Cannabis indica
Plant · Cannabaceae
Cannabis Indica inhibits higher mental faculties while stimulating imagination to a remarkable degree, producing states of intense exaltation in which all perceptions, emotions, and sensations are exaggerated. The characteristic dual consciousness is distinctive. It is indicated in nervous and mental disorders including epilepsy, mania, delirium tremens, irritable reflexes, and conditions with profoundly distorted time and space perception. Exophthalmic goitre and catalepsy are among clinical uses.
Key symptoms
- Exaggeration of duration of time; seconds seem ages
- Exaggeration of extent of space; a few rods seem an immense distance
- Uncontrollable laughter; excessive loquacity and exuberance
- Very forgetful; begins a sentence and cannot finish it
- Sensation as if top of head opening and shutting or calvarium being lifted
- Constant fear of becoming insane
- Burning and scalding in urethra before, during, and after urination
- Entire paralysis of lower extremities with thrilling sensations
Worse (aggravation)
- Morning; coffee, liquor, and tobacco
- Lying on right side; darkness
- Exertion; walking; talking
Better (amelioration)
- Fresh air
- Cold water
- Rest
Hashish
Inhibits the higher faculties and stimulates the imagination to a remarkable degree without any marked stimulation of the lower or animal instinct. A condition of intense exaltation, in which all perceptions and conceptions, all sensations and all emotions are exaggerated to the utmost degree.
Subconscious or dual nature state. Apparently under the control of the second self, but, the original self, prevents the performance of acts which are under the domination of the second self. Apparently the two natures cannot act independently, one acting as a check, upon the other (Effects of one Dram doses by Dr. Albert Schneider).
The experimenter feels ever and anon that he is distinct from the subject of the hashish dream and can think rationally.
Produces the most remarkable hallucinations and imaginations, exaggeration of the duration of time and extent of space, being most characteristic. Conception of time, space and place is gone. Extremely happy and contented, nothing troubles. Ideas crowd upon each other. Has great soothing influence in many nervous disorders, like epilepsy, mania, dementia, delirium tremens, and irritable reflexes. Exophthalmic goitre. Catalepsy.
Mind
Excessive loquacity; exuberance of spirits. Time seems too long; seconds seem ages; a few rods an immense distance. Constantly theorizing. Anxious depression; constant fear of becoming insane. Mania, must constantly move. Very forgetful; cannot finish sentence. Is lost in delicious thought. Uncontrollable laughter. Delirium tremens. Clairvoyance. Emotional excitement; rapid change of mood. Cannot realize her identity, chronic vertigo as of floating off.
Head
Feels as if top of head were opening and shutting and as if calvarium were being lifted. Shocks through brain (Aloe; Coca). Uræmic headache. Throbbing and weight at occiput. Headache with flatulence. Involuntary shaking of head. Migraine attack preceded by unusual excitement with loquacity.
Eyes
Fixed. Letters run together when reading. Clairvoyance. Spectral illusions without terror.
Ears
Throbbing, buzzing, and ringing. Noise like boiling water. Extreme sensitiveness to noise.
Face
Expression drowsy and stupid. Lips glued together. Grinding of teeth in sleep. Mouth and lips dry. Saliva thick, frothy, and sticky.
Stomach
Increased appetite. Pain at cardiac orifice; better, pressure. Distention. Pyloric spasm. Sensation of extreme tension in abdominal vessels-feel distended to bursting.
Rectum
Sensation in anus as if sitting on a ball.
Urinary
Urine loaded with slimy mucus. Must strain; dribbling; has to wait some time before the urine flows. Stitches and burning in urethra. Dull pain in region of right kidney.
Male
After sexual intercourse, backache. Oozing of white, glairy mucus from glans. Satyriasis. Prolonged thrill. Chordee. Sensation of swelling in perineum or near anus, as if sitting on a ball.
Female
Menses profuse, dark, painful, without clots. Backache during menses. Uterine colic, with great nervous agitation and sleeplessness. Sterility (Borax). Dysmenorrhœa with sexual desire.
Respiratory
Humid asthma. Chest oppressed with deep, labored breathing.
Heart
Palpitation awakes him. Piercing pain, with great oppression. Pulse very slow (Dig; Kalmia; Apocyn).
