88
44. Evidence of FAKIRCHAND, Brahmin, Baid and Pandit, Jabalpur.
20. Ganja is the drug of the very poor and
of fakirs.
45. I have known hundreds of ganja smokers
and I smoke it myself. I have never known a
case in which it did any harm. I give it as a
medicine for diarrh&oelig;a. I do not believe that
ganja causes the illness called " damma." It is as
common amongst people who never touch ganja.
47. I have not observed the ganja habit to be
hereditary.
59. The price should certainly not be raised.
But the drug should be sold direct by Govern-
ment, as the contractors cheat the people in re-
tailing it.
Oral evidence.
Question 45.—My age is 55 years. I have
smoked ganja for thirty-five years. I learned it in
the society of fakirs or mendicants wandering about
who came to Jabalpur. I only occasionally
take bhang. I take ganja regularly. I take
tobacco with it. I sometimes add musk, nothing
else. I do not know about admixture of poisons ;
but I have heard of its being done. Old ganja
does not intoxicate enough. I smoke six to eight
or ten chillums a day. The labourer smokes
alone. But we do not smoke alone. Four or
five of us smoke together. Two tolas suffice for
three or four chillums and will go roundas many
as fifty people. In a tola of purchased ganja
three-fourths will be real ganja (leaving sticks) ;
but the present ganja is bad and only yields one-
half. A tola of ganja will give four chillums for
single consumers or for two or three people at a
time. I think that the consumption has decreased
owing to the very high price and, the age of the
ganja sold. I have steadily smoked for thirty
years, and have good health and always appetite.
I have no asthma, nor have I any cough that
troubles. I have never been intoxicated, i.e. , in-
sensible, from ganja. The baluchar ganja makes
the head swing. It is stronger than the other.
I have never seen a ganja smoker grow mad. I
have seen B.A.'s and M. A.'s go mad, but no one
from ganja. I can bring two hundred old men who
are hale and hearty, who have smoked fifty
years. I do not take liquor except occasionally as
medicine. Ganja has a bad name. People who
do not take it call us " ganjeri," as I should call a
man who takes liquor " sharabi," and a charas
smoker " charasbaz." The man who does not
use an intoxicant calls the moderate consumer a
debauchee. The poor man really requires it, as
also the fakir for his exposure : to the rich it is
luxury and so a vice. It is since Mr. Nicholas
was here that the great set was made against
ganja.
If a man takes ganja excessively, he will have a
bad name, he will become weak and thin ; but
he will not become insane; neither will he become
insensibly intoxicated (as in the case of liquor),
however much he takes. He will not go about
smashing things and behaving like a mad man
as he would with too much liquor. Granja tends
to religious meditation.
I am a Baid. In dysentery, diarrh&oelig;a and
coughs, ganja is useful. The ashes are useful in
asthma, taken in pân. I know Hindu books on
medicine. They never ascribe insanity to ganja.
My sons died young and therefore never took
ganja.
I am a Brahmin and priest or preacher. I am
also a wrestler.
45. Evidence of KHUSHALI RAM , Honorary Magistrate, Chhindwara.
3. I have never seen or heard of the plant
growing in the Chhindwara spontaneously. I
have not heard of spontaneous growth anywhere.
4. I know of no other name for the plant.
7. There is no cultivation in this district.
10. When there was cultivation in Katol it was
not carried on by any special class.
14. Ganja is received from Nimar. Charas
and bhang are not regularly prepared in this
district. But persons who drink bhang may pre-
pare it for themselves.
15. Bhang is prepared by grinding the leaves
of the plant and mixing them with water, and a
little sugar is added. A kind of sweetmeat is
made called majum or majam. The leaves of the
plant are steeped well in water, then ghee is added.
The leaves are then wrung out, and with the water
are thrown away. The ghee is then mixed with
sweetmeat. I have heard how they prepare cha-
ras in Malwa and Indore. It is not prepared
here. The people brush the growing plants when
they are in 'masti ' with pieces of leather, the
resinous matter which sticks to the leather they
scrape off and make it into little balls which are
smoked in a small pipe like madak. The leaves of
the plant are also sometimes fried in ghee and
eaten with sugar. It is called " talli bhang."
16. Yes, if they drink bhang. The custom is
not common. I have no experience of the wild
plant.
17. There are no special classes of manufac-
turers of these preparations here.
18. Ganja loses its effect by time. It could be
kept good two years. Here freeh supplies are
received year by year and so no special measures
are taken to preserve it.
19. Ganja is used as a medicine by native
doctors and is used as such specially for cattle
disease. It is used to improve the appetites of
horses.
20. All castes smoke ganja, especially gosains,
fakirs Muhammadan), bairagis, Ahirs, Gonds, of
whom the whole castes are addicted to this prac-
tice. Members of all the lower castes smoke ganja
and some of the higher castes, but among the
latter is considered as a disgrace. It is smoked
all through the district by the labouring classes.
Charas is not smoked.
21. Flat ganja is always sent here.
22. Not used.
23. No.
24. The higher castes eat 'majum' and 'talli
hui' (as described above) and specially so at Holi
time. Marwaris eat ' talli hui bhang.' The lower
castes drink bhang. The practice of frying bhang