Dagga: A review of fact and fancy.

'Dagga' is our word for marihuana, hashish, bhang, or Cannabis sativa L. But dagga is also the name applied to 14 species of the plant leonotis, indigenous and common in South Africa. The word has come into our English language via Afrikaans which derived it from pure Hottentot 'daga'. It is only assumed that the idea in the Hottentot mind which attached the word to the plant cannabis had to do with its remarkable qualities. The fact that the name dagga refers to both cannabis and leonotis, 2 plants growing wild and readily in South Africa, has in the past given rise to much confusion among those who have interested themselves in the 'dagga problem'. This confusion appears to be' based on, or originate primarily from, the superficial similarity of appearance of the two species of plant, and different people hold different opinions about which species is the 'true' dagga. The confusion is confounded still more by the properties which some writers have attributed to leonotis, comparable with those of cannabis, but which have been denied by others. An editorial in the Journaf during the editorship of Leipoldt, always an interesting controversialist, held that leonotis was the 'original dagga' but conceded that usage appeared to have firmly attached the name to cannabis, and for this reason we have been obliged to accept the word dagga in this relationship. Watt and Breyer-Brandwijk,l the eminent botanists, regard cannabis as the 'true' dagga. These 2 authors, as a result of their investigation into the properties of the 2 plants, concluded that the smoking of leonotis 'produced no symptoms apart from unpleasantness'.'" But contrarily, Die Ajrikaanse W oordeboek states unequivocally on its own authority 'die rook van die blare en jong stingels dieselfde bedwelmende uitwerking het as by bogenoemde soorte (Cannabis)' but which can be differentiated from the latter by such names as kaffer-, klip-, knop-, koppies-, malkop-, perde-, rooi(pootjie)-, strandand velddagga. Here we have 2 apparently 'authoritative' but contradictory statements about the potential intoxicant properties of leonotis, and Watt and Breyer-Brandwijk have studied one variety of this series as far as the botanic minutiae are concerned but not with regard to the chemical properties. The practical evidence, however, indicates that leonotis is not the species of plant which is smoked in South Africa for enjoyment, because all of 93 specimens produced in court in police prosecutions were without exception cannabis indirect but acceptable evidence that it is dagga cannabis and not dagga leonotis which is smoked for the hedonistic pleasure it provides the smoker. The fact that cannabis is prohibited by law in this country while leonotis may be freely grown, and that all convictions have been for the possession of cannabis, speaks volumes against leonotis having any of the virtues or vices of cannabis. If we go back to the Hottentots' practice of using dagga we can take it that the first description written in Southern Africa on the effects of cannabis was that by Governor