Medicine - Drugs > Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1894-1895 > Volume I
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224 REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94. [CH. XI.
siddhi tipplers than
among other people of the same class. What does happen
is that digestion is impaired, the daily consumption of such a dose
of narcotic
overburdens the alimentary and eliminating systems, the man's
appetite goes,
and the food he takes is not properly absorbed. The symptoms
mentioned are
the signs of this indigestion, and the impaired vitality which
renders the system
unable to throw off an illness is its results." With lowered
vitality due to any
cause, it must be obvious that an individual is more liable to be
affected by
vicissitudes of weather and bad sanitary surroundings than a person
in normal
health; and it may be accepted that excessive consumption of any
intoxicant does
tend to lower vitality. Excessive consumers of the drug are
therefore probably
more liable to bowel-affections. As regards the indirect effects of
the drug when
smoked, it is likely that the excessive consumers also commit
excesses of other
kinds, while the excessive smoking also tends to diminish the
appetite: the money
which should be spent for the purpose of procuring wholesome and
nutritious food—
which a large number of witnesses state to be essential if evil
effects are to be
warded off—is used for obtaining the drugs. It is not. surprising
that under such
conditions the excessive consumer should be more liable to
bowel-affections,
diarrhœa, or dysentery than a non-consumer.
A few witnesses have
referred to sudden death following a prolonged pull at
a ganja or charas chillum. In the cases which the Commission
have attempted to
sift, the cause of death has not been satisfactorily explained.
There are, however,
diseased conditions in which sudden death is not uncommon, and in
the cases
referred to autopsies do not appear to have been conducted. The
Commission
consider, however, that a very prolonged pull at a chillum
might possibly cause
spasm of the glottis, producing asphyxia, or the products of the
destructive
distillation of the resin might cause paralysis of the respiratory
centre or of the
heart. Alleged cases of this kind are very few indeed, and they
have not been
carefully examined. They need not detain the Commission further.
Leaving
the physical effects, the Commission now proceed to discuss the
mental effects
of the drugs as shown in the alleged causation of
insanity.
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India Papers > Medicine - Drugs > Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1894-1895 > Volume I > (257) Page 224 |
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Permanent URL | https://digital.nls.uk/74574580 |
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Description | Chapter XI, cont. |
Description | [Volume 1]: Report. |
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