Cannabis Britannica: Empire, Trade, and Prohibition 1800-1928Cannabis Britannica explores the historical origins of the UK's legislation and regulations on cannabis preparations before 1928. It draws on published and unpublished sources from the seventeenth century onwards, from archives in the UK and India, to show how the history of cannabis and the British before the twentieth century was bound up with imperialism. James Mills argues that until the 1900s, most of the information and experience gathered by British sources were drawn from colonial contexts as imperial administrators governed and observed populations where use of cannabis was extensive and established. This is most obvious in the 1890s when British anti-opium campaigners in the House of Commons seized on the issue of Government of India excise duties on the cannabis trade in Asia in order to open up another front in their attacks on imperial administration. The result was that cannabis preparations became a matter of concern in Parliament which accordingly established the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission. The story in the twentieth century is of the momentum behind moves to include cannabis substances in domestic law and in international treaties. The latter was a matter of the diplomatic politics of imperialism, as Britain sought to defend its cannabis revenues in India against American and Egyptian interests. The domestic story focuses on the coming together of the police, the media, and the pharmaceutical industry to form misunderstandings of cannabis that forced it onto the Poisons Schedule despite the misgivings of the Home Office and of key medical professionals. The book is the first full history of the origins of the moments when cannabis first became subjected to laws and regulations in Britain. |
Contents
| 1 | |
Dr OShaughnessy appears to have made some experiments with charas Imperial Merchants Victorian Science and Hemp to 1842 | 17 |
From the old records of the Ganja Supervisors Office Smuggling Trade and Taxation in NineteenthCentury British India | 47 |
The Sikh who killed the Reverend was a known bhang drinker Medicine Murder and Madness in Midcentury | 69 |
The lunatic asylums of India are filled with ganja smokers Ganja in Parliament 18911894 | 93 |
A bowlegged boy running with a chest of tea between his legs Reports Experiments and Hallucinations 18941912 | 124 |
An allusion was made to hemp in the notes appended to the Hague Opium Convention The League of Nations and British Legislation 19121928 | 152 |
An outcome of cases that have come before the police courts of the use of hashish DORA the First World War and the Domestic Drug Scares of the 1... | 188 |
Conclusion Cannabis and British Government 18001928 | 208 |
Bibliography | 220 |
| 231 | |
Other editions - View all
Cannabis Britannica: Empire, Trade, and Prohibition 1800-1928 James H. Mills No preview available - 2005 |
Cannabis Britannica: Empire, Trade, and Prohibition, 1800-1928 James H. Mills No preview available - 2003 |
Common terms and phrases
Abkari administration agenda American anti-opium Asia Assam Bangue Bengal bhang Bombay Britain British doctors British Medical Journal Caine Calcutta campaigners cannabinol cannabis drugs Cannabis Indica cannabis medicines cannabis preparations cannabis products cannabis sativa cannabis substances cannabis users charas Chunder Kerr cocaine colonial Committee conclusions consumed consumption crop cultivation Dangerous Drugs Act delegates Delevingne Dictionary doses effects Egypt Egyptian Evidence of Surgeon Excise experiments export fact ganja Ganja Mahal Garza Government of India Guindy hasheesh hashish Hemp Drugs Commission hemp plant Home Office Ibid IHDC important included India Office Indian Hemp Drugs intoxicants intoxicating issue of cannabis laws League of Nations London lunatic asylums Marijuana mental illness nineteenth century noted O'Shaughnessy observed Opium Convention patients Poisons police Preparation of Hemp Press produced prohibition regulations resin revenue scientists Second Opium Conference seems simply smoking smuggling Society statistics supply temperance tobacco trade Wissett
References to this book
Consuming Habits: Global and Historical Perspectives on how Cultures Define ... Jordan Goodman No preview available - 2007 |