CHAPTER
XII.
EFFECTS—MENTAL.
Insanity.
512. The Commission have attached considerable importance to the
inquiry regarding the connection between insanity and
hemp drugs because this is the part of the subject of
which most has been heard in the past. There has been undoubtedly a popular
impression that hemp drugs do cause insanity. There are not a few witnesses
who deny this,—who say that they have never seen a consumer of the drugs
insane, and do not believe that the drugs ever produce insanity. But the much
more common impression is that, at all events if used to excess, the hemp drugs
may, and often do, produce insanity. Some few witnesses, generalising from a
most limited experience, go so far as to say that insanity is the inevitable result
of the use of the drugs. There exists undoubtedly a popular impression which has
come down from many generations that there is some connection between hemp
drugs and insanity. Besides this popular impression, there has been great pro-
minence given to asylum statistics as affording some tangible ground for judging
of the effects of hemp drugs. Over and over again the statistics of Indian
asylums have been referred to in official documents or scientific treatises not only
in this country, but also in other countries where the use of these drugs has
demanded attention. Other alleged effects of the drugs have attracted but little
attention compared with their alleged connection with insanity.
Popular impression.
513. The popular impression on the subject is capable of very simple explana-
tion. It is undoubtedly a very difficult matter to decide
as to the cause of insanity in any case. And it cannot
be expected that the popular view of the cause in any particular case should be
accepted as accurate. There may be good ground for the popular opinion that
insanity is caused by hemp drugs. That question may be deferred for the present.
But there can be no doubt that in any particular case this view of causation must
be accepted with caution. To ascertain the true cause requires a thorough know-
ledge of the history of the patient and a scientific capacity for judging of that
history. The unscientific or popular mind rushes at conclusions, and naturally
seizes on that fact of the case that lies most on the surface. Any exciting
cause is more easily apparent to the casual and unscientific observer than a pre-
disposing cause could be. The former is nearer to the effect in point of time, and
is naturally more readily associated with it. Similarly, any physical cause is more
easily apparent to such an observer than a moral cause would be. The former lies
nearer the surface, and any physical fact that seems a possible cause is naturally
accepted. Again, an intoxicant would naturally be more readily accepted than
other physical causes, because some of its effects as seen in ordinary life are very
similar to the symptoms of insanity. This is, perhaps, specially the case with
ganja: an excessive dose produces intoxication. Its first effect is the "dis-
equilibration of the intellect," and the mental symptoms of hemp drug intoxica-
tion are very similar to those of insanity. Such physical symptoms as the casual
observer would note are less marked perhaps in the case of ganja than with alco-
hol, while the mental condition is often that strange mixture of apparent clear-
ness with manifest derangement of thought which is found in insanity, but not
usually in alcoholic intoxication. It is only natural that drugs the intoxication of
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