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according to the man's habit. If he is in the
habit of smoking ganja twice a day, the effect
will last till his time comes round for another
smoke. When it ceases to last so long, he will
take to smoking three or four times a day to re
- n e w t h e e f f e c t . I t i s n o t u s u a l t o s m o k e g a n j a
more than four times a day; the effect of more
frequent indulgence is injurious. The moderate
habitual consumer will become disinclined and
unfit for work if he misses his smoke of ganja, and
he will have a longing for another smoke.
As for bhang, I have noticed that in the hot
weather many people drink a decoction of bhang
as a cooling and refreshing beverage. It does not
incapacitate the moderate consumer in any way;
it creates appetite instead of allaying it. Such
drinkers do not indulge more than once a day,
generally about 4 P.M. It induces a motion,
moves the bowels moderately, and after this the
occasional consumer returns with appetite for his
food, and goes refreshed to business. The intox
- i c a t i n g e f f e c t p a s s e s o f f a f t e r h a l f a n h o u r .
I have no experience of habitual consumers of
bhang, or of persons who indulge to excess.
45. The habitual moderate use of ganja does not
impair the constitution. On the contrary, it sus
- t a i n s t h e b o d y u n d e r h a r d w o r k a n d f a t i g u e .
The poor merely smoke ganja to sustain them at
their work, and fortify them against the exposure,
which would otherwise injure them. So long as
they continue to get their accustomed smoke of
ganja, it does not injure their digestion or lessen
their appetite for food. It does not cause either
dysentery, bronchitis or asthma; it is only exces
-sive indulgence in ganja that causes asthma; mode
-ate indulgence has no such effect on the working
man. For the labouring man the habitual moderate
consumption of ganja neither induces laziness,
immorality or debauchery. It only has such effect
on the man of sedentary or idle habits. For the
man who works hard out of doors, ganja, in mode
-ration, is good; for the man who lives an in-door
life, it is bad. I believe it is only persons of s
e-dentary in-door habits, and indulgers in ganja to
excess who become insane from the effects of
ganja. I have no personal knowledge of such cases.
46. The excessive consumer goes off his head,
and speaks nonsense, and becomes violent and ag
-gressive, and his constitution becomes enfeebled,
and he coughs day and night.
47. Habitual moderate use of ganja is general
in this district among the labouring classes, but
it does not affect their children in any way. They
are just as healthy and strong as children should
be. I never heard of their inheriting a craving
for ganja ; but they do take to ganja, generally in
moderation, as they see their fathers and seniors
do.
48. Excessive indulgence in ganja enfeebles the
man and his seed. I cannot call to mind any child-
ren whose feebleness of constitution I can attribute
to their fathers having been excessive consumers
of ganja. Neither in any assembly of children
could a person pick out any as the children of in-
dulgers in ganja to excess.
49. Ganja does not excite to sexual indulgence.
On the contrary, it stops sexual desire, and it is, for
this very reason, that Bairagis, Gossains and fakirs
are great ganja smokers. The moderate indulgence
in ganja has no such effect on the out-door
workers. On the contrary, it is notorious that our
Gonds and hard working labourers have large
families.
50. Excessive indulgence in ganja does make a
man impotent, and that is why fakirs and others,
who have given up thoughts of this world, take to
ga nja, so as to liberate their desires and enable
them to concentrate their thought on duty and
the next world.
51. The habitual moderate consumption of ganja
does not operate in any degree to develop or e
n - c o u r a g e a d i s p o s i t i o n t o c r i m e . T h e m a s s o f t h e
labouring classes in this district are moderate and
habitual ganja smokers, and the effect on men is
the very reverse; it enables and disposes them to
work hard, and that is what they smoke ganja for.
Of course, habitual criminals, like others, indulge
in ganja, but their criminal habits are not due to
ganja.
52. Excessive indulgence in ganja would dis-
qualify the habitual criminal just as it does any
one else. Excessive indulgence in ganja has no
connection with crime.
53. I never heard of any man killing people
under influence of homicidal frenzy, the result of
ganja. The murders in these parts are on account
of women or for gain, and I have heard of mur
-ders under influence of alcohol, but not from
effects of ganja. Our ganja smokers are not
particularly addicted to violent crime; on the con
-trary, the patient industry of the Gond is proverb
-ial. I have heard of bhang being used to incite
to crime, and of bhang drinkers breaking out in
homicidal frenzy, but there is no bhang drinking
to speak of in this district.
54. I have never heard of persons smoking
ganja to fortify their courage before commencing
a premeditated crime. Ganja would incapacitate
the would-be criminal, who is not an habitual.
Criminals, like other people, smoke ganja, if from
custom they feel the need of it.
55. It is a practice of criminals to induce intend
-ed victims to join in a smoke. They pretend the
pipe is of tobacco only, but it contains ganja.
The effect of even one whiff of ganja upon a
person unaccustomed to it, is to cause instant
stupefaction, when he can be robbed with impu
-nity. Dhatura seed is mixed with the drug to
disable the victim more completely, and prevent
his recovering for two or three days. Even, with--
out dhatura, a person misled into inhaling ganja
would remain insensible for a whole day.
56. There are four or five persons in Sewan
who mix ganja with opium and chew it. They
are hardened consumers, but poor, so adopt this
mixture to effect intoxication at small expense.
They are enfeebled people, with ruined constitu
- t i o n s .
58. I have no improvement on present excise
system to suggest as regards ganja.
It is just as well that bhang is not readily pro
- c u r a b l e .
63. It seems to me a defect that the wholesale
vendor has to supply retail vendors at Rs. 3 a seer,
whereas the retail vendors are allowed to charge
what they like, and do, as a matter of fact, realize
at Rs.10 a seer. If the retail price were greatly
reduced, there would be objection that consump
- t i o n i s e n c o u r a g e d . B u t , i f t h e c o n s u m e r s h a v e
to pay Rs.10 per seer, it does not seem to me
good administration that Government should get
no more than the Rs. 2-8 a seer or thereabouts,
which the wholesale vendor pays to Government.
When the money is going, Government should
arrange to get the lion's share. If ganja were
issued from the Government stores in ¼-seer bags,
corresponding with the opium cakes, and issued