FACTS FIRST
ON NARCOTICS
Alcohol, Tobacco, Marihuana,
. . Opium, and Cocaine . .
by JOHN
C. ALMACK, Ph.D.
Professor of Education
Stanford University, California
AUTHOR OF
|
A Clear Case Against Narcotics, Education
for Citizen-
ship, Hygiene of the School Child (with L. M. Terman),
Modern School Administration, The Beginning Teacher
(with A. R. Lang), The Stanford Spelling Series (with
E. H. Staffelbach), Research and Thesis Writing, History
of the United States (with E. D. Adams), Problems of
the Teaching Profession (with A. R. Lang), The School
Board Member, et cetera.
|
1939
PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING ASSSOCIATION
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA
Omaha, Nebraska Cristobal, Canal Zone
Portland, Oregon
|
"A few days ago I read that a new drug has come to the notice of the
police," said Joe. "The paper said that it is being used by young
people. It is called marihuana. I shall find out what I can about it."
JOE'S STORY
MARIHUANA: What It Is and What It Does
"MARIHUANA is a name given by Mexican Indians to
the drug found in Indian hemp. In our own words, marihuana is Mary Jane.
Marihuana is pronounced like this: ma-re-hwa'na.
"The scientists call marihuana Cannabis indica and Cannabis
sativa. Once in a while you see the name Cannabis Americana given to
American hemp. These plants seem to be very similar. At least, all belong to the
Cannabis family, and all contain the active poison marihuana.
"Indian hemp was first known in the Indies, including India proper,
Ceylon, Java, and the Philippines. From its coarse, tough fibers or bark were
made rope, twine, baskets, mats, hats, and even clothes.
"It was brought to America over two hundred years ago, and planted in
Virginia. From Virginia it was taken west to Kentucky, and thence spread over
the Middle States and the South.
"It has been planted in the southwest by Mexican laborers, and may be
seen growing wild in Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. It will grow in all
parts of the United States.
"It is a coarse, rough plant, growing from three to fifteen feet high.
The stalk is uneven, with many nodes and branches. The leaves are a deep green
on top, shaped like a long, sharp arrow, with saw-tooth edges. They are a light
green underneath.
"The flowers are small. They grow in thick clusters out of each branch
on the female plant. From the flowers there flows a thick dark resin, which
falls on the leaves. This is thought to be the drug; but marihuana is also found
in the bark and in the leaves.
"In the autumn the criminals who sell marihuana gather the leaves,
flowers, and fibers. They dry them and then crush them into a coarse,
light-green powder.
"The powder is next rolled into cigarettes for smoking. These
cigarettes must be wrapped in two papers, for the sharp ends of leaves and stems
cut through. They are uneven in form, and feel rough to the touch.
"Marihuana cigarettes are 'peddled' like cocaine, and sell for from 5
to 25 cents each. To start a boy on the 'habit' a cigarette may be given him,
and, for beginners, the marihuana may be mixed with tobacco.
"Marihuana cigarettes are known by several names in the underworld,
where they are consumed - 'muggles' 'reefers' 'hot sticks,' 'motos,' 'Indian
hay,' and 'goof-butts.'
"Stories of long ago from Arabia tell about a strange and powerful drug
called hashish. 'The Old Man of the Mountain' kept a band of criminals and
killers, who took the drug before starting out on their bloody expeditions.
Their drug was hashish; and they were called Hashishi, or assassins.
"This evil drug was marihuana, from Indian hemp. Herodotus, a great
writer of Greek history, refers to hashish; it was also known to Homer, the
ancient Greek poet, who wrote of the siege of Troy
"The assassins took hashish in several ways. They made a drink of the
leaves and flowers, and they mixed it with homey and with sugar into small cakes
or candy.
"The round seeds of hemp are sold for food for birds, and are thought
to give to singing birds a thin, high note, and to induce song. Seeds thrown out
from feed stores and bird cages often start the plants.
"Hashish comes in the form of a paste composed of resin and the crushed
leaves and flowers, which, mixed with sugar and cooked with butter and
flavoring, is made into the candy known in Egypt as manzul, maagun,
and garawish.
"Hashish is smoked in special hookahs, called
gozahs.
"There is no antidote for hashish.
"Present-day addicts are called hashashees.
"No one can foretell what the effect of marihuana may be. This is
because it acts in different ways on different people, and because the strength
differs in different plants. One cigarette from a strong plant may make the
smoker raving mad.
"The marihuana addict shows three stages of reaction to the drug: Soon
after smoking his muscles begin to tremble and his heartbeat runs high. His ears
ring, and in his head is a feeling of great heat. Dizziness and cold hands and
feet soon appear.
"In the second stage, the world round about has become unreal. The
addict thinks he is a great radio singer or an actor, and he tries to 'put on a
show.' He laughs like an idiot at the slightest happening. All his worries are
gone, and he is in a new, wild world, over which he has complete control.
"One of the queer delusions is the feeling of floating. He loses all
sense of time and distance. He thinks he can send his body where he pleases.
"If he is on the fifth floor of a hotel or an apartment, it seems but a
step to the ground. He steps out, as he thinks, for a walk in the garden, and
lands a broken bundle of bones and flesh on the street below.
