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33. The consumption of any product of the
hemp plant is regarded as disreputable. The
reason appears to be the fact that it produces
intoxication, which is looked on as disgraceful by
all respectable persons. There is no custom of
worshipping the plant here.
34. Bairagis and fakirs and a few excessive
consumers would find it a serious privation, but
I think moderate consumers would soon get over
its loss.
35. No. It would be impossible without most
inquisitorial penal legislation, and would cause
serious discontent amongst the consumers and
arouse the sympathy of others in their favour, even
of those who regard the practice as disreputable.
The discontent would not amount to a political
danger here, because the number of consumers is
small ; but the prohibition would arouse the sus-
picions of other classes, and raise an outcry
against needless interference in private affairs by
the State. It is difficult to answer the latter part
of the question, but I think that consumers would
on deprivation take to alcohol or opium.
36. No. I should say that the change, if it
exists, is in the other direction.
39. Smoking is generally regarded as more
injurious than other forms of consumption.
40. Yes. They are used in native medical
treatment and for cattle-disease, but only to a
li mited extent.
41. (a) There is a general agreement of opinion
as to its improving the appetite.
(b) This is admitted by nearly every one con-
sulted. The effect is only temporary however.
(c) It is used for the purpose, but it is doubt-
ful whether it really does any good.
The number of consumers is too small to allow
of this question being answered.
42. So far as I can learn, the moderate use of
these drugs produces no harm in a healthy person
for a long time. There seems to be some
reason for supposing that after a long series of
years it produces premature old age, but this is a
point on which it would be impossible to express
a decided opinion.
43. Perfectly so.
44. It is refreshing and slightly intoxicating
at first, and stimulates the appetite. It seems
doubtful whether it allays hunger. The effects
are stated by various persons to last from two to
twelve hours. Then depression follows. The
information I have obtained about the latter part
of this question is very contradictory.
45. (b) The general opinion is that in course
of time it produces debility.
( c ) A p p a r e n t l y n o t .
(d) No.
(e) It produces laziness, but not necessarily
immorality or debauchery. It must, however, be
remembered that the custom is regarded as
reprehensible by the respectable and virtuous.
(f) I am unable to offer any opinion on the
remainder of this question.
47. No, but the use of the drug is not common
enough here to allow of a decided opinion being
formed.
48. No.
49. Its use is said to produce impotence in the
long run in many cases, but not invariably.
51. I have hitherto been under the impression
that there was a very strong connection. I cannot
remember details, but, according to my experience,
it has been a common thing for Subordinate
Magistrates and Police Inspectors in talking of
important crimes recently committed in their
charges to explain crimes of peculiar violence or
atrocity by the remark that the offender was a
notorious consumer of ganja or bhang. On
instituting the special enquiries, the result of
which I now report, experienced officers in several
instances made assertions that such offences often
resulted from the use of the drug, but to my
surprise on being questioned they were not able
to quote a single case which had come to their
personal knowledge in which such had been the
case. I then called on all Magistrates in this
district, 28 in number, to report whether they
could remember any cases which they had dealt
with in which the use of these articles was in any
way concerned. Two quoted one case each in
which an offender was found insane, and the insani-
ty was supposed to he due to the excessive use of
ganja (which, of course, was mere surmise), but
not a single case in which the hemp plant was,
directly or indirectly connected with crime could
be remembered by any of them. I asked for similar
information from some of the most experienced
Police Inspectors with exactly the same result in
the end, though amongst them I found a consider-
able tendency to throw blame on ganja at first
until closely questioned—a not surprising thing
considering that the criminal classes are very
frequently habitual consumers in the same way
as they are habitual partakers of all other kinds
of dissipation. Considering that the practice is
reprehended by every one of them, this result if
very remarkable.
I have been Sessions Judge of the Vizagapatam
Hill Tracts, an area of about 12,600 square
miles, with a population of 859,781, mostly
members of genuine hill races, for the last 4 1/2 years.
During this period I have tried 24 cases of murder,
48 cases of culpable homicide, and 18 other cases
of violence. In about 50 per cent. of these
cases drink was the origin of the offence. In not
a single one was there the smallest suggestion
that ganja or bhang had anything to do with it.
I have examined all the prisoners in the
district jail, 176 in number, of whom 17
acknowledge that they are consumers, and have read
the judgments in the cases against them, and
looked into the previous careers of the old offend-
ers. There is not the faintest reason for suppos-
ing that a single one of them has been brought
into trouble by the hemp plant. I have had
details of the prisoners in the Parvatipur Hill Jail
prepared, and have looked into their history also.
The judgments were not forthcoming in my
office in a few cases, and I did not think it neces-
sary to call for copies, as the decisions in all the
remainder confirmed the result I had obtained in
the district jail.
I have done my utmost to find a single case in
which ganja or bhang has contributed to the
commission of an offence, and, in spite of the
size of this district and its population of 2,802,292
persons, have utterly failed, and no one is more
astonished at this result than myself. One
thing surprises me still more, and that is the rash
way in which men to whom the Commission's
questions have been sent have replied verbally on
this point. The fact of the matter is that the use
of ganja is regarded as disreputable and disgraceful
here, and not generally practised openly by the
respectable classes. Consumers in good position are