Extremities
Pain across shoulders and spine; must stoop; cannot walk erect. Thrilling through arms and hands, and from knees down. Entire paralysis of the lower extremities. Pain in soles and calves; sharp pains in knees and ankles; very exhausted after a short walk.
Sleep
Very sleepy, but unable to do so. Obstinate and intractable forms of insomnia. Catalepsy. Dreams of dead bodies; prophetic. Nightmare.
Modalities
Worse, morning; from coffee, liquor and tobacco; lying on right side. Better from fresh air, cold water, rest.
Relationship
Bellad; Hyoscy; Stram; Laches; Agaric; Anhalon (time sense disordered; time periods enormously overestimated, thus, minutes seem hours, etc).
Dose
Tincture and low attenuations.
Mind
A strange ecstatic sensation pervades the body and senses. The limbs and parts seem enlarged. A thrill of beatitude passes over the limbs. The limbs tremble. Great weakness spreads over the body.
The symptoms resemble catalepsy. Anaesthesia and loss of muscular sense. Complaints ameliorated by rest. Exaltation of spirits with mirthfulness. Wonderful imaginations and hallucinations. Wonderful exaggerations of time and space. He seems to be transported through space. He seems to have two existences, or to be conscious of two states, or to exist in two spheres. Delusions. Incoherent speech.
Laughs at serious remarks. Laughs and weeps. Spasmodic laughter, jesting. Moaning and weeping. Fear of death; of insanity; of the dark. Anguish and sadness. Mental symptoms ameliorated by walking in the open air.
East Indian Cannabis sativa (Cannabis sativa and Cannabis indica are botanically identical; the difference in their properties is solely due to the difference of soil and climate in which they are grown). Hashish. Bhang. Ganja. N. O. Cannabinaceæ. Tincture of young leaves and twigs.
Clinical
Catalepsy. Chordee. Clairvoyance. Delirium tremens. Delusions. Epilepsy. Gonorrhœa. Headache. Mania. Menorrhagia. Paralysis. Prostatitis. Satyriasis. Stammering. Uræmia. Urinary disorders.
Characteristics
The use of Cannabis ind. in the East as an intoxicant gives the leading note of its sphere of action. It produces a state of exaltation with sublime visions, delusions, and hallucinations in great variety. Time seems interminable, space illimitable. Imagines himself in a room of which the walls gradually close in upon him. Double consciousness. Fixed ideas. Apprehensive of approaching death; of becoming insane. Great agitation; anxiety; nervousness. Horror of darkness. Incoherent talking. Uncontrollable laughter. …
Indian Hemp. (Urticaccae)
Very forgetful: forgets his last words and ideas; begins a sentence, forgets what he intends to speak; inability to recall any thought or event on account of other thoughts crowding the brain (Anac., Lac. c.). Constantly theorizing. Laughs immoderately at every trifling word spoken to him. Full of fun and mischief, then perhaps moaning and crying. Great apprehension of approaching death. Delirium tremens; excessive loquacity; exaggeration of time and distance. Time seems too long (Arg. n.); a few seconds seem ages. Distance seems immense; a few rods seems miles. Sensation as it the cavarium was opening and shutting (Act.). Sensation of swelling in the perineum or near the anus, as if sitting on a ball (with great quantities of ropy mucus in urine, Cinch.).
Mind
Very forgetful; begins a sentence and forgets before he can finish it.
Mind
Laughs immoderately; full of fun and mischief; when sad afterwards.
Hearing and Ears
Throbbing pains with fullness in both ears.
Urinary Organs
Urine dribbles out after the stream ceases; has to force out the last few drops with the hand.
Urinary Organs
Burning and scalding, or stinging pain in the urethra before, during and after urination.
Urinary Organs
The urine dribbles out after the stream ceases; has to force out the last few drops with the hand.
Neck and Back
Pain across shoulders and spine, must stoop; cannot walk erect.
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Exaggeration of duration of time and extent of space, seconds seem ages, and a few rods an immense distance.
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Agreeable thrilling from the knees down, with a sensation as if a bird's claw were clasping the knees.
Phatak's chapter on Cannabis indica is available in the app.
Read Phatak in the appClassical texts are in the public domain. Educational reference only — not medical advice.
