No abstract

The abuse of cannabis and its consequences to mental health have been a subject of much debate in recent years. While the literature is replete with reports of mental disturbances following acute intoxications (1, 4, 7, 15), the mental health implications of long-term abuse of cannabis remain speculative (9, 13). Since the drug possesses psychotomimetic and hallucinogenic (8) properties, prolonged experimentation with cannabis on human subjects is undesirable. The clinical manifestations of disturbed mental functioning due to chronic abuse of cannabis can therefore be best observed in societies where the drug is taken as a pastime, generally to enjoy pleasant euphoria. Such a situation is found in India where the use of cannabis has become woven into the general philosophy of life over the years. The drug is particularly used at religious ceremonies, and sweets and non-alcoholic beverages containing varying quantities of cannabis are traditionally offered and consumed during the colour-throwing festival of Holi.

Sleep is essential for physical and mental health. In the last 15 years there has grown up the concept of the brain stem reticular activating system. Electroencephalographic studies have shown two qualitatively different and alternating kinds of sleep, the orthodox (“slow wave”, or “forebrain“) and the paradoxical (”hind-brain“, “rapid eye movement”, “activated“, or “dreaming”) phases (Akert et al., 1965). It may be predicted that in the next decade attention will turn increasingly to the chemical basis of sleep. If a man is deprived of sleep for 100 hours, it is extremely difficult to keep him awake and one may suppose that an abnormal biochemical state exists within his central nervous system.

In 1965, the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine of King George's Medical College, Lucknow, established an Urban Health Centre in the Alambagh suburb of Lucknow city and registered 500 families representing a cross-section of the resident population with the purpose of training undergraduate and postgraduate medical students in the practice of community health (Gupta, 1966).