161
(c) Poor people to keep off cold in winter.
In short, those who lack business capacities or
associate frequently with jogis and fakirs consume
charas in greater number.
29. (a) Bhang or thandai-ka-massala with bhang,
to make the drink "cooling" and aromatic.
(b) Dhatura seeds with bhang or charas, to
make them stronger narcotics or for criminal
purposes.
30. Charas is usually consumed in company.
Charas-smokers are generally very social towards
other fellow smokers.
31. It is not difficult to break off the habit of
charas-smoking, nor is there any great tendency
for the moderate consumer to develop the habit of
excessive consumption.
32. I am not aware of any custom in these
provinces in which the consumption of these drugs
is considered essential. During the festival of
"Holi" in the month of March and on the
Shivaratri fast day many people indulge in the
consumption of charas, bhang or majun (a kind
of sweetmeat containing bhang). It is always
temperate, and I do not know of any case in
which it has led to the formation of the habit.
It is given up completely on the day on which the
festival is over, and not resumed till the next
festival comes round in twelve months.
33. Not favourably. Habitual excessive con-
sumers are looked down upon. There is no public
opinion regarding the practice. I do not know of
any custom of worshipping the hemp plant.
34. I do not think it will be a serious privation
to consumers to forego the consumption of the
drug they use. I have seen some habitual
excessive smokers of charas give up the habit
without feeling any great inconvenience. For
some days they felt the usual craving for the
narcotic, and it went away after a time without
leaving any ill-effect. The craving has never
been so great as in the case of alcohol drinkers or
opium eaters.
35. It might be feasible, but I do not consider
it advisable to prohibit the use of any of these
drugs. The drug would most likely be consumed
illicitly. As long as the hemp plant is allowed to
grow, it will be difficult to enforce prohibition of
these drugs; for the preparation of charas and
bhang does not require any elaborate process, and
will to a certainty be prepared illicitly. The
prohibition of the growing of the hemp plant
will cause a real hardship to the people who extract
fibre from the stem and oil from the seeds for
domestic use. I do not think the prohibition of
the consumption of these drugs would occasion
any serious discontent amounting to political
danger: (a) the natural tendency of the age is to
have recourse to alcoholic stimulants; and if the
use of these drugs is prohibited, the people will
make it an excuse to take to drink.
41. (b) Occasional moderate charas-smoking
is indulged in by labouring classes and travellers
to ward off the ill-effects of exposure to cold, and
also, to alleviate fatigue.
Bhang forms the principal ingredient of
"thandai" or cooling drink, and is consumed by
the well-to-do and middle classes in the hot and
oppressive evenings of summer.
42. I believe a moderate use of bhang in the
diluted form in which it is usually taken is quite
harmless. I know scores of people who in the
summer season regularly take bhang both morning
and evening. They have never complained of
any ill-effect from its consumption, and to all
appearances they look as healthy as others
43. Yes; quite inoffensive as far as I know.
44. Exhilarating. The man becomes gay and
cheerful. His memory is refreshed. There is
not much intoxication to speak of. The appetite
is increased. People always smoke their charas
before taking their meals to increase their appetite.
The effect lasts for about an hour or two, and
there are no after-effects except a sense of
drowsiness and languor. In moderate consumers
the want of subsequent gratification does not
produce any great uneasiness.
45. Habitual charas-smoking makes men lean
and emaciated. I have not come across a fat
charas smoker.
I had to treat a few cases of chronic bronchitis
and asthma in which charas-smoking was the
alleged cause. Charas smokers cough very much.
While I was in Srinagar (Garhwal) a young
intelligent bania, a habitual charas smoker, went
to Najibabad to make arrangements for his
marriage with a girl who had been partially
betrothed to him, But before he could reach that
place a richer rival came in to the field and married
the girl. In his grief he smoked twelve chillums
of charas in the night, and was found in the
morning a raving maniac. He was brought back
to me for treatment. I found him a dangerous
monomaniac with homicidal tendencies. He
would assault any one (his nearest relations and
friends not excepted) who would come near him.
But to me he was as respectful and obedient as
he had always been. At every call he complained
to me of the ill-treatment he fancied he received
at the hands of his relatives, and implored me to
let him kill them one and all. He would not take
any food or drink unless I directed him to do so,
and assured him that it did not contain any poison.
My treatment not doing him any good, I advised
the relatives of the man to take him to Budrinath,
a Hindu temple in the coldest regions of the
district. From this place he returned after a
three months' sojourn as sane a man as he had
ever been before, and took to his business. What
part the charas and what the grief played in
making this man temporarily such a violent
maniac, I have not been able to ascertain.
47. I do not think the habit is hereditary.
The children may learn the habit from their
parents, but the habit is in no sense hereditary.
48. Same answer as 47.
55. Yes; I know of a case in which rape was
attemped on a girl who had been given a dose of
"majun"
(bhang sweetmeat). I do not think
that complete stupefaction can be produced
without any admixture. A sense of lassitude and
helplessness is produced, in which the victim
knows what is being done, but cannot offer resist-
ance.
56. I was once called to attend a case of bhang-
poisoning. On examining the patient I suspected
that there was something more than a case of
simple bhang-poisoning. The pupils were dilated.
I gave my suspicions about dhatura-poisoning
to the father of my patient, and on examining
the refuse left after straining the bhang found
two or three crushed seeds of dhatura. It turned
out afterwards that the patient himself had
directed his servant, a deaf and dumb man, to
make the drink stronger by adding a few dhatura
seeds.
vol. v.
2B