Read Ebook: Drugs that enslave by Kane H H Harry Hubbell

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A common practice in some of the far Eastern countries--hashisch taking--is comparatively rare among the people of civilized nations. Here, as there, the practice is not one of steady, daily intoxication with this drug, but it, more like alcohol, is resorted to at certain times, when the system seems especially to crave it, or the temptation is offered. In this it differs materially from the practice of opium or morphia taking. In point of continual craving, we might, I think, arrange these drugs in the following order: Morphine or opium, chloral, hashisch, alcohol.

It would seem that, as the more intense is the daily or hourly craving for a stimulant or narcotic, the easier it is to permanently destroy that craving when the habit is once broken. Thus a short struggle of from four to eight days will, in the majority of instances, cure the opium patient, while with alcohol or hashisch, less so with chloral, the desire seems to be latent and to crop out at odd times, and under peculiar circumstances. Once the desire is fully satisfied, then it remains quiescent for a shorter or longer period, to again show itself in its original, or with increased intensity, at a later date. Hence it is that it is so very difficult to permanently cure dipsomania. With the opium or morphine habitu?, the desire at first, certain symptoms at a later date, come to the surface and demand a renewal of the drug saturation as soon as the effect of the last dose passes away.

There are those who use hashisch steadily the year round, as many of our countrymen use alcohol; but this is due more to moral depravity than to any special morbid craving for the substance used.

Were we able to procure a thoroughly reliable extract of hemp in this country, and did physicians use it as freely, as carelessly, and in as large doses, as they are using opium, morphine and chloral, hashisch takers would be more common.

Our pharmacopoeia offers a tincture of Cannabis Indica, every drachm of which represents fully three grains of the extract. Some of our manufacturing chemists prepare a fluid extract, and a fairly though not thoroughly reliable extract of hemp is manufactured by the English.

The English extract is that usually employed for medicinal purposes, and for the production of intoxication.

The only habitu? that I have known was a woman, thirty-eight years of age, who consumed, daily, nine grains of the English extract. She would roll it up into a little lump, knead it for some time between the fingers, and then placing it in the bowl of a common clay pipe, partly filled with tobacco, light it, and inhale the smoke. This was done twice daily, about four and a half grains being used at a time. Sometimes she would go a week at a time--at least so she said--without using any; but I suspect that on those days when she did not smoke it, she used it by the stomach.

She began to use the drug through curiosity, having read of its peculiar effects, and being extremely desirous of finding something to supply the place of the alcohol, to which she had become a slave.

When not under the influence of the drug her intellect was dull and sluggish, and her temper, at times, bad and unreasoning. During the night, when most completely under the influence of hemp, her dreams were highly pleasurable; she seeming to live in a different world, a thought being answered by its accomplishment, a wish by its fulfillment; distances were traversed in a few seconds; feasts, marked by plenty and variety, the food on dishes of gold, studded with diamonds and other precious stones, were set before her. Everything was done on a scale of magnificence. At times the dreams partook of a highly lascivious character. She assured me that she seemed to be living a double life--the one the real, the other that produced by the hemp. In the latter the incidents of one night's dreams seemed to follow as regularly, and the characters to be as real, as the incidents and people of every day life.

There was one peculiarity: if she took a little more than her usual allowance of the drug, she found her dreams of an entirely different nature; not pleasant, but inexpressibly horrible, new faces and new scenes taking the place of the usual ones, the thread of her dream romance being suddenly snapped. The same thing occurred, though not so markedly, if she took less than the usual amount.

Before commencing the use of this drug she was in fair health, stout, and when not under the influence of liquor, bright and cheerful.

She passed entirely away from my observation, and I have never since been able to learn what became of her, though I heard once that she had died, how or when I do not know.

She was possessed of some money, and was very highly educated. She claimed to be the widow of an English army surgeon.

In the morning she rarely smoked all that was put in the pipe, and never enough to put her to sleep. Occasionally she added a little opium to the hemp. She was a mental and bodily wreck. Her gait was tottering, and sometimes she would be forced to go in a direction opposite to that in which she desired to move.

She expressed no desire to be broken of her vice, saying often that if she wished it she could stop without any trouble. I regret exceedingly that her temper and many peculiarities would not permit my studying her case more closely. The urine examined was obtained by catheterization during the semi-cataleptic spell already spoken of.

The mental effect of this drug has been variously described by different authors. Thus, Calkins says:--

Many persons who have put themselves once or twice under the influence of this drug claim that no such pleasant effects, but rather torturing and horrible conditions are produced. The results when the drug is taken in this way, like those produced by tobacco on boys who smoke for the first time, should not be taken as a true estimate of the results obtained by the continued use of either.

A curious, interesting and valuable experiment was made upon himself by Dr. H. C. Wood, of Philadelphia, who is especially qualified to undertake and record the results of such an observation.

He says:--

"When given in full doses, cannabis Indica produces a feeling of exhilaration, with a condition of reverie, and a train of mental and nervous phenomena, which varies very much according to the temperament or idiosyncrasies of the subject, and very probably also, to some extent, according to the nature of his surroundings. The sensations are generally spoken of as very pleasurable; often beautiful visions float before the eyes, and a sense of ecstacy fills the whole being; sometimes the venereal appetites are greatly excited; sometimes loud laughter, constant giggling, and other indications of mirth are present. Some years since, in experimenting with the American extract, I took a very large dose, and in the essay upon the subject , the result was described as follows:--

"The sense of prolongation of time which I experienced was to me very remarkable, but is not uncommon in these cases. It is evidently due to the immense rapidity of the succession of ideas. The mind, without doubt, measures time by the duration of its own processes, and when an infinitude of ideas arise before it in the time usually occupied by a few, time becomes infinitely prolonged to the mind. It is a lifetime in the minute. A very common mental phenomenon, not yet mentioned, is a condition of double consciousness, a sense of having two existences, of being at the same time one's self and somebody else."

Pleasurable as may be the stage of excitement or intoxication, fascinating as may be the dreams that follow, the evil effect upon the body is rapid and decisive.

Wasting of the muscles, sallowness of the skin, hebetude of the mind, interference with co?rdination, failure of the appetite, convulsive seizures, loss of strength, and idiotic offspring, seem, from all accounts, to be the uniform result of the long continued use of this drug.

CONCLUSIONS.

A careful study of the facts presented in the foregoing chapters teach us several lessons well worth considering, and suggest certain cautions and reforms that are greatly needed.

From the abundant evidence upon this point I think we must conclude that the abuse or habitual use of narcotics is steadily upon the increase, especially the subcutaneous use of morphine; that these drugs are, in the majority of instances, first taken to relieve pain, and not for simple gratification of a morbid appetite; and that the drug used and the manner of using it is in consonance with the prevalent medical practice of the time in which the habitu? lives.

There are two classes especially blamable for this--the physicians and the druggists. In the early history of the use of the hypodermic syringe the danger of contracting the habit through its frequent use was not recognized, and the physician was not then to blame. At the present time, however, knowing fully the dangers incident to its use, the physician is criminally careless in placing the instrument in the hands of the patient or her friends for their use. If he does not appreciate the full extent of the danger, he is culpably ignorant, and certainly deserving of punishment.

The deaths, and dangerous accidents, and the spread of the continued use of narcotics, is due, to a great extent, to the druggists, who, in many cases, sell the drug without a physician's prescription, and without any reasonable excuse on the part of the patient, in direct violation of the law. Chloral is sold to men just recovering from a spree; prescriptions containing large amounts of these drugs are renewed for patients for whom they were not originally given; the druggist himself often prescribes a mixture of chloral, morphine and bromide of potassium, for repentant drunkards, or for patients suffering from insomnia.

When spoken to about this matter, they coolly excuse their practices with the remark that "if we don't do it, some other druggist will; and why should we lose the money." The laws relating to the sale of poisons are loose and inefficient, the practice rotten, and the statute really a dead letter. Dangerous and even fatal consequences are not, then, so much to be wondered at.

These sharpers are utterly without conscience, and do not scruple to prey upon and undermine the health of their victims, in order to gain a few dollars. It is about time that the people found out that honest, honorable and trustworthy physicians, who have only the good of the patient at heart, do not advertise. It is a shameful fact that the religious press tolerates the advertisements of these charlatans in their columns. As a rule, the vilest advertisements are to be found in these newspapers. Owing to the moral weight supposed to be carried by these sheets, owing to their large circulation among the people, who look upon every word therein contained as truth, these announcements and endorsements do the people an infinite amount of harm. Can it be that the financial "backers" of these papers overrule the scruples of the religious editor? If so, while a good investment financially, it must be a very poor one morally.

I have emphasized the fact that the continued use of chloral is not so liable to end in the formation of a habit, as is the prolonged use of morphia or opium; not that physicians may exercise less care and discrimination in its employment, for the danger is sufficiently great, but simply to refute the statements of some men who are gone wild upon the subject of habituation and inebriety, and who suggest measures for reform, and plans for restraint and treatment, as impracticable and impossible as their statements are whimsical and truthless.

Finally, be it distinctly understood, that many of the symptoms enumerated as occurring in both the morphine and chloral habitu?s, but especially the latter, are only found where the drug has been used in large amount, or for a long time. Every symptom will, moreover, be modified somewhat by the systemic peculiarities of each patient.

The "mixed" habits, so called, where patients are using two or more narcotics at one time, have not been discussed separately, as they possess no distinctive characters, and the physician who understands the prominent points of each will have no trouble in detecting and treating these cases.

FOOTNOTES

"The Hypodermic Injection of Morphia. Its History, Advantages and Dangers." N. Y., 1880.

"Morbid Craving for Morphia," London, 1878.

Levenstein, op. cit., p. 69.

"Opium and the Opium Habit." Philadelphia, 1871, p. 117.

From the subsequent history of the patient, especially while in the asylum, we are led to believe that these attacks of delirium took place at menstrual periods.

"Hypodermic Medication," p. 96. Philadelphia, 1879.

"Medico-Chirurgical Society Trans.," vol. L.

"Materia Medica and Therapeutics," Phila., 1877, p. 205.

"Medico-Chirurgical Transactions," vol. L.

"The Hypodermic Method," Philadelphia, 1879, p. 32.

Italics mine.

E. P. Wilson, "St. George's Hospital Reports," 1869.

"Medico-Chirurg. Transactions," vol. L., p. 570.

"The Hypodermic Injection of Morphia; its History, Advantages and Dangers," N. Y., 1880.

In my chapter on "The Morphia Habit," I shall show that much larger amounts have been used, and for long periods.

"Morbid Craving for Morphia." London, 1880.

H. C. Wood; "Materia Medica and Therapeutics," p. 440. Phila., 1877.

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