Hallucinations cannabis

The French physician, Jacques Joseph Moreau, remains the most-cited connection between cannabis and the art community. Moreau first used hashish while traveling through the Middle East in the 1830s. He assumed that cannabis-induced sensations might model the hallucinations and delusions common in psychotic individuals. He had hoped that this research might help the treatment of the mentally ill. The outspoken hedonist and popular novelist, Theophile Gautier assisted Moreau in this research. He not only participated himself, but he also recruited other members of Frances artistic community. This group of hedonists and experimenters met monthly in an old mansion in Paris which was known at the time as the Club Des Hachichins (Hashish Club). For historical reviews on cannabis, see Abel and Mechoulam. ... 

The Eclectic Materia Medica, Pharmacology and Therapeutics, 1922, recommended cannabis for Marked nervous depression. .. wakefulness in fevers insomnia, with brief periods of sleep, disturbed by unpleasant dreams . .. mental illusions hallucinations cerebral anemia from spasm of cerebral vessels palpitation of the heart, with sharp, stitching pain and menstrual headache, with great nervous depression. ... 

Spontaneous occurrence of previously experienced drug effects (e.g. hallucinations, delusions, depersonalization) or distressing emotions originally associated with trauma. Generally associated with LSD-like drugs and occasionally cannabis. 

However, by the first century A.D., Taoists became interested in magic and alchemy, and were recommending addition of cannabis seeds to their incense burners. The hallucinations thus produced were highly valued as a means of achieving immortality. 

Prior to 1800 there were only about ten references to cannabis in all of French literature, travel books or botanical books. Between 1800 and 1850, no fewer than thirty articles and books were published on the subject in France. The Thousand and One Nights, with its tales of hashish intoxication, chug-induced hallucinations, and "double consciousness", topped the bestseller lists for many years. Famed Orientalist Silvestre de Sacy s warning that hashish produced ecstasy, delirium, insanity, and even death, only whetted the public s appetite for more. 

Thirty randomized, controlled trials from 1975 to 1996 were analyzed to quantify the antiemetic efficacy and adverse effects of cannabis when given to 1366 patients receiving chemotherapy. Oral nabUone, oral dronabinol, and intramuscular levonantradol were compared with conventional antiemetics (prochlorperazine, metoclopramide, chlor-promazine, thiethylperazine, haloperidol, domperidone, and aliza-pride) or placebo. Across all trials, cannabinoids were slightly more effective than active comparators and placebo when the chemotherapy regimen was of moderate emetogenic potential, and patients preferred them. No dose-response relationships were evident to the authors. The cannabinoids were also more toxic side effects included euphoria, drowsiness, sedation, somnolence, dysphoria, depression, hallucinations, and paranoia. The efficacy of cannabinoids as compared to SSRls has not been studied. Use of these agents should be considered when other regimens do not provide desired efficacy. 

OH-A -THC are the main substances responsible for the intoxication obtained after smoking, the pulmonary absorption being greater than the oral one about 20% of the A -THC in a cigarette is absorbed. The effects of cannabis smoking include increased awareness and perception, euphoria, sedation and occasionally hallucinations. 

Perhaps older yet is the Pen Tsao Ching, written in the first or second century but attributed to Eimperor Shen Nung in the third millennium B.C.E., which noted that excessive ingestion of cannabis flowers produced hallucinations (literally, seeing devils ) (Li, 1974, p. 446). 

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