247
178. Evidence of LALA NIHAL CHAND, Honorary Magistrate, Saharanpur.
1. No special opportunities.
2. Yes. This may be taken as the local nom-
enclature of the various drugs.
3. There is an abundant spontaneous growth of
the hemp plant in the Saharanpur and Muzaffar-
nagar districts.
6. Scattered.
7. There is no cultivation of the hemp plant in
the districts with which I am acquainted.
14. Bhang is largely manufactured in this
district. No ganja or charas are produced.
16. Bhang is generally so prepared. It can be
prepared from the hemp plant wherever grown.
Ganja and charas are not prepared in this district.
18. Ganja and charas will keep for about a
year, after which they lose their strength. Bhang
will keep for two years or longer if preserved
from exposure to cold and damp.
19. In this district they are used only for
smoking, always mixed with tobacco.
20. Charas is principally consumed by fakirs,
bairagis, jogis, and gosains. Ganja is very little
used at all in this district.
21. Flat.
22. Foreign, principally imported from the
Punjab.
23. Not in the districts with which I am ac-
quainted.
24. (1) All classes of Hindus and (2) Mirasis,
Takiadars drink bhang and also cat it ; but the
practice of eating it is not common.
25. The consumption of charas and bhang is on
the increase, as shewn by the rise in the drug
contract price. I cannot give any special reasons.
I do not consider that the recent rise in the price
of liquor is responsible for the increased consump-
tion.
26. (a) 25 per cent.
(b) 15 per cent.
(c) 50 per cent.
(d) 10 per cent.
29. Bhang is usually mixed with black pepper.
It is also sometimes mixed with almond, carda-
mom, sugar, poppy seed, and milk. Dhatura is
not used for this purpose. These admixtures are
intended to minimize the heating and drying
effects of the drug. No.
31. (a) Yes; (b) It is easy to leave off drinking
bhang, but difficult to give up charas and ganja.
(c) The moderate habit tends to develop into the
excessive.
32. As regards Hindus, it is not considered
disgraceful to consume the drugs although there
is no injunction in their favour. The Muham-
mad an faith prohibits the use of drugs.
33. The use of charas and ganja is considered
reprehensible. No moral stigma attaches to the
consumption of bhang. No such custom in this
district. I believe the origin of the disrepute
attached to the consumption of charas and ganja
to be that the consumers are offensive to their
neighbours owing to their breath being tainted.
34. The usual consumers would be occasioned
considerable distress by the deprivation of the
drug to which they are accustomed. An enforced
abstinence renders them fretful and physically
'slack.' Some 50 per cent. of the consumers
would be so affected.
85. 1 consider such a prohibition would be in-
expedient and ineffectual, as it would at once be
followed by illicit consumption and would occasion
serious discontent, which, however, would not
amount to a political danger. Yes.
41. The moderate use of bhang is beneficial as
a digestive, as a stimulant, and as a febrifuge and
preventive of cholera. Ganja and charas are in
no way beneficial.
43. Bhang-drinkers are inoffensive. Ganja and
charas smokers are offensive. Their breath is
tainted, and they are constantly coughing and
expectorating.
44. Ganja and charas produce immediate in-
toxication and torpidity. Bhang acts after about
an hour. It creates hunger, and specially a desire
for sweetmeats. They all have the effect of an
aphrodisiac. The effects of ganja and charas
last for a couple of hours ; that of bhang for
about four hours. The after-effects of all three
are a physical limpness.
45. The habitual moderate use of ganja and
charas are injurious both physically and morally.
They cause a loss of appetite, coughing and
whooping cough, and deaden the intellect. The
use of bhang produces corpulence, but has no
mental or moral effect. The use of ganja and
charas is occasionally productive of temporary
insanity, which ceases when the drug is stopped
and is reinduced by the drug being taken again.
47. No.
51. There is in my opinion no connection be-
tween crime and the consumption of drugs.
Oral evidence.
Question 25.—To the best of my belief there
is no connection between the increased consump-
tion of the hemp drugs and the rise in the price
of liquor. The two habits are distinct, and I am
unable to give any reason for the increased con-
sumption of the drugs.
Question 29.—I never heard of dhatura being
mixed with charas for smoking.
Question 35.—If the Punjab charas were pro-
hibited, it would still be imported illicitly. Peo-
ple who could not get smuggled charas would take
opium in the first instance because it resembles
charas. Opium would be eaten and smoked. I
cannot distinguish between the deleterious effects
of opium and charas. They are equally bad when
smoked. Alcohol would also be resorted to, but
to a less degree than opium. I consider liquor
more deleterious than charas. Liquor has many
bad effects while charas has not, In hot weather
a man may go insane from charas. Liquor does
not produce insanity but in general effects it is
worse.
Question 45.—I cannot give any instances of
insanity produced by ganja or charas. My state-
ment is general.
Question 51.—I have been fourteen years a Mag-
istrate. The hemp drugs do not cause crimes. I
have never had a case in which the crime was
alleged to have been committed under influence