MARIHUANA, AN INTOXICANT
HERBERT S. GASKILL M. C.
1. Marihuana does not produce addiction in the sense that opium and its derivatives do. Tolerance is not established and withdrawal symptoms do not occur. It is an intoxicant which temporarily produces euphona, distortion of time perception and impairment of intellectual and moral judgment.
2. Its habitual users are largely emotionally immature individuals who are constantly frustrated in their attempts to find adequate instinctual expression. The fundamental problem is the abnormal personality.
3. Marihuana smoking creates an important problem since it often acts as the determining factor, turning the balance in the direction of asocial behavior rather than permitting the poorly integrated social conscience of such an individual to remain in control.
