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