mind-manifesting, but other names are often used.
Psychotomimetic means madness-mimicking, but
this is inappropriate because although existing psy-
chosis can be aggravated by some of these drugs,
few features of psychosis are mimicked by them.
They are also called hallucinogenic, although ‘true’
hallucinations – in which the person thinks their hal-
lucinations are real – are rare (Julien, 2001; Shulgin
and Shulgin, 1991; and Chapter 14). Other terms
include psycholytic, meaning loosening the mind,
and entheogen, meaning releasing the god within.
Cannabis is sometimes referred to as a minor psy-
chedelic or hallucinogen, with the rest being major
psychedelics.
Cannabis. The familiar and beautiful plant Cannabis
sativa has been used medically for nearly 5,000 years,
and as a source of tough fibre for clothes and ropes
for even longer (Earleywine, 2002). Cannabis con-
tains hundreds of chemical components, including a
range of at least eighty-five cannabinoids, the most
important of which are cannabinol (CBN), canna-
bidiol (CBD), and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the
main psychoactive constituent. In the nineteenth
century, cannabis (also known as marijuana) was
widely used as a medicine. Medical use and knowl-
edge were then restricted by over half a century of
prohibition (Booth, 2003), but there are some signs
of this starting to relax, with the medicinal benefits
of cannabis use becoming more widely accepted. Nineteenth-century scientific
explorers of cannabis and the artist members of the Club des Hashischins, such
as Balzac and Baudelaire, ate hashish. This is a dark brown or reddish solid derived
from the resin scraped from the female flowers, leaves, and stems, and sometimes
including powdered flowers and leaves. Cannabis can also be made into a tincture
with alcohol or a drink mixed with milk, sugar, and spices, or cooked with butter or
other fats in chocolate, cakes, or savoury dishes. As a recreational drug in the twen-
ty-first century, it is most often smoked in the form of hash mixed with tobacco or
burnt alone in special pipes, as oil smoked in electronic cigarettes, or as grass, the
dried leaves and buds smoked on their own or with tobacco or dried herbs.
As with any drug, smoking makes for rapid absorption into the bloodstream by
avoiding enzymes in the digestive system that can break down some constituents,
and also allows for easy control over the dose. When eaten, the effect is slower
and longer-lasting, and control is more difficult. The main active ingredients are
all fat-soluble, and some can remain dissolved in body fat for many days or even
weeks after smoking. With its complex and varying mixture of psychoactives,
cannabis nicely illustrates the difference between natural psychoactive mixtures,
which also include ayahuasca and drugs derived from mushrooms and cacti, and
the simpler or starker effects of synthetic psychedelics. When one or more of the
active ingredients is isolated, the rich and varied psychological effects are usually
lost (Weil, 1998).
FIGURE 13.7 • Cannabis sativa is a beautiful
fast-growing annual that thrives
in a wide variety of climates,
shown here ready for harvest in a
greenhouse in Britain. The leaves
and flowering heads are smoked
as grass, and hash can be made
from the resin.