HONDAY, .MARCH 15, 1971 \ TERRACE HE RALD, TERRACE, B.C. iho” OPE HAS LONG. m The earliest record of men’s ese) 60f §6©6Marijuana «sis ‘a mmescription of the drug in a hinese compendium of edicines, the herbal of Emperor Shen dated 2737 B.C. Marihuana was a subject of @xtravagant social controversy iven in ancient times; there mere those who warned that the emp plant lined the road to ades, and those who thought it d to paradise. Its use as an toxicant spread from-China to india, then to North Africa and from there, about A.D. 1800, to Europe, perhaps primarily Mehrough troops of Napoleon’s wermy returning from the gyplian campaign. In the m@Vvestern Hemisphere marijuana has been known for Mienturies in South and Central America, but it did not begin to e used in the U.S. to any Rignificant extent until about 920 . Since the hemp plant annabis sativa, the source of e drug in its various forms, is A common weed growing freely nn many climates, there is no ay of knowing precisely how extensive the world usage of the rug may be today. A United ations survey in 1950 timated that its users then mumbered some 200 million people, principally in Asia and frica. . Cannabis saliva has a long Mbhistory of use as a source of Bliber, as a drug in tribal mreligious ceremonies and as @ medicine, particularly in Indla. In the 19th century the drug was widely prescribed in the mWestern world for various ilments and discomforts, such 5 coughing, fatigue, Srheumatism, asthma, delirium tremens, migraine headache gand painful menstruation. rAlthough its use was already declining somewhat because of athe introduction of synthetic hypnotics and analgesics, it remained in the U.S. me Pharmacopoeia until 1937, The rdifficulties imposed on its use by the Tax Act of 1937 completed its medical demise. In any case, throughout jhistory the principal interest in the hemp plant has been in its properties as an agent -for . achieving cuphoria. The name marijuana is said to be a corruption of the Portuguese word mariguango. meaning intoxicant. The drug's ubiquily is evidenced in the multitude of vernacular lerms by which it is known; in the U.S. it is variously called the weed, stuff, Indian hay, grass, pot, tea, maryjane and other names. In mem this country it is almost ae invariably smoked (usually asa ; jeint), but elsewhere the drug is mee Often taken in the form of a mee drink or in foods such as mm sweet ments. @ Drug preparations from the Me hemp plant vary widely in me quality and potency, depending Seen) on the climate, soil, cultivation mee and methodof preparation. The me drug is obtained almost mm exclusively from the female mm plant, When the cultivated = plant is fully ripe, a sticky Mm golden yellow resin with a minly fragrance covers its: am (lower clusters. and top leaves. fee The plant’s resin contains the eae active substances. ae Preparations of the drug come me in three grades, indentified by m Indian names. The cheapest and least potent, call bhang, is derived from the cut tops of uncultivated plants and has a low resin content. Most of the marijuana smoked in the U.S. m is of this grade. To the a discriminanted Hindu bhang is ® crude substitute for ganja, a A little like the difference between Ma beer and fine Scotch, and it is me scorned by all but the very m poorest in India. Ganja is m oblained from the flawering Warn (ops and leaves of carefully gee selected, cultivated plants, and wee it has .a, higher. quality and wae) uantity of resin.: The third and. } highest grade of the drug, called charas in India, is made from the resin itself, carefully - scraped from the tops of mature plants, Only this version of the drug is praperly called hashish; the. common supposition that -hashish refers toall varieties of cannabis drugs is. incorrect: | Charas, or hashish, is five to’ eight times stronger in’ effect than the most potent marijuana’ ® regularly available in the U.S. ‘Does . Marijuana induce sexual debauchery? This popular impression may owe its origin partly to the fantasies af . cigarette called a reefer or a . HISTORY: rehistoric Potheac dissolute writers and partly to | the fact that in times past users in the. Middle East laced the drug with aphrodisiacs. There is no evidence that cannabis stimulates sexual desire - or MARIJUANA PLANT’ Power, this is conceded even by Ahmed Benabud, a Morocean psychiatrist and investigator of the drug who condemns it severely on psychological grounds. There are those, on the - other hand, who contend that marijuana weakens sexual desire - with equally little substantiation. _ Some - $? Marijuana users report that the