughnessy and Villard, describe catalepsy
as one of the conditions which may be brought on by the drug.
Chronic
cannabinism undoubtedly produces both bodily and mental changes.
The addicts are recognizable at sight in hemp districts by their pallor,
emaciation, and ataxic gait. There
is also a slow but sure intellectual and moral deterioration. The drug taken in small doses over a long period of time
gives rise to these changes. An
occasional massive dose, among Orientals at least, seems more likely to give
rise to an attack of mania or to make the patient violent as well as
hallucinated.
In
India and other countries where the addiction is widespread, statistics tend to
show that a definite percentage of mental disorders is directly attributable to
an abuse of cannabis indica. Peebles
and Mann in 1914 estimated that in the Punjab ganjah smoking appeared to be
responsible for 27 per cent of the total admissions to mental hospitals; and
further that 25 per cent of the total number of criminal lunatics were addicts
to the drug. They stress the
difficulty, however, of obtaining correct histories from such people, and point
out that many mentally irresponsible people in India never receive treatment.
The same general conclusions may be drawn from the figures in other
countries where hemp is habitually used.
These
mental cases are to be classified in three groups. It is noteworthy that the percentage of women among them is
very small---not exceeding 1-2 per cent. The
first group shows a condition of general well-being with the usual
hallucinations. Violent delirium
may occur but is not common. Ataxic
symptoms are always absent and here can be brought about rapidly.
The second group comprises the maniacal cases.
In these cases the sensory hallucinations are usually of a terrifying
nature, and may lead to extreme violence on the patient's part.
Such cases usually show insomnia and may last months. Cure is by no means certain.
The third and largest group contains those mentally enfeebled by the drug
who live a peaceful life until an overdose causes them to become maniacal again.
While in hospital they are essentially children of the moment, caring
nothing for the future or anything beyond their immediate surroundings.
Once out of hospital they invariably relapse into a manic and aggressive
state after their next excess. They
usually end as chronic dements. It
is possible that in some cases the mental changes are helped on if not induced
by other drugs mixed with the hemp-datura, for example.
There
has recently been a movement against the growing of hemp in European countries.
A suggestion that more cannabinol might be produced in this way in
Germany was rejected in 1925. Cannabis
indica was recently added to the list of drugs controlled by the Dangerous Drugs
Act, and "haschisch" has just been brought under the surveillance of
the Customs.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Homer:
" Odyssey," L. IV., 11. 219-230.
HERODOTUS
: L. IV., c. 74, 75.
DIODORUS
SICCLUS: L. I., 287
GALEN
: "De aliment. fac.," Lib.I., cap. XXXIV,.
MARCO
POLO: "Travels," c. xxvi.
ARNOLDUS
(Abbot of St. John's, Lubeck) : "Chronica Slavorum," 1659, L. Ill., c.
xxxvii.
WIERUS,
J. : "De Priestigiis daemonum, " L. 11., c. xxxv., 1566).
GARCIAS
AB HORTO : "Due libri del I'historia del Semplici," 1576, I,.
VII.,c.x.; "Del Bangue," c. xxv.
P.
PETITUS: "Nepenthes Homeri," 1689.
PROSPER
ALPINUS: "De Medicina Aegyptorum," L. IV., c. ii., 1638-1640.
THEOPHILE
GAUTIER: " L'Orient," vol. ii., c. ii., 1843.
MOREAU
J. J.: " Du haschisch et de L'Alienation Mentale," 1845.
WOOD,
SPIVEY, and EASTERFIELD: Pharm. Jour., vol xv., p. 575.
MARSHALL,
Lancet, 1897.
ROCHE,
Lancet, 1897.
FOULIS,
Edin, Med. Jour., 1900.
EWENS,
Ind. Med. Gaz., 1904.
VILLARD,
F.: "Du haschish, Etude clinique" (These de Paris), 1872.
FRANKEL,
F. ; Arch.f. exp. Path, und Pharm., 1898.
TAYLOR,
BAYARD: "Travels in Palestine."
RAUDELAIRE,
CHARLES: "Los Paradis Artificiels."
PEEBLES
AND MANN: Ind. Med. Gaz., 1914
LEWIN,
L. : "Die Gifte in der Weltgeschichte," 1920: "Phantastica,"
1924.
Royal
Commission on Hemp 1894-1896.
|
