2
country spirit have to take it at the shop like a
dram unless they can afford to carry away a full
bottle, which will cost them two annas and often
more, the ganja smoker can buy his pice worth at
any time, carry it about with him, and smoke
it when and where he likes. It would not be
strange then if many should take to ganja smok
- i n g , w h o w o u l d , u n d e r o t h e r c i r c u m s t a n c e s , d r i n k
country spirit. Whether this is the case as a
matter of fact is disputed.
Some officers and a late Commissioner of Excise
have asserted that ganja smokers and spirit drink
- e r s a r e s e p a r a t e c l a s s e s , a n d t h a t t h e r e i s l i t t l e
cause to fear that a man of the former class will
abandon spirit and take to ganja, but in 1877
there was an inquiry made into this matter, and
Mr. Nicholls, the then Commissioner of Excise,
summed up the reports received, saying it was
generally thought, and it was an opinion which
be himself shared, that ganja was being more
widely consumed owing to the high price of opium
and country spirits ; and after continuing his en
- q u i r i e s f o r a n o t h e r y e a r h e s a i d h e h a d o b t a i n e d
incontestable evidence that the past extreme
cheapness of ganja had resulted in a very great
increase of consumption, and a year later again he
reported that, except in Betul, in the upland
districts, the Gonds and poorer classes had sub
- s t i t u t e d c h e a p g a n j a f o r d e a r c o u n t r y s p i r i t . I t
is true that since then the retail price of ganja
has greatly risen ; but even allowing for this, the
disproportion of the cost is still very great.
Lastly, I should not be at all surprised if the
efforts Government has made to raise a revenue
by taxing the drug to control the cultivation of
the ganja-bearing plant and to limit the consump
- t i o n o f g a n j a h a d i n a n o t h e r w a y l e d t o s o m e
increased consumption by making the drug better
known and by making some people think that
the drug is a luxury, and that a luxury that must
be paid for or that is forbidden must be worth
having, very much as school-boys will indulge
in tobacco-smoking, not because they like it, but
because it is forbidden. And to this it may be
added that the quality of the ganja supplied has,
owing to the interference of Government, been
greatly improved, which may very well have led
persons to use it who would not have done so
before.
The above are the reasons which led me to
think that the consumption of ganja is on the
increase.
35. I do not think it would be feasible to pro
- h i b i t t h e u s e o f g a n j a . I t m i g h t b e p o s s i b l e t o
prevent consumption by prohibiting the cultivation
of the ganja-bearing plant all over India, but that
could not be done, that is to say the prevention of
the use of ganja, without causing serious discontent,
which, I am persuaded, would amount to a political
danger. Ganja is much used by religious mendi
- c a n t s a n d o t h e r s o f t h a t c l a s s , a n d i t w o u l d b e
quite in their power to get up among a discontented
people an agitation against the Government. While,
however, the discontent would necessarily follow
the prohibition of the use of ganja, it is almost
certain that those who were deprived of this
stimulant would promptly turn to another, and if
n o t t o a l c o h o l , t u r n t o o t h e r d u r g s – d h a t u r a a n d s o f o r t h . " Y o u m a y o i l a d o g ' s t a i l a s m u c h a s
you please, it will still remain curly," says the
Sanskrit proverb. You may prohibit the use of
this or that stimulant, but while human nature
craves for a stimulant, it will find one somewhere,
and the danger is lest Government, by proscrib
- i n g t h e u s e o f g a n j a , s h o u l d d r i v e p e o p l e t o s o m e
more deleterious stimulant. It is difficult to say
which of the two objections to prohibition of the
use of this drug is the stronger, but I may be
pardoned for saying that the present time, when
the rupee question (the closing of the mints) may
yet be found to produce political difficulties
which it will not be easy for Government to over
-come; when it may be impossible to avoid further
taxation ; when the Commission on the morality
of the opium traffic is unsettling men's minds ;
when religious animosities have been revived;
when the action of Government in relation to
these animosities has been misconstrued, and the
Government is even by men who are undoubtedly
loyal at heart blamed for bringing them to life,
is not opportune for any direct and drastic inter
-ference with the habits of the people.
4 1 . I d o n o t k n o w t h a t t h e u s e o f g a n j a i s
beneficial as a food accessory or digestive, but it
is generally admitted, and I think there can be
no question of the fact, that it gives staying
-power under severe exertion or exposure, and that
it alleviates fatigue. Many of the labouring class
-es and persons like palki-bearers who have to
undergo great exertion use ganja because it sti
-mulates them, gives them a fillip for any hard
work, and secures them a thorough rest after a
hard day's work, and such persons may be said to
use the drug habitually in a moderate manner.
45. I am not aware that the habitual moderate
use of ganja produces any noxious effect, either
physical, mental, or moral.
I have no doubt that many idle, immoral, and
debauched persons are ganja smokers, but I do not
know that it was the use of ganja that made
them idle, immoral, or debauched ; and compared
with the great number of moderate ganja smok
-ers, the number of these disreputable persons
is extremely small, so that to lay the blame of
their disreputable character on ganja would seem
unreasonable. I have seen in lunatic asylums a
good many individuals who were said by the offi
-cers in charge of the asylums to be the victims of
ganja, and some of these persons were cured after
a time and discharged. But if ganja was the
cause of their temporary insanity, it is strange that
the same person was not again and again receiv
-ed in the asylum, for on discharge he would in
all probability return to his old habits ; it is
hardly credible that his wish for ganja would
have been destroyed or that his self-control
would have become so strengthened. Other
lunatics were also returned as victims of ganja,
but in most cases in our asylums the cause of
insanity is not really traced, and very little of
the previous history of the lunatic can be ascer
-tained. Even were it found, however, that the
use of ganja was the immediate cause of a man
becoming insane, the fact would not suffice to
condemn the moderate use of the drug, and I do
not know that any attempt has ever been made to
compare the number of lunatics whose insanity is
traceable to ganja with the number of ganja
smokers. Religious mania is far from an uncom
-mon form of insanity, and yet no one would con
demn religion on that account.
51. I am not able to say whether any large
proportion of bad characters are habitual moderate
consumers of ganja or whether they are exces
-sive consumers. Bad characters are more gen
e-rally associated with the madak shop than with
mere ganja smoking, which is done anywhere;
but apart from this, I would say that it would be
difficult, if not impossible, to establish any connec
-tion between ganja smoking and crime. My