jesse

In some respects the effects of cannabis on the nervous system are peculiar. It causes an apparently contradictory, consentaneous stage of stimulation and depression-a state somewhat simulated by morphine. The sensations that follow the effects of cannabis vary greatly with the temperament and the peculiarities of the patient, and with his environment. Almost invariably they are pleasurable. An emotional state of happiness even to ecstasy is experienced, with an endless procession of beautiful visions coming and going, and over which the patient indulges in merriment and even hilarity. So pleasurable becomes his sensations that he may break into boisterous laughter and antics of a ridiculous character, the nature of which he fully comprehends, but is wholly unable to prevent. Gradually passing into a dream-like stage, he talks, volubly, brilliantly, with ever-recurring changes of topic, little coherence of thought, and a perverted judgment. His imagination carries him into ludicrous ideas and strange actions, he has notions of grandeur and greatness, and moments are exaggerated into aeons of time. He lives a "life-time in a minute." Endless phantasms of beauty and delight pass before his distorted mental vision. A singular peculiarity is a state of "double consciousness" or dual personality which possesses him in which he imagines he is both himself and some one else, and he behaves accordingly. He becomes affectionate to the extreme, both to himself and to others, and altogether he is a very happy individual leading a very full and infinitely extended life.Finally drowsiness overtakes him and he drops into a heavy sleep, which may last for hours, and from which he awakens with no other discomfort than a ravenous hunger. In this last stage the pupils are dilated, muscular power in abeyance, and partial anesthesia prevails. While the ultimate effects of the drug in some result in tremor, great weakness, loss of appetite and convulsions, no deaths have been known to occur in man from this drug.