“Ganjah Smoking a New Menace”

Here is a short report on the menace of Ganjah I found reading through the Labor Clarion, a periodical published by the San Francisco Labor Council and California State Federation of Labor.

I had only ever heard the word “ganjah” in the context of Jamaican music so I did not know that it is actually a Hindu word. According to the venerable Oxford English Dictionary, ganjah (Etymology:  < Hindi gānjhā) is a “preparation of Indian hemp (Cannabis sativa, variety indica), strongly intoxicating and narcotic” [1].

While it may be worth some further investigation, the article’s claim that the immigration of Hindus brought with it frequent assaults, is surely a classic case of an anti-immigrant scare tactic [2]. Unions were notoriously anti-immigrant, especially in San Francisco where they built their strength and instigated violent riots against the Chinese [3].

The other aspect of this article that captured my attention was the reported mental and physical effects of smoking ganjah, which diverged sharply from my perception of the drug’s effects:

“Inhalation causes a pleasant stupor at first, which rapidly gives way to a pronounced desire for action.” An unnamed source, framed as a local or insider–a common tactic in the literature I examine from this period, used to give the reader a sense of authenticity but I believe wholly fabricated–states, “Wherever ganjah is smoked, murder is a comparatively common crime.”

[1] "ganja, n.". OED Online. September 2015. Oxford University Press. http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/76628?redirectedFrom=ganjah (accessed November 06, 2015).

[2] In fact, I will find out what percent of the population and immigration came from India around 1910. I suspect it was relatively small. I will also see if there are any newspaper accounts of assaults by Hindus between 1900-1910. Again, it is more likely that Hindus were the victims of assault.

[3] See for example...this footnote was originally intended to cite an example and source of an anti-Chinese riot instigated by workers in San Francisco in the late nineteenth century. I was going to pull the citation from my lecture on the topic and it occurred to me that I could begin to post my lectures over on my HIS 189 page. That would give me a chance to do some more writing and do. When I get that that lecture, I'll circle back to this footnote and provide a link [here]. [my lecture on Chinese…huh, I wonder if I should publish my lectures? That could be an interesting exercise.]