420
ince, should be destroyed every year. Certainly
the prohibition would cause serious discontent
among the consumers, and would not be strange
if political dangers arise. Well-to-do consumers
will have recourse to alcoholic stimulants and the
poorer classes will use the dhatura seed.
36. Country and English liquors are being sub-
stituted for bhang and charas among the educated
and wealthy classes.
40. Native physicians generally use bhang in
medicines for the treatment of men and cattle.
41. Moderate use of bhang is beneficial.
(a) Yes.
(b) Yes.
(c) Yes.
Brahmans during the saradhs, fakirs and sad-
hus in jungles, hills, and while travelling, and
other people at fairs, etc., and dharmsalas and
takias use the drug for the above purposes.
46. The habitual consumers of charas are gener-
ally pale and suffer from bronchitis, asthma,
and debility, and are also subject to insanity.
47. Among the purbia grass-cutters, dhobis,
etc., the habit of using charas is hereditary. The
habit of using bhang is often hereditary among
Brahmans, fakirs, sadhus, suthreshahis, takiadars,
fakirs, and sweepers.
58. The present system of Excise Administra-
tion is working well and requires no improvement.
60. Ganja is not produced in this province.
61. Charas is not produced in this province.
63. No objection.
67. No objection.
68. There are licensed vendors at whose shops
these drugs are available for sale. On the open-
iug of a new shop in the villages the wishes of the
lambardars are consulted.
28. Evidence of COLONEL L. H. E. TUCKER, C. I. E., Officiating Inspector General
of Police.
Oral evidence.
I am Officiating Inspector-General of Police.
I have been in the Punjab Police since September
1864, and served in all parts of the province,
but mostly on the frontier.
There does not appear to me to be any direct
connection between the hemp drugs and crime,
but that class of habitual criminals who administer
stupefying drugs for purposes of robbery and take
the disguise of fakirs nearly all smoke charas.
The drug is of use to them, as it enables them to
invite people to smoke, and charas serves to hide
the administration of dhatura in a way that tobacco
would not. The connection between charas and
this sort of crime is therefore indirect, casual
rather than causal.
I do not think the better class of the people use
bhang or charas. Bhang is taken as an intoxicant
like liquor, and the better class of people who can
afford it prefer the latter. Beside the criminal
class I have described above, 1 know of no class
which habitually consumes charas. The habit is
held in contempt by the more respectable people,
and the term " charasi " carries that meaning.
Bhang is not, I should think, held in as bad repute
as charas. It is used as a tonic and medicine as
well as an intoxicant,
I have never known the intoxication of charas
to be pleaded as a defence by persons charged with
crime. But I think I have known the plea to be
raised as regards bhang ; but I cannot recall any
serious case in which the plea was raised. Lots
of cases have occurred in which men have been
arrested for riotous conduct or obstructing the
police, and have been reported to have been in-
toxicated with bhang. These are like ordinary
drunk and disorderly eases at home. 1 cannot
recall any particular cases of this kind. I will
look up my records to see if cases of serious crime
have arisen from bhang. Similar cases arise in
connection with liquor, but they are fewer, because
the class which consumes liquor is less given to
riotous conduct than bhang drinkers are, for the
reason that liquor costs more money.
There has certainly been the idea that fanatics
have taken bhang before running amuck, and I
know that it was currently reported that the 300
Ghazis who came down upon the 32nd and 23rd
Pioneers at Ambeyla in 1863 and were cut up to
a man were under the influence of bhang. I saw
the attack, and the fanatics appeared to come on
like half-drunken men as they leapt down shouting
from terrace to terrace. They were, at all events,
under unnatural excitement. I have seen a man
brought out to be hanged show the same kind of
demeanour. The probability that bhang had been
taken is supported by the fact that the fanatics
were not Pathans but Hindustanis from the Malka
colony, who came originally from the plains of
India. On the other hand, it is improbable that
the Akhund of Swat would have encouraged them
to take intoxicants in a holy war. They might,
howevor, have done it without asking the Akhund.
The alleged effect of the use of bhang in causing
timidity may be true of the man who has steeped
himself in bhang as it would be true of a man
suffering from delirium tremens from alcohol; but
the first effect of a dose of bhang may neverthe-
less be stimulating. Whether the excitement of
the Ambeyla fanatics was due to the fact that
they were devoting themselves to death, or partly
to that and partly to bhang, I cannot say. I can
recall no other case to give support to the idea
that bhang causes the excitement under which
men run amuck; but I will look up the records on
the subject.
The hemp drugs are very rarely used by mem-
bers of the police force. We have had very few
cases. A few " charasis " have had to be got rid
of because they could not be relied upon to keep
awake on sentry go or do other duty ; but it is
quite rare. In a district with a force of 1,0 00
men, five years might pass without such a case
coming before the Superintendent. I should get
rid of a man known as a charasi on account of
the habit. Such a man would be an habitual
excessive consumer and quite unfit for duty. I
don't know the moderate habit. It either does
not exist or one does not hear of it. On the
other hand, I should not get rid of a man known
as a drinker of liquor or an eater of opium
unless he committed some specific breach of duty.
A man does not get the reputation of being a
" charasi," unless he has carried the habit to such