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other caste people give a small quantity of bhang
to their children in the way of medicines when
suffering from stomach complaints.
31. Yes; it is formed by the daily use of the
drugs continually for months, if not for days.
Yes; when one is accustomed to use these drugs
for months, they cannot give up their use without
substituting either opium or wine in their stead,
or, if he is a mendicant, arsenic in very small
quantity. Like alcohol, these drugs are gradu-
ally increased in quantity by their habitual con-
sumers, except when the cousumer of these drugs
voluntarily takes the precaution of keeping the
quantity within its limits, according to his circum-
stances and temperament.
32. Ganja and charas are socially prohibited,
bat the worshippers of Siva, who offer these drugs
to that deity, use them every day. Bhang is used
on several ceremonial occasions by the natives of
this district. These occasions are—(1) Dassehra,
(2) Holi, and (3) Dewali. The practice of using
bhang on festival days is authorized by time-
honoured custom. It is generally temperate, and
does not lead to form a habit among the people;
nor is it injurious in effect.
36. Yes; alcohol is now being used to a large
extent among the labouring classes as a substitute
for the above drugs. The reason is formerly the
daily wages of a workman was not above an anna
and a half per diem, whereas the maximum rate
of his wages is three annas or more per diem now,
and the labouring population has conveniently
substituted the country liquor for the hemp drugs.
A real proof of this fact is that a large number of
our labouring people now resort to liquor shops.
37. The effect produced by ganja and charas
smoking is alike: both cause lung and brain
diseases as well as general debility. The effects
produced by drinking bhang differ much from
those of the other two drugs. Bhang, like wine,
taken occasionally in small quantity acts as medi-
cine by increasing digestion; but if taken habi-
tually and in excess, it impairs digestion and pro-
duces dyspepsia and its concomitant diseases.
39. It is not known in this district that smok-
ing of any preparation of the hemp plant is in any
way a less injurious form of consumption than
drinking or eating the same or any other prepara-
tion. But the following preparation of ganja and
charas was observed some years ago among well-to-
do smokers: Ganja and charas taken in sufficient
quantity and soaked in a sufficient quantity of
either awlah or tamarind water, placed in an
earthen pot or "handy" with a cover, and buried
under the earth for a week or so, and afterwards
dried in the sun. Ganja and charas so soaked and
dried are mixed with an equal quantity of tobacco
of mild preparation, and this preparation of ganja
and charas is called its mildest preparation, and
when smoked in moderate quantity produces less
deleterious effect than bhang either drunk or
eaten; and under its influence no case of insanity
has been witnessed
40. Those who treat diseases of cattle prescribe
bhang for different diseases, and a large quantity
of bhang is annually consumed by cattle and
horses The latter, like bullocks, receive bhang
when fatigued and weakened, and cows and sheep
after delivery, the former with gur.
41. As will be gathered from my replies to
queries Nos. 37 and 39, the occasional moderate
use of ganja and charas, and particularly of bhang,
may to a certain extent be beneficial in its
effect—
(a) as a food accessory or digestive;
(b) to give staying-power under severe ex-
ertion or exposure, or to alleviate
fatigue;
(c) all the three drugs as a febrifuge and pre-
ventive of diseases in malarious and
unhealthy tracts;
(d) but not in any other ways.
4:2. Neither of the three drugs, if taken daily,
just as "ganjeries" and "bhangeries" do, can
be considered harmless in any dose; but when used
occasionally by persons to guard against pain or
diseases described above, a moderate dose is de-
cidedly beneficial, for reasons already given in my
reply to question No. 41.
44. The immediate effect of the moderate use
of these drugs on the habitual consumer is phy-
sical inactivity, which is followed by fits of
laughing, as is often witnessed in a "bhangeries"
shop in our large cities. It is in no wise re-
freshing in its real sense. As in the case of
persons who habitually take a moderate quantity
of country liquor, its stimulating effect is scarcely
felt beyond satisfying his craving, so the soothing
effects of these drugs are hardly felt by confirmed
or habitual consumers of these drugs. It only
produces, after a slight stupefaction or rather
obtuseness, a temporary sensation of pleasure as
in a case of dream, when something curious or
astonishing fantastically presents to the dreamer
who fancies himself as sometimes ascending the
sky and sometimes descending to the earth; and
in a confirmed consumer of these drugs this fan-
tastical pleasure lasts only for a few moments;
and this certainly cannot be construed as phy-
sically refreshing, but as the consequence of the
excited or distracted condition of the brain.
45. If by the habitual use is meant the daily
use of these drugs in moderate quantity, then the
habitual moderate use of any of these drugs does
produce noxious effects, inasmuch as all the Indian
hemp preparations described above produce in-
toxication, and when persons physically healthy
and sound, not needing their use as auxiliaries to
digest food and to protect them against the
effects of malarious climate, under their influence
are gradually subjected to those very complaints
which, in occasional moderate doses, they, like
alcohol, are calculated to act on human con-
stitution as preventives and curatives. Continued
use of these drugs, however moderate, is therefore
not advisable. Ganja and charas produce emacia-
tion and peevishness, while bhang blunts one's
power of comprehension and diminishes energy
and increases obstinacy, and leads to a tendency
to quarrelling and sometimes to rash acts as is
often evidenced among Pragwals and Ghatias of
this place and among Chaubeys of Mathra, who
daily use bhang as a necessary. When the effects
produced are so injurious that the constitution
naturally suffers, and it is gradually impaired
through general debility caused by the complaints
mentioned in the preceding paragraphs, the daily
use of these drugs, even in moderate quantity,
does injure the digestion and cause loss of appetite,
and it does cause dysentery, bronchitis, or asthma,
and it does impair moral sense and induces laziness
if not habits of immorality and debauchery. And
it can further be safely asserted here that most of
our city "badmashes" are habitual ganja and
charas smokers, and 75 per cent. of these men
even when in the prime of their life, suffer from
chronic dysentery and chronic bronchitis, and 25