244
The after-effect is that the limbs become languid
and weary, and, if not repeated at stated intervals,
there will be uneasiness and a great longing.
This is more in the case of ganja and charas than
in the case of bhang, which a consumer can afford
to give up for some time.
45. There used to be two peons in my father's
service for about 12 years. They were both
addicted to smoking ganja. They were at first
smart and good looking, and by smoking ganja
gradually acquired an emaciated countenance, timi-
dity, and were gradually bent down, and became
very weak and unfit for active work, and were
ultimately discharged.
When in school, two boys of my class who belong-
ed to the native regiment stationed at Viziana-
gram, acquired the habit of smoking ganja and
maddak from a bairagi, who used to frequent
their house. These two boys were at first very
smart and intelligent, and used to get up their
lessons very well ; but within a year and-a-half
after they learnt smoking ganja they became
languid and drowsy, and gradually gave up their
studies and left the school. A few more cases
may be mentioned, but their history is the same.
54. No.
55. Yes. Complete stupefaction cannot, I hear,
be induced without the admixture.
Oral evidence.
Question 1.—I have been about 19 years in
Government service, and my age is forty-one.
Question, 35.—If the cultivation of the fiemp
plant were prohibited in the hill tracts, I do not
think serious discontent would be caused, because
the people in the Agency are well supplied with
opium, which they get cheaper than the low
country people do. In the low country the hemp
drugs are being consumed to a greater extent,
because opium and liquor have risen in price. A
part of my present charge is in the Agency, viz.,
the Sitampeta tract. The opium traffic in the
Agency is a Government Monopoly, as it is in the
low country; but the drug is supplied cheaper in
the Agency in order to avoid causing discontent.
Question 45.—I do not know how the two
peons learned the habit of smoking ganja ; but
probably it arose out of their association with sepoys
of the Maharaja of Vizianagram. They gradually
increased the habit until they smoked a pipe every
hour or half hour. The Maharaja's sepoys with
whom the peons associated were men of Hindu-
stan. They were men of bad character.
The boys were about 10 years of age, sons of
sepoys. They did not learn to drink. They con-
tinued to use the drugs as long as I knew them,
that is, until they were 18 years of age. They
began taking the drugs stealthily ; but after four
years they took them openly. Their fathers, who
belonged to a British Native Regiment, were alive,
and must have known what was going on. Their
mothers had died, and they used to smoke in the
presence of other female members of their families.
They lived in adjoining houses. Such case are
not common.
57. Evidence of A. KATCHAPESWARA. IYER, Brahmin, Stationary Sub-Magistrate,
Cuddapah Taluk.
1. I have had no opportunity of knowing any
important information about hemp drugs till the
receipt of the memo. of questions under reply.
Since the date of its receipt, namely, 25th October
last, I have made searching enquiries in and around
Cuddapah regarding the cultivation or growth of
the hemp, its preparation and consumption or use,
as well as its effects. My answers are based upon
the knowledge thus acquired.
2. The description given by Dr. Praia of the
three narcotic articles obtained from hemp may
be generally accepted, except for bhang which in
this part of the country is not known as siddhi,
subji or patti. It is also not the name given to
the dry leaves of the hemp plant, male or female.
It is a name given to the dry leaves found in and
around the flower tops of the female plants only.
Subji is known to be the name of a preparation
from ganja described later on. The practice of
manufacturing ganja by being trodden under foot
does not obtain, both as regards flat and round
ganja. Round ganja is imported. The ganja
manufactured here is flat, and the process of its
preparation is as follows :—
In the month of January the branches contain-
ing the flower tops are cut, collected and exposed
on a hard surface and, after being dried to a mo-
derate extent, compressed into bales of two maunds
each. No machinery is used for the compression.
The pressure caused by the ropes passing round
the bale reduces the flower tops to a flat shape.
The exposure above referred to takes place only
during the day. At nights they are heaped up
and covered with straw to keep off the dew, which
is said to discolour the drug and thereby reduce
its market value. Bhang is not separately prepar-
ed. The cultivating raiyat does not trouble
himself with the separation of bhang leaves from
the flower tops. The whole is compressed into
bales and sold. These leaves mostly fall off of
their own accord when the flat shaped ganja is
handled. They are, however, collected by the
sellers and sold as bhang leaves. The consumers
also separate such leaves when they are found in
the ganja they buy and make use of it as bhang.
The imported and the locally made ganja are
known by the following names :
—
(1) Mulki
Local.
(2) Almoori
.
From Bezwada and its
surroundings.
(3) Shamshabadi
. From Hyderabad,
etc., (this is round
s h a p e d ) .
(4) Javvaji
From Madras.
The Mulki ganja above referred to is also known
as Alwarpatrica, Gyanapatrica.
3. I am not aware of any.
7 . (a) Yes.
(b) No.
(c) No ; except as already stated above.
(d) No ; but the seeds that fall off in the process
of exposure are collected and kept for
future cultivation.
It is cultivated in the following places so far
as I know : —
(a) Cuddapah Taluk—(1) Kammavaripalli, (2)
Gollapalli, (3) Mittamidipalli, (4) Letapa-
lli, (5) Chennampalli (6) Cuddapah town