364
different. The former causes abstraction, while
the latter excites. They cause people to do very
peculiar things. As to the effects on the health
of the people generally, I have observed very little.
I have only observed such individual cases as I
have indicated. And in discussing the effects on I
the health of the people, it is very difficult to
distinguish between the effects of opium, liquor,
and drugs.
I have seen cases in which people were undoubt-
edly mad for the time being ; and on inquiring
as to the cause, I have been told that it was
temporary madness due to these drugs. I had a
case in my own compound, a servant, who went
suddenly mad. They said it was bhang. I sent
him to hospital. He escaped, and 1 have not
seen him since. I never suspected him of the use
of the drugs before.
So far as effects have come to my notice, the
effects of liquor are infinitely worse than those of
drugs. I have seen infinitely worse effcets from
liquor than those which I have been told were
due to drugs. I look on all these things in much
the same light. Use in moderation does not
harm, but in excess it does,
In regard to the connection of the drugs with
crime, I have known cases of men running
"amok" who, I was informed at the time, were
under the influence of the drug. None of them
came before me officially. But I have heard of
such cases. And I remember one case in which
a Gurkha belonging to the regiment to which
I was then attached ran "amok," and killed or
cut down some four or five people in the bazar.
This was in the "sixties." The case was connect-
ed with a woman. There was jealousy. So far
as I recollect, his wife had gone o(F with another
man. But it is too long ago to recollect details.
This is the only case of running "amok3" with
which I am personally acquainted. 1 have heard
of other cases.
In no other way does my personal experience
lead me to connect the drugs with crime. I have
heard of murders which were said to have been
connected with the drugs, but I have never come
across any. I have tried many cases of murder
and other serious violent crime as Committing
Magistrate from 1S70 to 18S9. During these
nineteen years I have taken up the bulk of this
class of* cases either as Committing Magistrate
or as Deputy Commissioner acting under section
30, Criminal Proceedure Code. I have had the
drugs pleaded in a careless kind of way occa-
sionally in excuse ; but there has never been
any proof of it.
I have had lots of cases where rows and fights,
in which the results have been serious, have
occurred after liquor ; but not with hemp drugs.
That is, it has never been brought before me as
a Magistrate that the crime was due to hemp
drugs ; but it has been brought before me that it
was due to drink.
In regard to the policy which Government
should pursue in respect to intoxicants, I think
that our liquor system is the kind of policy
required for alcohol. In regard to bhang, I
think that the difficulties of restriction owing to
the wild growth are so great that any attempt
to restrict would lead to greater evils than the
drug itself. There would be such a plague of
locusts in the shape of excise officers, spies and
informers, that the evils would be worse than
result from consumption. This applies to places
where the plant grows wild. Elsewhere you
might tax bhang by transport duty.
But it
is a ticklish thing. By making bhang more
expensive you would touch the people on a very
susceptible point as regards fakirs and mendi-
cants. 1 would not, however, oppose a transport
duty on that ground alone, if it could be imposed
without further excise establishments.
The
watching and espionage would cause great annoy-
ance and discontent. The cultivation of bhang
could bo stopped with the greatest ease in the
Punjab; but there is so little that it would not
make much difference. 1 ought to add that to
make bhang more expensive, or to prohibit it, has
this additional danger, that people might take
to other things that are worse. And so far as I
know, there is no need for the restriction of
bhang.
Charas is imported from Yarkand and by way
of Kashmir. There would be no harm in taxing
charas, except that as it became more expensive,
people
would take more to bhang, that is, a
certain number would not cease to use hemp,
but would merely turn from one form of hemp
to another. I am not sure which is the worse
form ; but I am informed that charas is.
As to the feasibility of taxing charas, I am
clearly opposed to the introduction of a customs
lino. Charas comes in from Yarkand and by
way of Kashmir and Ladakh. The only system
would be to have centres to which the people
could go with their drugs to pay duty, It would
be necessary to have convenient places on the
trade routes. At present they are bound to bring
their drugs to certain places and register them
and get passes, but this provision is evaded.
Such central places would be places where the
duty could be paid, either by the importers or
the contractors who purchased from them. The
drug would not bo allowed to pass on without
payment. I cannot express any opinion as to
what the effect of this would be on the Yarkand
trade.
5. Evidence of MR. W. COLDSTREAM , Deputy Commissioner, Simla.
1. I have served in districts where the hemp
plant grows freely in a wild state, and in districts
into which charas is largely imported. I have
also recently taken steps to collect special inform-
ation on the subject of hemp drugs, in respect
principally of the district of Simla.
2. The dried leaves have various names. Bhang
is the most common. Súkha seems to be a com-
mon name for the dried leaves. The green leaves
(or the plant) are sometimes called buti súkhi, or
bhokar.
In Bashahr both the green and dried leaves are
called bhangúra.
The seeds are called bhangúra throughout a
great part of the Simla Hills, and in Baghát,
bhangúlú. Ganja, I should imagine, is not much
used in the Punjab. Charas is largely imported
from Yarkand and neighbouring tracts via Kulu
and Bashahr, and used to a certain extent in the
Punjab. Bhang is the dried leaves of the hemp
plant.