6
26. Ganja smoking.—The large majority are
habitual moderate consumers.
I do not think that people smoke ganja occa
- s i o n a l l y e i t h e r i n m o d e r a t i o n o r e x c e s s . T h e
eating of majum is occasional, chiefly at the Holi
and at marriages and festivals. The consumption
of drinks prepared with bhang is also occasional,
chiefly in the hot weather.
27. The habitual moderate ganja smokers be
-long chiefly to the labouring classes. A man
of this class generally confines himself to one
pipe after his evening meal as a solace. The
habitual excessive ganja smokers are chiefly
bairagis, gosains, and fakirs.
28. I should think—
(a) about ¼ of a tola or less, worth about
a pice ;
(b) about a tola or less, worth about one
anna.
29. Ganja is generally smoked with tobacco ;
dhatura is sometimes added in order to produce a
greater intoxicating effect, but only by the
viciously inclined.
In the drink prepared with bhang, cucumber
seeds, ginger, etc., are mixed in order to make it
more “tasty.”
I do not know the term "bhang massala."
30. Two or three generally join company over
a pipe of ganja. Ganja smoking is confined, so
far as I know, to the male sex. I have never
heard of children consuming any of these drugs.
31. I think the habit of ganja smoking is easily
formed, and that when foamed it is seldom aban
-doned. I do not think there is any appreciable
tendency of the kind suggested.
32. Majum is generally consumed during the
Holi festival. Bhang is drunk at the Shivratri ;
its use is deemed necessary, I have been told, to
help the consumers over the day of fasting. The
use of majum and bhang on such occasions or at
marriages, etc., is generally temperate ; nor have
I heard that it develops into habit.
33. A certain amount of disrepute attaches to
ganja smoking, due, I think, to the fact that
some smoke in excess, and that excessive smoking
is known to be deleterious. The objection is not
religious, and is moral rather than social, for a
man is not put out of caste for smoking ganja.
It is not so much an offence against society as
against the consumer's own bodily and mental
welfare.
I am not aware that any disrepute attaches to
the drinking of bhang.
I have not heard of the custom of worshipping
the plant, but Mahadeo is said to have smoked
ganja and drunk bhang, and I have been told that
bairagis invoke Mahadeo before having their pipe.
When I asked a man in the lunatic asylum about
Mahadeo the other day, he opened out wonder-
fully.
35. (a) I think not.
(b) Yes.
( c )
Y e s .
(d) Such discontent might certainly develop
into political danger if the flame were fanned by
mischief-makers. There is no saying to what the
action of Government in prohibiting it might be
attributed.
36. No reason that I know of.
43. Yes.
44. Ganja smoking.— A man of the labouring
classes will tell you it produces a feeling of satis
- f a c t i o n , p e r h a p s e x h i l a r a t i o n , a n d a l l e v i a t e s
fatigue after the labours of the day.
51, 52 and 53. The moderate use of ganja
(smoking) has no necessary connection with crime
of any kind, but its excessive use may lead to the
commission of crimes of violence by reason of the
mental derangement produced.
54. No case of the kind has come under my
notice in my magisterial experience.
58. No improvement on the existing system
suggests itself to me.
60. I think it is sufficiently controlled in the
Central Provinces Khalsa.
63. I have none.
64. No.
65. I do not think any alteration is required at
the present time, or until it is shown that con
-sumption is decidedly on the increase ; or that a
higher tax can be imposed without fear of i
n - d u c i n g i l l i c i t c u l t i v a t i o n a n d s m u g g l i n g .
67. No.
68. Consumption on the premises is prohibited
in the Central Provinces.
69. I believe that any objections made always
receive consideration, and I think this is proper.
70. I am not very familiar with the latest
developments in this respect, but I believe that
smuggling from the feudatory States of the
Central Provinces has very greatly diminished.
The Central Provinces are exposed to smuggling
from the Native States on the North-Eastern and
Western borders, also from the Tributary Mahals
and the Chota Nagpur States under the Bengal
Government. Some of our districts, particularly
ardha, are also exposed to smuggling from
Berar. There can be no doubt, however, that
during the past ten or twelve years great progress
has been made in the Central Provinces in the
substitution of the taxed for the untaxed drug.
Oral evidence.
Question 22 .—When I was Excise Commis
-sioner, the consumption of charas was so small
that it was not thought worth while to give
licenses for selling it.
Question, 29.— My answer is founded on gene
-ral information. A man in the lunatic asylum
informed me the other day that he smoked dhatura
with his ganja. I do not remember his caste.
I do not think he was a bairagi or devotee.
Question 35 .—The principal difficulty of p pro-
h i b i t i n g t h e h e mp d r u g s wo u l d b e t h e i mp o s s i b i -
lity of stamping out cultivation. Prohibition
of cultivation would check consumption ; but the
drug would be procured by illicit cultivation and
smuggling from over the border. There would
be risk of political trouble from total prohibition
of the drugs ; but I would not regard that risk
as serious. The people would be driven to the
next cheaper stimulant if they were deprived of
ganja ; that would be liquor. Liquor is cheaper
where the excise arrangements are managed on
the outstill system. I look upon liquor, as con
- s u m e d b y t h e l a b o u r i n g c l a s s e s i n t h e s e p r o v i n c e s ,
as innocuous. The risk to which I referred above
would not be appreciable if restriction took the
form of raising the duty only. I cannot suggest