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Brings Temporary Insanity
From the Treasury Department, Office of Commissioner of Narcotics, Washington, D.C.—The rapid development of a widespread traffic in marihuana during the past several years, particularly during 1935 and 1936, is regarded with much concern by the Bureau of Narcotics.
Ten years ago there was little traffic in marihuana except in parts of the Southwest. The weed now grows wild in almost every state in the Union, is easily obtainable and has come into wide use in many states. The situation is especially fraught with danger because the abuse of this drug is being carried as a new habit to circles which heretofore have not been contaminated by drug addiction.
The incomplete reports that have com to my attention during the past year on marihuana seizures throughout the country by state authorities show the existence of a dangerous and rapidly increasing traffic in this drug in at least thirty-one states.
Violent Crimes Committed by Addicts
Despite the fact that medical men and scientists have disagreed upon the properties of marihuana, and some are inclined to minimize the harmfulness of this drug, the records offer ample evidence that it has a disastrous effect upon many of its users. Recently we have received reports showing crimes of violence committed by persons while under the influence of marihuana.
The origin of the drug is very ancient. In the year 1090 A.D. the religious and military order or sect of the Assassins was found in Persia, and the numerous acts of cruelty of this sect were known not only in Asia, but in Europe as well. This branch of the Shiite sect, known as Ismalites, was called Hashishan, derived from Hashish, or the confection of hemp leaves (marihuana). In fact, from the Arabic “Hashishan” we have the Egnlish word “assassin.”
The marihuana plant ranges in height from about 3 to 14 feet. It is a hardy plant and seemingly adapts itself to almost any climate.The flowering tops are crushed and smoked in the form of cigarettes, which retail at sums ranging from five to fifty cents each.
Drug Induces Delirium
The toxic effects produced by the active narcotic principle of cannabis sativa, hemp, or marihuana appear to be exclusively to the higher nerve centers. The drug produces first, an exaltation with a feeling of well being; a happy jovial mood, usually; an increased feeling of physical strength and power; and a general euphoria is experienced. Accompanying this exaltation is a stimulation of the imagination followed by a more or less delirious state characterized by vivid kaleidoscopic visions, sometimes of the pleasing sensual kind, but occasionally of a gruesome nature. Accompanying this delirious state is a remarkable loss in spatial and time relations; persons and things in the environment look small; time is interminable; seconds seem like minutes and hours like days.
Those who are accustomed to habitual use of the drug are said eventually to develop a delirious rage after its administration during which they are temporarily, at least, irresponsible and prone to commit violent crimes. The prolonged use of this narcotic is said to produce mental deterioration. It apparently releases inhibitions of an anti-social nature, which dwell within the individual.
An Interview With An Addict
“When the beginner, my friend,” said the Old Viper, “timidly lights his first muggle—we call it getting a cherry—he thinks he’s going to get a bang out of it swift and pretty severe. He sits and studies himself not sensing the subtle way the process of elevation is working, finally decides there’s nothing to the stuff at all. The first time a guy gets drunk generally he’s paralyzed before he has had any idea that the alcohol was getting to him. But after a few experimental efforts he can gauge himself properly, he learns like the weed smoker that a little goes a long ways, and if he dabbles with marihuana chances are better than even he will smoke more and drink less.”
“Sure,” broke in the interrogator, “but just what I want to know is, what are the physical indications of being under the influenve?”
“That’s something the police would like to know. The very absence of visible tokens of marihuana from bother much. Only the unmistakable odor of the burning cigarette is a tip-off. Half of the strollers who surge past a cop on the corner of 42nd and Broadway could be higher than kites—and often it seems to me that half of them really are—and Patrick Law couldn’t point his nightstick at one of them. No, there is absolutely not an outword sign, although sometimes a portion of the citizenry look a trifle sleepy. But to the man himself after the initial feeling of pressure in the sinus region, the fumes creep upward lightening the head. In a while the mouth becomes dry and until the spell works off in an hour or two there’s a quiet, detached, monarch-of-all-you-survey sensation over which the meditative cast of thought prevails.”
“And then one merely feels dreamy and thoughtful,” said the curious one.
“Yes, although there is no question but that the hearing is, well, if not sharper at least capable of registering tone shades that cut deeper, harmonies richer than you ever knew before. Music lovers are queer for weed because it heightns apprciation. Swing musicians might find that elusive definition of swing music right in the middle of a smoke ring if they gave a damn about words in explanation. The jamster who improvises on the melody found a long time ago finds that when he is “high” all distraction disappears, while the element of tempo seems less restraining.”
An eye-witness provides this yarn which just goes to show. A college student down Georgia way went to philosophy class one day, exceedingly well hoisted from the ordinary level of human chitchat. Truly he must have sucked the pith out of a very fat, overstuffed “reefer” for when his professor’s voice summoned him out of his sprawling daydream to elucidate the metaphysics of Locke and Spinoza, or some one of those long-haired boys who went to to town thinking up ney whys and wherefores, it was seconds before he managed to get to his feet to write one of the strangest pages of history into the annals of that southern college. Clearing a cottony throat, the campus reeferman began, and in a protracted vocal ramble proceeded to evolve a wholly original scheme of philosophy! The astonished pedagogue never was able to shoot any holes in this philosophic phenomenon, nor could he entice any further xeposition from his pupil, whose brain child passed out more rapidly than it came aborning.
