9
but the most moderate amount. Some prefer
ganja and some charas. Both drugs are occasion-
ally, but rarely, mixed.
21. The flat ganja only is used here.
22. Foreign, imported from the Punjab. The
local variety made in Gwalior does not appear to
be exported.
23. Not to my knowledge.
24. Bhang-eating is said to be confined to
fakirs. Bhang-drinking is confined to no caste.
Every Bundela Thakur uses his bhang with the
same regularity as an Englishman his alcohol.
The habit appears to be less pronounced among
other castes, but is still widely spread, though, as
I said before, the immoderate use of the drug is
the exception.
25. My impression is that it tends to increase,
as the price of alcoholic stimulants is forced up
by excise measures.
26. I can give no definite statistics, but in this
district, where the habitual moderate use of hemp
drugs may be regarded as universal, I have met
singularly few examples of excessive consumption,
at any rate of such excess, as loads to distinct and
recognisable physical or mental deterioration.
27. The habitual moderate consumers comprise
representatives of all classes, the Bundela Thakurs
preponderating. Habitual excess is chiefly seen,
on the one hand, among nobles and wealthy zamin-
dars, who are in other respects evil livers, and
on the other hand, amongst the dregs of the
town population, such as the keepers and hang-
ers on of prostitutes. In both cases the exces-
sive use of hemp drugs seems to be an attempt
to counteract the effects upon the system of other
vices.
28. An habitual moderate consumer may use
about a pice weight, say 1/4 of a tola, of ganja
daily, for which he will pay one pice or its
weight in copper. An excessive consumer may
use 20 times as much. I should regard anything
over a tola per diem as distinctly excessive. I
cannot speak as to bhang or charas.
29. Tobacco may be added to ganja and cha-
ras. Pepper and other spices are used with bhang.
The admixture of dhatura is rare, and is confined
to persons who are habituated to excess, and find
it necessary to increase the potency of the drug.
There are various kinds of bhang massala. Car-
damoms, aniseed, almonds, dried rose leaves, and
other ingredients are used according to the flavour
required.
30. Ganja and charas are used socially much
after the manner of tobacco. Bhang is more
usually drunk in private. I am not aware of any
cases in which respectable women use any of
these drugs, and children certainly do not. The
habit, like that of tobacco smoking, appears to be
acquired at adolescence. Prostitutes, I am in-
formed, both smoke and drink hemp products.
31. I am informed that the habit is easily
formed, but that it is not nearly so difficult to
break off as the opium habit. From my own
observation, I am of opinion that the moderate
use of the drug does not tend to develop into the
excessive unless the habit is associated with other
forms of self-indulgence.
33. Practically there is no public opinion against
it in Bundelkhand. The Arya Samaj people, how-
ever, forbid the use of all intoxicants; but, with
this exception, there is no religions propaganda
on the subject locally.
34. Yes. From enquiries I have made through
vol. v.
one of the native Magistrates here, I think it may
be said that the loss of his pipe of ganja or charas
would be as keen a deprivation to the labouring
man here as the stoppage of his tobacco or his
beer would be to a European accustomed to them.
My native informant thinks that about 60 per
cent. of the male population of the district use
hemp in one form or another. In spite of recent
large reductions, there is still a drug shop to
every 8,250 of the population.
35. I do not believe it would be possible, unless
possibly in the case of imported charas. Ganja,
and eventually bhang, could and would be illicitly
made all over the country. The prohibition could
only be enforced by a most vexatious system of
espionage, and the temptation on the part of the
police to corruption would be irresistible. I
believe that prohibition would be resented by the
people as an unwarrantable interference with their
liberties, and that this resentment, together with
the friction which preventive action would cause,
might, and probably would, amount to a politi-
cal danger. Men will have their intoxicants in
one form or another, and recourse would certainly
be had to alcohol or some other substitute.
36. Not here. Hemp is at present the cheaper
stimulant, and among most classes the more
popular.
40. They are said to form an important item
in the kabiraj's materia medica. They do not
appear to treat cattle disease at all in Bundel-
khand.
41. They are universally regarded by their
users as valuable in the direction of points (a),
(b), and (c).
42. I have come across no instances of harm
from the moderate use of hemp. The Bundela
Thakurs, who use it habitually, are a race distin-
guished by much physical vigour and power of
endurance. The jail population, amongst whom
one would be disposed to think a larger portion
of excessive consumers would be found, affords
at present no example of the ill-effects of hemp,
though there are several opium ruins there. The
sudden cessation of the indulgence on entering
jail does not appear to have any ill-effect.
43. Perfectly so; there is nothing in their ap-
pearance or habits to distinguish them from those
who abstain.
45. I have seen repeatedly cases of insanity
which are attributed to over-indulgence in hemp
drugs, but I have no means of knowing whether
this was the true cause. But I have observed
that in the majority of cases of excessive use
which have come under my notice, the hemp habit
has been associated with other forms of debauch-
ery, and I am disposed to think that the excess
in hemp results from an attempt to stimulate the
already weakened vitality rather than that it is
itself the cause and incentive to other vices. And
when a man gets so far as to mix dhatura with
his ganja, he is bound to ruin himself mentally
as well as physically.
47. No; there is no evidence to that effect.
49. It is said that this is the case, and that this
particular use of hemp is, as would be supposed,
particularly injurious.
51. I have observed no facts tending to show
any connection between the ordinary use of hemp
drugs and crime.
53. It is said that the eating of bhang to excess
may have these results, but no case has come
under my experience.