"In many other queer ways, he shows the power of this vile drug. He
thinks he is as tall as a building; a minute seems as long as a year. His
eyesight and his hearing fail, or he sees queer sights and hears strange sounds.
His laughter turns to weeping.
"Imagine a person in this stage at the wheel of an automobile. He has
the feeling that he can do anything; that he is taller, stronger, wiser, and
more expert than anyone. He tears down the road at seventy-five miles an hour,
but thinks he is creeping along. He goes through a red light, which he thought
was far off from him. He does not see or hear signals, and time and distance
deceive him; the first seems to go slowly, the second seems increased.
"In the third stage, the marihuana addict becomes a fiend. The pupils
of his eyes grow big, his eyes stare wildly, and he grows afraid.
"This stage is dangerous to others. He suspects everyone, even his best
friends. The one big idea he is likely to have is to kill. From India, from the
Malay States, and from the Philippines, come stories of wild-eyed assassins who
have run amuck with a sharp, curve-bladed snickersnee, hewing down all they
meet. Cooks who do wholesale killings with butcher knives are in this stage of
marihuana madness.
"A high-school boy who had been tempted to try a 'reefer' stepped out
on the street while in this mad stage. There he saw a crippled bootblack at his
stand.
"To the boy's crazed brain, the cripple was an enemy, and, rushing
home, he came back with a gun and shot the poor bootblack. And, like all addicts
who commit crimes while in this stage, he later said he could remember nothing
of his act.
"Here are case studies of acts of marihuana addicts, in each instance a
young boy:
"1. Held up and killed a bus driver.
"2. Killed his best friend.
"3. Robbed and killed a hotel clerk.
"4. Shot a man in a holdup.
"5. Killed his father, mother, sister, and two brothers with an ax.
"When asked about their crimes after the drug effect has died out, they
say: 'I do not know what happened. Everything is a blank.'
"As the mad stage passes, the marihuana smoker becomes very sick. He
vomits, and then falls into a heavy, helpless stupor. His sleep is restless, and
he dreams wild dreams.
"It is only a few steps from a marihuana smoke to the insane asylum.
"Marihuana is an outlaw. It is against the law to grow it, sell it, or
have it in one's possession.
"Dr. Merrill has the following to say as to what to do about it: 'Every
state has peddlers who try to lure children with cigarettes in which there is
marihuana. . . . The louts who sell it should be sent to prison; but the best
way to "spike" the use of the dope is to tell the truth to growing
children.'
"What can be done to prevent its use?
"Children should refuse to take candy or any drink offered them by a
stranger.
"They should report to the principal of the scool, their father and
mother, and the police anyone who grows, has for sale, gives away, or smokes
marihuana
"Anyone who tries to give away any sort of cigarettes to children and
youth should also be reported; he may be a marihuana peddler.
"If by any chance they hear of an addict, they should keep away from
him. Who knows who will be his next victim?
"Marihuana is of no use in medicine. No one uses its fibers today to
make homespun clothing or hats. Cotton, Manilla hemp (the fiber from a kind of
banana plant), wire, and flax are much better for twine and rope.
"Indian hemp is a plant that is of little use, and one that the world
would be better off without. It should be entirely destroyed.
"I have told about a new drug, called Indian hemp and marihuana. A long
time ago, the fibers were used for hats, belts, mats, and twine. Now it has
little real use.
"It is taken by smoking, by drinking extracts and tinctures, and by
eating it in candy. It causes complete loss of the senses, and may result in
terrible accidents and crimes. It is against the law to grow it, carry it, sell
it, or use it. It should be entirely wiped out.
"Helen will now tell you about other harmful drugs."
Things to Do
-
Find out what things are made of hemp, and list them on a poster.
Opposite this list put the names of other raw materials from which these
same things may be better produced. Do we need hemp for any
good purpose?
-
Show on a poster, or in some other way, the "plague spots"
from which the use of marihuana is spread: low-class drugstores, pool
parlors, drinking places, et cetera.
-
Write a booklet in which you tell why peddlers of drugs, including
marihuana, like to have children form the drug habit.
-
Make a map showing where marihuana is grown and used.
For Review and Test
-
By whom has the use of marihuana been brought into this country?
-
How is marihuana taken into the body?
-
For what reasons is marihuana looked upon as the most dangerous
narcotic?
-
How is it often given to young people without their knowing it?
-
What is the best way to safeguard ourselves against marihuana?
Notes on Books
Just to show you that marihuana is bad, you might read "Youth Gone
Loco; the Villain in Marihuana," in Christian Century, vol. 55, pp.
812-819 (June 29, 1938); and "Marihuana,
Assassin of Youth," in American Magazine, vol. 124, pp. 18, 19
(July, 1937). Same in Reader's Digest, vol. 32, pp. 3-6 (February, 1938),
and "Marihuana, Mexican Dope Plant," in Nature Magazine, vol.
31, pp. 271, 272 (May, 1938). Then you may also see "Science Speaks,"
pages 5-17, and "Plain Facts," pages 18-26.
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