154
excommunicate any of their caste fellows who
take to alcohol, and so do Musalmans. But similar
measure is not dealt out to ganja smokers.
I never heard of any worship of the ganja plant.
34. It would be a serious privation to a ganja
smoker to forego his smoke. If a man has not
money to buy ganja, he will go to a friend
or some free-handed smoker and ask for a
whiff. Deprivation of such smoking in the
case of an habitual smoker throws his digestion
quite out of order, causes a swelling of the
stomach, and deprives him of appetite. The man
gets pains in his arms and legs, and cannot work
as before ; he soon gets tired. I have seen such
cases often when consumers have been out of
money ; they come begging to me for ganja to
get them up to go to work again, saying they
have been off work for want of ganja. This is the
case with all habitual consumers.
35. The Government could stop the consump
-
tion of ganja—nothing is beyond the Govern
-
ment ; but it would cause great dissatisfaction.
Some would be pleased at the stoppage : 25 per
cent. of the adult males would approve the stop
-
page, but the remaining 75 per. cent. would
object, Such prohibition would certainly result
in illicit cultivation and consumption, but this
could be repressed. The well-to-do classes would
take to other stimulants, as opium or liquor
(alcohol). The prohibition of ganja would cause
riots and great discontent among consumers, but
there would be no general uprising against Govern
-
ment on account of it.
If Government really wishes to do good, let it
repress madak. I say this, though I am a madak
contractor, but I see the ruin it causes. Ganja
is the poor man's stimulant, and the least harm
-
ful of all stimulants. It should not, in my
opinion, be prohibited, Alcoholic stimulants
require much more to be repressed than ganja.
Less general hardship would be involved in sup
-
pressing alcohol than in suppressing ganja. Also
any prohibition should be prepared for by pro
-
clamation for six months or a year, that people
might prepare themselves to do without ganja.
36. Alcohol is not at present superseding ganja.
The poor cannot afford alcohol. A pice worth
of ganja suffices to provide four smokes for
a poor man ; it would take a bottle of country
liquor to yield him equal stimulant, and that
would cost 2 annas, or the whole of a poor man's
daily wage. Alcohol never could take the place
of ganja as the poor man's stimulant.
39. Bhang drinking in moderation is not harm
-
ful at all ; on the contrary, it is cooling and
refreshing in hot weather. Ganja smoking is
injurious and may lead to excess, but is not so
likely to do so as indulgence in alcohol, opium or
madak.
40. Bhang is given to horses and cattle as a
tonic, to remove fatigue and give appetite.
Animals get into good condition under a tonic
course of bhang. The bhang is toasted in a metal
pot over a fire, and then either mixed with gur,
when the animals eat it readily, or is put down
their throats with salt.
41. The moderate consumption of ganja is
certainly beneficial to the labouring classes
and to those who are exposed to malaria. The
labourers can work harder and longer with help
of ganja than abstainers from ganja. The
staying-powers of ganja under severe exer
-
tion are notorious. The Gonds and cultivating
classes in malarial tracts and all weathers could
not get on without ganja ; it enables them to
live under conditions of water-supply and decaying
vegetation which would kill others. For those
who are habitually exposed to such conditions
or to hard labour, moderate habitual ganja
smoking is good. To .the habitual consumer,
ganja smoking is essential to maintenance of a
good digestion. It is only for the sedentary
classes, and those who have not to work hard in
the open air, that ganja smoking is really injuri
-
ous. Those are the classes who go mad under in
-
dulgence in ganja.
42. I do consider ganja smoking good for the
poor labouring classes. It enables them to bear
hardships they could not otherwise endure, and
gives them staying-power they would not other
-
wise have. I have been a ganja dealer for 17 or
18 years, and I have never known a hard-working
out-door labourer or Gond suffer from the habitual
moderate indulgence in ganja smoking. It is the
sedentary and the idle classes whom it injures.
43. The moderate consumers of ganja are abso
-
lutely inoffensive to their neighbours. It is the
unaccustomed occasional smokers, and the seden
-
tary classes who cannot stand ganja, who make
themselves offensive and troublesome to others.
44. To the habitual smoker of ganja the effect
is only refreshing, not intoxicating. To them a
smoke of ganja increases appetite. I have known
people purposely take a smoke of ganja before
sitting down to dinner. It also so refreshes the
hungry man, that even, without food, he can con
-
tinue work or fatigue. The refreshing effect of a
ganja smoke on a habitual moderate smoker lasts
for about three hours. After that time the habi
-
tual becomes limp (sust ) and longs for another
smoke.
45. The habitual moderate indulgence in ganja
has no injurious effect on the consumer, either
physical, mental or moral, provided he is a man of
active habits who has to work hard in the open.
It does not impair his constitution, but, on the
contrary, enables him to bear up against trying
conditions. It keeps his digestion and appetite in
good condition. It does not cause either dysen
-
tery, bronchitis or asthma to the labouring man ;
it is, however, apt to cause asthma to the sedentary
classes. It does not induce laziness or immoral
habits. Neither does habitual moderate indul
-
gence affect any one's reason.
46. Excessive indulgence in ganja does impair
the constitution, including the digestion and ap
-
petite, and causes asthma and dysentery and inabi
-
lity for labour, and sometimes produces insanity.
Those who work off the effects of the ganja with
hard labour do not suffer so much. They can
stand much more ganja than the sedentary classes.
Ganja has no effect in inducing immorality or de
-
bauchery ; on the contrary, excessive indulgence in
ganja incapacitates for such vice.
47. The moderate habitual consumption of ganja
does not affect a man's children in any way. I
never heard of any hereditary tendency on the part
of a ganja smoker's children to take to ganja too.
Fathers pass the ganja pipe on to their sons to join
with them in a smoke as they get old enough.
48. I have known sons, whose fathers are ad
-
dicted to excessive indulgence in ganja, to abstain
from the drug from disgust at their fathers' ex
-
cess.
49. Ganja is not used as an aphrodisiac.
50. It is only excessive indulgence in ganja
that renders a man impotent.