Now let’s balance the Old Viper’s account with what the medicos and reformers have to say. The following from the International Narcotic Education Association: “Marihuana is a most virile and powerful stimulent. The physiological effect of this drug produces a peculiar psychic exaltation and derangement of the central nervous system. The stage of exaltation and confusion, more marked in some addicts than others, is generally followed by a stage of depression.
“Sometimes the subject passes into a semi-conscious state, experiencing vivid and extravagant dreams which vary according to the individual character and mentality. In some the stage is one of self-satisfaction and well-being. In others, it is alarming, presenting the fear of some indefinite danger or of impending death. Later the dreams are sometimes followed by a state of complete unconsciousness. Sometimes convulsive attacks and acute mania are developed.
“The narcotic content of marihuana decreases the rate of the heart beat and causes irregularity of the pulse. Death may result from the effect on the heart. . . . Prolonged use frequently develops a delirious rage, which sometimes leads to high (sic) crimes, such as rape and assault and murder. Hence marihuana has been called “the killer drug.” The habitual use causes a very marked mental deterioration and sometimes insanity. Hence it is frequently called ‘loco wee’.”
Pleads Temporary Insanity From Drug
It is said that the Mohammedan leaders, opposing the Crusaders, utilized the services of individuals addicted to the use of hashish for secret murders.
And here are records from the Federal Narcotic Bureau. “In Florida a young boy who had become addicted to the smoking marihuant cigarettes, in a fit of frenzy, because, as he stated while still under the influence, a number of people were trying to cut off his arms and legs, seized an axe and killed his father, mother, two brothers and a sister, wiping out the entire family except himself.”
In Michigan: “Some time ago the silence of the State Prison at Marquette, Michigan, was shattered by the sound of a fusilade of shots and an hour later a kindly prison doctor lay dead and beside him lay the trusty who had giver his life trying to save his friend, the doctor. An investigation developed that arms and ammunition had been smuggled into the prison in false bottoms of herring tons and that marihuana from which Tylczak, the murderer, had derived his demoniac courage, had also been smuggled into prison.”
From Georgia comes this statement of a eighteen year old boy showing the reactions of a beginner: “While walking around the curb market in Atlanta, I passed the hot tamale man, who asked me, ‘Do you yant any hot tamales?’ I said, ‘Don’t you have any stronger?’ He said ‘Yes,’ and sold me two marihuana cigarettes for twenty-five cents. I had never seen this kind of a cigarette before. I smoked one of them and it gave me a headache. Then I smoked the other and began to feel it. My mind changed in a queer sort of way. I craved some more of the cigarettes and, not having any money, I pawned my shoes for a dollar and bought a bag of dried leaves to roll my own. After a couple more cigarettes, I began to feel like I was on top of the world. I would walk up to anyone and asked them for anything without hesitancy. Then I felt like I would do something desperate. However, I was very tired and fell asleep. I stayed asleep for two whole days and nights.”
Many instances have been brought to light which illustrate the viciousness of the drug. In Colorado, a man under the influence of marihuana attempted to shoot his wife but killed her grandmother instead, and then committed suicide. On November 23, 1935, the Washington (D.C.) Herald published an items stating that on November 22, 1935, in Baltimore, Maryland, a 25-year-old Puerto Rican charged with criminally assaulting a ten-year-old girl, entered a plea of not guilty on grounds of temporary insanity caused by smoking marihuana cigarettes, but was adjudged sane, found guilty, and sentenced to death by hanging.
No Federal law exists prohibiting the production and use of marihuana. The legal fight rests with the states and municipalities, fourteen of the former having no laws pertaining to this subject. Those legislative rulings that are on the books are far from being uniform, and there is laxity and inefficiency in their enforcement. Louisiana enacted laws against marihuana, but made no appropriation for enforcement. The International Narcotic Association says that, “Ignorance concerning the marihuana evil is found among all classes of our population, and is surprisingly prevalent among our educed people—high school, college and university graduates and even among leaders of our social, business, political and professional world.”
The State’s Attorney in a New Mexican town estimated that approximately fifty per cent of crimes of violence committed in that city are attributable to marihuana addicts. A district attorney in New Orleans stated that it has been the experience of the police and prosecuting officials in the South that immediately before the commission of many crimes the use of marihuana cigarettes has been indulged in by criminals, so as to relieve themselves from a sense of natural restraint which might deter them from the commission of these criminal acts, and to give them the false courage necessary to commit the contemplated crime.—From the musical newspaper, “Down Beat.”
Note: The original article had many spelling mistakes, which are still reflected in this reprinted version for historical accuracy.
