45
dyspepsia, and tends to lower physical courage and
muscular power. Tea drinkers suffer from a form
of delirium tremens. Tea is commonly said to
produce insanity in Ireland.
46. In this connection I repeat that I believe
that syphilis, tea, and tobacco have done more
mischief in England than hemp drugs in India.
If British legislators are unable to stamp out these
vices in their own country, it is much more impro-
bable that they will be able in a foreign country
to stamp out the use of a drug that grows at the
doors of the people, the use of which is partly
beneficial. It is often lost sight of that we owe
our ascendency and existence in this country to
65,000 British bayonets and the volunteer forces
of 30,000 men.
47. No. I know many children of ganja smokers
who do not use hemp, and have quite as good a
physique as their fathers. None of these drugs affect
posterity to the same extent as the habit of wear-
ing corsets among our females affects the rising
generation in England ; and if we are reverting to
an age of sumptuary laws and interference with the
private habits of individuals, I believe a Commis-
sion composed of Indians would be most usefully
employed in England in enquiring into the extent
to which females suffer from the effects of tight-
lacing. They would be less prejudiced than certain
doctors who use tobacco themselves to excess, and
will not admit that the habit is injurious, though
they condemn the habit of hemp smoking from its
apparent results among habitual criminals
and
lunatics. Statistics as to the abuse of tea and
tobacco among similar classes in England would
lead to startling and most erroneous conclusions
49. Bhang and ganja have the reputation of
being aphrodisiacs. I question their being any
more aphrodisiacs than other intoxicants. Alcohol
is largely used in European brothels by Europeans
who desire repetition of the sexual act, and when
we see that such opposite drugs as alcohol, opium,
and hemp are all said to be used for the same pur-
pose, I contend that I am right. Natives are very
much addicted to inordinate sexual intercourse,
whether they take hemp drugs or not. and it is
excessive venery, not hemp, that causes their sexual
powers to decay early in life. Alcohol has no
special aphrodisiac qualities, yet is used as an
aphrodisiac. It is credited by many with the
reverse property (i.e., alcohol).
50. With regard to females, puberty is attained
at the age of 9 or 10 in India. Maturity is there-
fore earlier reached than in Europe, and decay is
also more rapid. A native woman of 25 is consi-
dered quite old among them, and no one would
think of marrying a woman of this age. Orien-
tals (the Ottomans particularly) generally believe
that coffee has the effect of weakening the gener-
ative power in man. Tea certainly has this effect.
51. There are burglars in India who are largely
given to smoking hemp and tobacco mixed, but
English burglars are also tobacco smokers to a
man, and mostly addicted to the use of alcohol.
Has no connection with crime beyond that indicat-
ed above.
53. It is a fact that a man is occasionally fren-
zied by excessive indulgence in hemp, but this
hardly occurs so often as it does under the influ-
ence of alcohol. Quite recently two English
planters in Assam for pure fun cleared out a rail-
way station by assaulting the railway servants,
and they also broke all the glass and plate in the
refreshment room. They were both gentlemen
by birth, "such nice men too," and it was not under
the influence of water that they acted thus.
54. Dutch courage is proverbial, and I believe
Asiatics do use bhang in this way to fortify them-
selves. Perhaps they require to fortify themselves
this way oftener than Englishmen, and I don't
see why they should not use hemp. Alcohol is
commonly used for the same purpose.
55. Not that I am aware of. Dhatura is cheap-
er, more easily obtained, and more effective, as
the victim is not so liable to resist as when under
the influence of hemp. Complete stupefaction
can be induced by hemp, but the after-effects on
mind and body are not so disastrous as the effects
of being dead drunk on alcohol. There is hardly
a village in the Allahabad district where the
dhatura D-alba is not to be found, and I often see
it growing so close to certain huts as to look as
if it had been planted.
57. I have no doubt that both ganja and charas
are now largely used dissolved in alcohol. A con-
centrated tincture is by far the easiest way of
extracting the full strength of the drug. I have
no precise information on the subject. Charas
clearly can be taken internally in the form of a
pill and produces the characteristic intoxication
of hemp.
58. Works well, but, like all human institutions,
is capable of improvement.
59. In the direction of yielding a larger and
perfectly legitimate revenue to the State were it
not for external interference, which, coming as
it does from a country that mainly derives its
revenues from alcohol and tobacco and tea, is by
no means relished by Indians. All these com-
modities establish a craving or habit in a certain
proportion of people, and when taken in excess do
much harm.
60. A tax might be levied on pathar ganja,
but owing to the very intricate nature of the
boundary, this has hitherto been found impracti-
cable. Arrangements might be made with the
Gwalior Raj, which itself derives a considerable re-
venue by taxing the ganja exported into British
territory. European agency should be employed.
61. Charas is produced largely in Kumaon and
Garhwal; but as the entire sacking used for ex-
porting produce is made from the fibre of the
same plants from which the charas is extracted,
and the seeds are a valuable food stuff, any fur-
ther rules would be vexatious and unnecessary
and injurious.
62. No. Bhang is the sole produce of the
wild plant, though it can be obtained from the
cultivated plant also. For economic reasons this
is not done. The wild hemp is the dominant
weed over thousands of square miles of country,
and grows spontaneously on waste land unfit to
to produce anything else.
63. None whatever.
64. None whatever, though I think a tax might
be fairly levied on the import of pathar ganja
from Buudelkhand and Indore with the object of
giving Bengal ganja a chance of competing with
it.
65. The tax on baluchur ganja is excessive, as
the article costs about twice as much as abkari
opium, and there is a large amount of waste leaf
and woody fibre in the flowering tops. But then
the professed object of this heavy tax has been to
prevent, if not crush out, the use of the drug.
On the other hand, one pice worth of bhang will
produce an equivalent amount of intoxication to
4 annas worth of spirit, and this is how an Asiatic
gauges the virtues of an intoxicant. Charas
might yield a considerable revenue. A tax might
be put on it so as to equalize its value with ganja,