In 1893, the British became concerned with what they felt to be excessive marijuana smoking in the eastern province of Bengal, India. So the House of Commons appointed a 7 member Commission to study the problem.
From Wikipedia:
The report the Commission produced was at least 3,281 pages long, with testimony from almost 1,200 “doctors, coolies, yogis, fakirs, heads of lunatic asylums, bhang peasants, tax gatherers, smugglers, army officers, hemp dealers, ganja palace operators and the clergy.
Their conclusion, in my words: There are no harmful physical, mental, or moral effects to smoking marijuana, with exceptions for excessive use, and for people who were already at risk due to previous physical or mental illness.
Some choice quotes:
It has been clearly established that the occasional use of hemp in moderate doses may be beneficial; but this use may be regarded as medicinal in character.
In regard to the physical effects, the Commission have come to the conclusion that the moderate use of hemp drugs is practically attended by no evil results at all. […] There is probably nothing the use of which may not possibly be injurious in cases of exceptional intolerance. […] As in the case of other intoxicants, excessive use tends to weaken the constitution and to render the consumer more susceptible to disease.
…the moderate use of these drugs produces no mental injury. It is otherwise with the excessive use. Excessive use indicates and intensifies mental instability
In regard to the moral effects of the drugs, the Commission are of opinion that their moderate use produces no moral injury whatever. […] Excessive consumption, on the other hand, both indicates and intensifies moral weakness or depravity
It has been the most striking feature in this inquiry to find how little the effects of hemp drugs have obtruded themselves on observation. The large number of witnesses of all classes who professed never to have seen these effects, the vague statements made by many who professed to have observed them, the very few witnesses who could so recall a case as to give any definite account of it, and the manner in which a large proportion of these cases broke down on the first attempt to examine them, are facts which combine to show most clearly how little injury society has hitherto sustained from hemp drugs
I came across this report as a result of my research into religion and drug use. The use of marijuana (known locally as “bhang”) within Indian culture and Hindu practice was at that time both common and longstanding. I can’t speak to the circumstances today. Relevant excerpts:
To the Hindu the hemp plant is holy. A guardian lives in the bhang leaf. As the wife of Vishnu, the preserver, lives in the hysteria-curing tulsi, or Holy Basil, and as Shiva dwells in the dysentery-scaring bel, AEglemarmelos, so the properties of the bhang plant, its power to suppress the appetites, its virtue as a febrifuge, and its thought-bracing qualities show that the bhang leaf is the home of the great Yogi or brooding ascetic Mahadev.
According to an old Hindu poem, on which I cannot now lay my hands, Civa himself brought down the bhang plant from the Himalayas and gave it to mankind. Jogis are well-known consumers of bhang and ganja, and they are worshippers of Civa.
In folk-songs, ganja or bhang (with or without opium) is the invariable drink of heroes before performing any great feat. At the village of Bauri in Gaya there is a huge hollow stone, which is said to be the bowl in which the famous hero Lorik mixed his ganja. Lorik was a very valiant general, and is the hero of numerous folk-songs.
Fascinating, no?
The Commission’s full report and some modern analysis can be found here.