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History of cannabis: Experiments with hashish
This week on Twitter, a post caught our eye here at Sixty8... After all, it’s not often that a PhD student in the history of medicine takes a close interest in the subject of narcotics and summarises her findings in a way that makes them accessible to everyone!
Yet this is exactly what Zoë Dubus (@ZoeDubus on Twitter) has decided to offer us on her Twitter account, and she has risen to the challenge brilliantly! @ZoeDubus shared with her community episode 6 of her series "Doctors and Self-Experiments", which explores the experiments conducted by the pharmacist Mr Jules Giraud in 1881 with hashish.
In this article, I invite you to revisit this thread together, to learn more about the history of hashish in France!
"The art of varying the effects of hashish"
The information and quotes from Dr Jules Giraud that we’ll be discussing today all come from a scientific article published in 1881 in *Encéphale*, a highly reputable scientific journal of psychiatry: "The art of varying the effects of hashish".
His article, which spans eight pages, immerses us in the pharmacist’s experiments of the 1880s, conducted under the supervision of his friend, the doctor Dr Decaye...
It is important to note that these experiments were conducted at the time using hashish containing THC, not CBD. We are in no way encouraging you to consume this substance, which is now banned in France, but we simply invite you to discover a historic scientific experiment on cannabis.
Let us therefore delve into 1880s France, where we will learn more about cannabis, its legislation and its effects.
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Cannabis in France in the 19th Century
In the 19th century, it was quite common to grow one or more cannabis plants at home. The plant was used both for its therapeutic and medicinal properties, and for its recreational psychoactive effects...
It was in the late 1880s that the issue of psychotropic substances began to pose public health problems, mainly due to the opium dens in Paris. The French capital was then nicknamed the “world capital of opium”, which it imported directly from the Golden Triangle region of South-East Asia (at the time, Indochina was a French colony comprising Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia).
Thus, in 1848, another famous pharmacist, François Dorvault (founder and director of the Pharmacie centrale de France), also conducted his own self-experiments with hashish. According to him:
"When taking hashish for pleasure, one must be on an empty stomach."
At the time, cannabis was rarely used in medicine, but it was regularly recommended for its analgesic effects (its psychotropic effects not being considered problematic).
It is, moreover, quite common to find in second-hand shops or at antique dealers old pharmacy jars labelled "Hemp", "Cannabis", "Opium", "Morphine", and even "Cocaine"!
"This substance acts quickly and reliably. If it causes some dizziness, one simply needs to moderate or reduce its use," explained a doctor in 1887.
You might say that’s a lot of doctors taking unsavoury substances... But at the time, when it came to psychotropic substances, self-experimentation was widely encouraged. Indeed, Dr Moreau of Tours concluded that the experience of psychotropic substances is indescribable. This means that the experience cannot be put into words; to understand it, one must therefore experience it for oneself!
In 1847, an article also features the mockery of a doctor who criticises his colleague, who had published an article on hashish, for not having tried it himself:
The article in question deals with ‘Accidents caused by hashish’ among two law students: "We have read this note with the utmost attention, and it has led us to the conviction that our learned colleague, who, as is clear, has no personal knowledge of the effects of the preparation in question [...] has quite simply been taken in by one of the many forms of hashish hallucination, which he has taken seriously."
In the article, the effects of cannabis are described as “without negative consequences”; it is stated that the effects wear off quickly, and the author emphasises that the effects may vary depending on the circumstances surrounding the subject. He concludes as follows:
“We cannot recommend strongly enough to those who wish to try it that they do so whilst in a cheerful frame of mind, and that they surround themselves with prudent people who, by their very nature, take care not to inspire the slightest sadness in those around them.”
It is clear that doctors of the time were therefore already aware of the anxiety-inducing psychotropic effect of the THC present in hashish.
I would like to remind you once again that Sixty8 does not advise you to “try it out” with products containing more than 0.2% THC, as required by law in France. Furthermore, if you are experiencing anxiety or addiction issues due to your THC consumption, we would like to remind you that recent studies show that CBD has relaxing properties to combat anxiety and properties that help combat addiction. But let’s return to our stories of experimentation in the 1880s...
At the time, a group of doctors, artists and intellectuals came together under the name "Club des Haschischins" to experiment with opium, cannabis and other psychotropic substances that were in vogue at the time... Among the members of this club were figures still very well known today, such as Charles Baudelaire and Théophile Gautier.
Jules Giraud’s conclusions
Let us return to Jules Giraud and his 1881 publication “The Art of Varying the Effects of Hashish”. In this article, Mr Giraud describes the techniques he experimented with to achieve a hypnotic effect (described as medicinal) or an “exciting effect to enjoy the voluptuous stupor induced by the substance”.
To enjoy the second effect, Giraud advises fighting off sleep with music and good doses of coffee! One would thus see “magnificent panoramas [unfolding] on the screen of your brain”, but one might also find oneself “in the realm of shadows where astonishing adventures await”...
At that time, cannabis was not smoked, but rather prepared with honey and pistachios to be eaten. This was known as Dawamesck, and this method of consumption produced much more potent effects, verging on psychedelic ones.
Giraud explains that one must “focus [one’s] attention on favourite subjects” to see “an explosion of positive ideas and images” appear!
However, the pharmacist also notes effects that hinder his concentration. Whilst he was trying to find a title for one of his publications, he consumed cannabis to boost his creativity and “after having the satisfaction of coming up with about twenty [...] I couldn’t stop thinking about this problem, even though I knew it had been resolved.” After struggling for a long time to try and regain his train of thought, he only managed to calm his mind whilst asleep.
The pharmacist also offers advice on “dispelling a high that might take on an unpleasant character”, though he does point out that these are techniques that work for him and may not necessarily work for everyone.
And the least one can say is that the recommendations of doctors and scientists of the time did not seem as modest and reserved as the advice of our contemporary doctors: To reduce the effects of hashish consumption, Mr Giraud therefore recommends ‘putting the hallucinations to sleep’ with brandy! As an alternative, he suggests increasing coffee intake to strengthen “the sense of our personality [which] enables us to resist the tide of delusional ideas”
The combination of the effects of cannabis and coffee is, moreover, praised by Mr Giraud in his article as an “intellectual stimulant”. He recounts an anecdote about one of his friends who allegedly “attempted a lecture under this dual influence” and reportedly performed very well.
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Cannabis in France: The Final Chapter
Even at the start of the 20th century, it was not uncommon to find advertisements in the press for tobacco or cannabis-based products, often published by pharmaceutical companies.
The products were sold for their therapeutic effects, but also to “smoke happiness, wit and laughter”! A surprising stance for the country that is now the most repressive in Europe when it comes to cannabis.
It was in 1916, at a time when cannabis posed no health risks, that France added it to the list of psychotropic substances prohibited from sale without a prescription. Thus, on 12 July 1916, a law was introduced to restrict access to and trade in cannabis in France; this law is still in force in France more than 100 years later, demonstrating the government’s reluctance to change the situation regarding cannabis in France...
If you enjoyed this article, please feel free to visit and follow Zoë Dubus’s Twitter account, which was the main source of information for this article!
We have other articles on the effects of cannabis and CBD on our blog:
