229
make use of it. As every one who wants it can get
it easily, the revenue too will not be increased. If
the crop is cultivated under the direct management
of Government, cured and sold as in the case of
salt, revenue will be increased and good ganja will
be produced. Its use also may fall into disrepute
gradually to some extent.
62. Bhang is not a separate crop here, but is
made of ganja.
68. There are two ganja shops at Masulipatam.
In one of them majum also is sold. But some pun.
chasers will consume there.
69. Public opinion should be considered in open-
ing a shop where consumers should smoke.
42. Evidence of TADEPALLI SIVARAMAYYA, Brahmin, Pensioned Deputy Collec-
tor, Chatrapur.
14. Ganja and bhang are prepared in this dis-
trict, but not charas. They are prepared in all the
mutts, and by those persons in whose backyards the
plant is grown to a certain extent.
16. Bhang is prepared by the people in their
own houses. Ganja and bhang can be prepared
from the hemp plant wherever grown if the plant
does not blossom.
19. Ganja is used for smoking and in the pre-
paration of majum (the balls ordinarily sold in the
bazars of all the towns by the licensed vendors).
It is also used by the native doctors in the prepara-
tion of several medicines.
20. All the bairagis and fakirs, a portion of the
lower classes including a small portion of the upper
classes smoke ganja in almost all the localities.
About 25 per cent. may be said to use it.
24. Bhang is used by people comparatively in
easy circumstances in a less proportion, and it is
not confined to any particular locality.
25. The use of ganja may be said to be on the
increase, because a large number of the lower
classes who were formerly using country liquor are
said to have betaken themselves to ganja smoking
in consequence of the higher prices which they are
obliged to pay for the liquor.
28. It cannot be correctly stated, but it may be
safely said that its cost is certainly less than that
of the liquor.
32. On the 1st day of the month of "Mesham"
(Aries) which generally falls on or about the 11th
April, bhang and spices are ground and mixed in
sugar water and offered to the idol of Hanuman in
all the mutts and freely distributed to all the
people then present, i.e., to such as have no objec-
tion to drink it.
33. Those that do not use the drug hold the
smokers of ganja and drinkers of bhang in con-
tempt just like teetotallers do those that use the
liquor. There is no custom of worshipping the
hemp plant.
39. Drinking bhang is better than smoking or
eating ganja, because the several ingredients which
are used in the preparations of the drink lessen the
force of the bhang, and because the strength of the
bhang itself is less than that of ganja.
40. The use of ganja is prescribed on account of
its medicinal qualities in the preparation of several
medicines by most of the schools of native doctors.
Ganja is boiled in cow's milk, and the butter which
is extracted from this milk is used in the prepara-
tion of these medicines. None of these drugs is
used in the treatment of cattle diseases.
41. Moderate use of ganja and bhang is benefi-
cial in their effects.
42. Moderate use of these drugs is quite harm-
less.
43. Moderate consumers are certainly inoffen-
sive to their neighbours.
44. It is refreshing. It creates appetite and
gives sound sleep. It produces slight intoxication
which lasts a few hours. Its want at the usual
hour will produce longing, just like that of liquor,
cigar or snuff.
45. No.
49. Yes.
51. Most of the bad characters are habitual con-
sumers of either ganja or of liquor. It has no
connection with crime.
53. Excessive indulgence will render the con-
sumer unfit for any active work, either good or
bad, just like an inveterate drunkard.
55. They do in rare cases. Complete stupefac-
tion cannot, however, be effected by the use of
this drug alone without the admixture of certain
other ingredients, such as opium and the seed of
"Ummetha" (dhatura fastriosa).
43. Evidence of M R. W. E. GANAPATHY, Retired Deputy Collector, Palamcottah,
Tinnevelly.
1. When I was serving as Tahsildar under Gov-
ernment, I had frequent opportunities of observing
and hearing of the cultivation of the ganja plant
and its uses.
3. In the district of Tinnevelly, of which I have
most knowledge, no hemp or ganja plant grows
spontaneously.
7. In the Tinnevelly district, it is not very
extensively cultivated. It is grown here and there
amidst other garden or kitchen cultivation. It is
cultivated for production of (a) ganja, (c) bhang,
and (d) seed.
8. The cultivation of this plant has of late almost
entirely ceased, since the imposition of duty upon it.
9. There is not any particular method pursued in
the cultivation of the plant. It is grown in the
usual way that is adopted for raising ordinary
garden cultivation. It is raised from seeds, but
when it has attained a certain height, the top
shoot is nipped in order to enable the plant to
throw out additional branches and to become thick
and bushy.
10. There is no special class of people who cul-
tivate this plant. It is cultivated by garden culti-
vators in general.
13. It can be raised everywhere in the province