high enhances the enjoyment of Sexual intercourse. This may be true in the same sense that the enjoyment of art and music - is apparently enhanced. It -is questionable, however, that the: intoxication breaks down moral barriers that’ are not already * broken. ’ Does marijuana lead to physical and: - mental degeneracy? Reports from many investigators, particularly in Egypt and in part of the Orient, indicate that long-term users of’ the -potent versions of cannabis are indeed typically: passive; nonproductive, slothful ant totally lacking in ambition. It is possible that chronie use of the drug in its stonger forms may in fact havedebilitating effects, as prolonged heavy drinking does. There is another possible explanation, however. Many of those who take up cannabis are people who are hungry, sick hopeless or defeated, seeking through this inexpensive drug to soften the impact of an otherwise unbearable reality. In most situations one cannot be certain which came first the drug on the one hand. or the depression or personality disorder on the other. This question applies to many of the “potheads’* in the U.S. An intensive study of college students. who had taken toa marijuana showed that many of them had suffered serious conflicts or depression long - hefore they began to use the drug. ; ‘Tt concluded that there was no evidence thal moderate use of- the cannabis drugs produced any disease or mental or moral damage or that it had any more tendency to lead to excess than the moderate use of whisky did. . Kay: Incurable Alecholic attend A.A. meetings but the actual percentage of male alcoholics to female alcoholics is unknown. ate Probably a majority:are:‘men: bul, as one alcoholic said, there, are many people who are alcoholics who don't admit jt to themselves and think they are just ‘social drinkers,’ and this. ‘ number probably includes quite a few women. ° os An admitted female alcoholic who attends A.A. meelings said a simple test for someone who, suspects the alcoholic is, “If you wake up in the morning and find you need a drink you're an alcoholic.” ; ‘Kay’ began drinking when she was 38 and now, 23 years laler, has accepted the fact that she is, and always will be, an alcoholic. ; “It's incurable.,.a disease . which causes a chemical reaction within a person’s’ make-up causing a craving for alcohol: co “There are some people that could drink excessively but never become alcoholics,” she said. : ; oo Kay joined A.A. in Terrace six weeks’ ago. ‘'Mi psychiatrist in| Vancouver ‘suggested I join AJA, But-I wanted to do it alone. Then I found it was becoming more and more difficult to doit alone, There were people willing to help but they weren't alecholics . they didn’t understand my problem. “So T joined A.A. six weeks ago. I’m the only woman there. ° Talking to the men I realized that these very strong people needed as much help:as I did.:- “Since joining this group J have been enlightened so very’ much by being able to talk to peole who have the same craving as I have.” . LSD--for ‘The first recorded LSD “trip” occurred in 1943. Dr. Albert Hoffman, one of the two men »jwho- developed the ‘synthetic ‘subslance five years earlier in” Research the Sandoz Laboratories. in Basel - Switzerland, deliberately ingested 250 micrograms as an " experiment. . He. began to, feel. the..effects_ when herwas riding home on his bicycle. He experienced perceptual distortions, delusion that his bicycle was standing still. Terrified that he was becoming psychotic, he’ interpreted everything he saw negatively. Human faces became horrifying masks and his tongue tasted metallic. He felt he was standing “outside himself” as he raved and shrieked. -- The next day Dr was fully recovered. It was significant that this first experiment with LSD was a “bad trip’. But Dr. Hoffman was more fortunate that. many subseyuent experimenters who. did nel recover in a day, but were subject to days, weeks and months of psychotic symptons. There are also those who have never recovered from their experiment, who have been consigned to the’ wards of mental hospitals. . It is significant, also, that use of LSD has declined precipitously among casual “experimenters” and drug. cultists since 1947, when ‘Timothy Leary, high priest of Hoffman the hailucinogenic revelation, | burst into prominence in a spate _of. glamoraus and careless publicity, — . Only those desperate enough to knowingly gamble with their ., Sanity, risk suicidal fantasies and perhaps court the danger of . suffering genetric.damage now drabble with what, in- street parlance, is called ‘‘acid", “the Chief’, or ‘the cube,” ‘ “