175
the same as balucbar ganja, but being a much
stronger smoke, it comes cheaper than the former.
(b) Excessive consumers smoke daily from 10
to 20 chillums, and at proportionate cost at the
rates given above.
29. Dhatura seeds are not infrequently mixed
with bhang with a view to increase its intoxi-
cating effects by certain shopkeepers in Lucknow
where bhang is served publicly in the form of
drink called thandai.
Bhang massala, as sold in the bazaar, consists
of (1) black pepper; (2) sonf or dill fruits; (3)
cucumber seeds (khera and kankri-ki-bea), Be-
sides these, respectable people use badam, dried
rose-petals, and saffron as bhang massala.
30. Ganja is frequently smoked in company,
especially by the lower class of people.
31. Habit is formed easily enough, and can be
as easily broken off. Yes, there is such a ten-
dency.
32. Bhang is not infrequently used as an offer-
ing to Mahadeo, who is said to be very fond of
the drug. It is also used as drink on a sort of
religious ground during Sivrat and other religious
festive occasions. It is never considered to be an
essential custom.
36. Yes, to a certain extent, as drinking wine
and other alcoholics is. considered more respectable,
very probably under European influence.
37. Charas differs from ganja in degree more
than in kind. It has more narcotic than stimu-
lating effects. Bhang in the form of thandai
creates a sort of exhilaration and very mild intoxi-
cation. Bhaug is never considered to be harmful;
and, as a matter of fact, in the form of thandai
it is not harmful at all.
39. Vide answers below.
40. Vide reply to 19.
41. Neither ganja nor charas smoking is food
accessory or digestive. Bhang as thandai drink
unquestionably helps digestion and acts as laxa-
tive in health. Ganja and bhang do to a certain
extent give staying-power, help to stand exposure,
and alleviate fatigue. I do not think any of these
three has any of the virtues referred to in question
Much stress has been laid on the following
supposed actions of these drugs:—
(a) their power of standing fatigue and ex-
posure as well as relieving fatigue;
(b) of creating appetite as well as of allaying
hunger;
(c) acting as food or food accessory, and
helping normal nutrition
directly or
indirectly.
Dr. Anstie is perhaps the highest English
authority on this subject, and his views are, I
believe, to a considerable extent accountable for
the now remarkable saying of Sir Charles Elliott
(Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal) that ganja is a
form of concentrated food.
(a) As to their staying-power under severe
physical exertion, I believe this so-called staying-
power arises from the fact of their keeping up a
state of morbid nerve activity, during which the
sense of fatigue (of muscular exercise) cannot
impress the sensorium in the normal way, and is
not felt consequently. This result may be brought
about either by a depressing action on the per-
ceptive centres or by simply diverting their acti-
vities into a different (unnatural) channel. In
the former case, unpleasant after-effects are sure
to follow, while in the latter these need not for
some time. The effect is of a temporary character,
and the sphere of action is very limited.
The ultimate results of a repetition of the pro-
cess are harmful. Ganja and charas smokers
confess that, when deprived of the influence, they
feel beat and cold more acutely than others.
The power of relieving fatigue after exertion is
very probably due to their giving a different
channel of activities for the perceptive centres.
After a time they lose this power more or less.
As for standing heat and cold under the influ-
ence of ganja and charas, the smokers do not feel
the heat and cold so much as otherwise they
would; but it is by no means certain that they
suffer the less from exposure than others. On
the contrary, chronic bronchitis and dysentery—
diseases frequently brought by exposure—are very
common amongst habitual ganja-smokers.
(b) The power of allaying hunger arises from
their deadening or diverting the normal activities
of the perceptive centres which receive the visceral
impressions from the stomach. Here again the
limit such an action can harmlessly go on is very
narrow. Habitual ganja and charas smokers,
especially belonging to the lower labouring class,
after a time very commonly suffer for thus repeat-
edly deadening the visceral nerves: digestion
fails, and the general nutrition of the body suffers
in the end.
It is a false appetite that ganja and charas
creates by irritating—I cannot say by stimulating
—the gastric nerves at the periphery or centre.
(c) That these drugs can replace food proper
cannot be established, and the attempt to do so
has, I believe, signally failed. The few cases that
have been brought forward to establish this could
be much better explained on other grounds.
Now do they help digestion? Ganja and charas
do not, at any rate, in the form of smoke. Bhang
does it to a certain extent unquestionably, especial-
ly when drunk in the form of thandai. The share
bhang as such has in this, and what share the
bhang massalas have, may very well be enquired
into. Bhang taken internally into the stomach
evidently helps the liver and assists digestion. It
undoubtedly benefits several cases of obstinate
chronic diarrhœa in man as well as in other
animals.
Do these drugs prevent waste of tissue? Do
they retard or lessen destructive metabolism of
the system? This is a very important question.
I believe this is the principal sphere of action of
these drugs on the nutritive processes of the body,
and it serves to explain several cases of this sup-
posed action as direct food, or directly replacing
the lost tissue. This property these drugs have, I
believe, in common with many others—tea, coffee,
cocoa, opium, alcohol, etc. Pan and supari, I
believe, act in this way and serve a useful end.
The evil effect of ganja and charas smoke far
outweigh this, and their use cannot be recom-
mended for this purpose.
42. Moderate use of ganja may be harmless.
Bhang-drinking in the form of thandai is certainly
so. Charas is unquestionably harmful.
44. Habitual ganja and charas smokers describe
the immediate effects in the following words:—
"Nasha fouran ankn me ata hai, ankh charha
malum hota hai, aram milta, nasha hota, sit nahe
malum hota." From the above it is plain that
the immediate effect is on the brain: a sort of