Medicine - Drugs > Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1894-1895 > Volume I
(222) Page 191
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CH. X.] REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94. 191
a single experiment
afford any ground for inference, it would appear that the
most important effect of the habitual employment of inhalations of
the smoke of
ganja is to give rise to diminution in the normal processes of
tissue-waste to
such a degree that local accumulations of fat are liable to occur
even in spite of
the coincident and similarly originating diminution in the
ingestion of food. The
diminution in activity of the normal processes of tissue waste
tends, on the one
hand, to give rise to decreased ingestion of food, and, on the
other, to local
accumulation of fat in spite of this. But if the habitual practice
of inhalations of
the drug really do produce such effects, it is clear that, in place
of being hurtful,
it may be positively beneficial to people who are obliged to
undergo exertions
without having the means of procuring a diet fully adapted to make
good the
amount of tissue waste normally associated with them. As has been
already
pointed out, it is necessary to exercise extreme caution in coming
to any definite
conclusions from the experiment, first, because it is an isolated
one, and, second,
because the post-mortem examination has not yet been
histologically completed;
but the evidence which it has afforded is, in so far as it goes,
rather in favour
of the use of the drug under certain conditions than adverse to
it."
All three forms of the
drug con-
sidered together.
484. In considering the
effects induced by drinking bhang and smoking
charas or ganja, it must be
remembered that the
same active principle is present in all. The effects,
therefore, induced by any one of the three drugs must necessarily
depend
upon the content of active principle, which is smallest in the case
of bhang,
and, theoretically at least, largest in charas, weight for weight.
Practically
it is impossible to compare with anything approaching to accuracy
the physiolo-
gical effects of the three drugs, because at present no definite
active prin-
ciple has been isolated. The alcoholic or other extracts from
bhang, ganja,
and charas are neither chemically similar in composition nor
physiologically equiva-
lent, weight for weight, in the effects they induce; and it is only
possible, therefore,
to approximately compare the physiological effects of ganja,
charas, and bhang
inter se. When, in addition to these initial difficulties,
the disturbing factors,
racial and individual idiosyncrasy and habit, come into operation,
the question of
the immediate effects of the drug becomes a most complex problem to
deal with
scientifically, or indeed even to generalize on in the broadest
sense of the term.
And, moreover, though the same active principle is originally
present in all
three of the drugs, yet when either ganja or charas is smoked, the
active principle,
not being volatile, must undergo decomposition, new products being
evolved.
Strictly, therefore, there can be no comparison between the
physiological effect of
the drug when introduced into the stomach as bhang and the products
of the
destructive distillation of ganja or charas when smoked and
inhaled. And a
writer on hemp drugs aptly remarks: "The action of hemp on man is
so various
that when we read the several descriptions given, differing so
widely, we would
scarcely suppose we were considering the same agent."
Immediate effects.
485. Judging from the
replies of several witnesses, the immediate effect of
the moderate use of any of
the hemp drugs on the
habitual consumer is refreshing and stimulating, and
alleviates fatigue, giving rise to pleasurable sensations all over
the nervous
system, so that the consumer is "at peace with everybody"—in a
grand waking
dream. He is able to concentrate his thoughts on one subject: it
affords him
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India Papers > Medicine - Drugs > Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1894-1895 > Volume I > (222) Page 191 |
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Permanent URL | https://digital.nls.uk/74574510 |
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Description | Chapter X, cont. |
Description | [Volume 1]: Report. |
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