354
Sometimes the dry leaf is eaten with or without
sugar, and a draught of water is taken subse-
quently.
16. Bhang (the decoction) is prepared in the
manner described above by people in their houses.
It can be prepared from the hemp plant wherever
grown. But in fact the plant that grows in the
khadir and is picked in September is of greater
potency and is preferred. The poor only use the
plant which grows in places other than the khadir.
19. Charas is only used for smoking. Ganja
is not smoked at all in this district. All castes
take charas ; fakirs are the chief consumers.
Witness calculates that 1 per cent. of the popula-
tion take charas.
22. Charas is imported from Yarkand.
23. Bhang is not used for smoking. If it were,
the results would be disastrous, as madness would
ensue.
24. Bhang is taken only by habitual consumers
in the cold weather ; in the hot weather its use is
general. Only 2 or 3 per cent. of bhang consum-
ers eat the drug, mostly fakirs. Habitual con-
sumers are found among Banias, Brahmans, and
Musalmans. About 8 per cent. of the people,
witness calculates, are habitual consumers. About
80 per cent. take bhang as a cooling drink in the
hot weather. (Witness's knowledge is confined
to the area of Muzaffarnagar.
25. Witness thinks that the use of charas but
not of bhang is on the decrease, as people cannot
afford the luxury.
27. The excessive consumers are mostly drawn
from fakirs.
"Witness formed his habits of drinking charas in
his youth, from a licensee with whom he associated.
He learnt to drink bhang from his uncle, who be-
longed to a well-known family of bhang con-
sumers. The uncle was a patwari.
28. Habitual excessive consumers of charas use
from 1 chattack to 2 chattacks a day, i.e., 0-10-0
to 1-4-0 per day. (This seems excessive ; witness
refers to fakirs.)
Habitual moderate consumers take 1 tola or 1½
tola a day, i.e., 2 or 3 annas worth.
Habitual excessive consumers of bhang take 1½
tola or 2 tolas, i.e., 1½ pies or 2 pies worth.
Moderate consumers of bhang take 3 mashas
to 6 mashas, i.e. ¼ of a pie to ½ a pie's worth.
29. The ingredients of bhang (used by those
who can afford them) have been mentioned (ques-
tion 15). They are taken as a cooling drink in
summer. In the cold weather sont (ginger),
ajwain, and almond are mixed with bhang to warm
the body,
Dhatura is not used. Sheira (molasses), to-
bacco are mixed with charas.
30. Charas is usually smoked in company of
three or four smokers. Bhang is often taken in
solitude, but often in company of two or three
drinkers. Men take charas, not women. The
habit is acquired from 15 years to 20, not after.
Some women of prostitute class take bhang ; men
of age of 18 upwards take bhang ; children con-
sume neither drug.
31. The habits of taking bhang and charas are
easily formed. The former habit, but not the
latter, is easily broken off. Witness used to smoke
from six mashas to one tola of charas when he got
it from the friend, the licensee, for nothing. He
now smokes three mashas a day. There is no
tendency for moderate use of either drug to de-
velop to the excessive.
32. The society of fakirs leads to the habit of
drinking bhang and smoking charas. Boys visit
fakirs' shrines in hopes of having their prayers
answered. The fakirs impress on them the spirit-
ual benefit to be derived from smoking charas at
the shrine.
33. The use of charas is generally regarded as
disgraceful, but not that of bhang.
Witness attributes the sentiment to the high
price of charas, which reduces those who habitually
indulge in it to poverty. Charas and bhang are
often indulged in at fakirs' shrines, and there is a
custom of first offering them to Siva. This offer-
ing does not save the drugs from consumption.
34. It would be a privation to forego the use of
charas. Bodily pain, coughing, would be caused
for some forty days. To leave off bhang would
cause slight inconvenience.
Witness speaks
from the personal experience when he has been
obliged to forego charas. He felt pain in the legs
and coughed and spat phlegm,
35. Witness would view with great satisfaction
the prohibition of the use of charas and bhang, and
this feeling is shared by all the Banias and Brah-
man consumers in the city of his acquaintance.
His character and his capacity for making a live-
lihood have both suffered. Witness would not
be driven to the use of alcohol or any other drug.
40. The use of bhang is prescribed by native
doctors.
41. Charas enables the habitual consumer to
digest his food. It takes away the desire for food
except of dainties. It does not act as a febrifuge.
Bhang stimulates the appetite. Bhang is a febri-
fuge, when occasionally taken. Kahars who have
to plant singhara in ponds in the cold weather
take charas in order to lessen the effects of their
immersion.
42. The moderate use of charas is harmless.
Witness states that he got into the society of a
fakir woman with whom he used to smoke 2 or 3
tolas of charas a day and he got ruined and injur-
ed in constitution. The moderate use of bhang
is beneficial.
43. Neighbours are afraid of moderate consum-
ers of charas ; in case any one should speak to
them when they are intoxicated and should be
abused.
44. The use of charas is followed by a glowing
sensation all over the body, which lasts for some
two hours.
When the effects wear off there is a desire for
taking more of the drug. The use of bhang also
causes a stimulating sensation to the body.
45. The moderate habitual use of charas does
not impair the constitution. It causes bronchitis
asthma, but not dysentery. The desire of grati-
fying the longing for the drug causes people to
disregard the rights of property and to steal.
Laziness, immorality, and debauchery are not
induced by the habitual moderate use of charas.
The moderate use of bhang has no bad effects
mentioned.
46. Witness learnt to use charas from a drug
licensee of Muzaffarnagar. This man used to take
charas and bhang and also liquor in excess, and he
got insane at age of 30, and became a violent lunatic
and died 18 months after.
Genda, a nai of Muzaffarnagar, drank 1 tola of
bhang and smoked 2 tolas of charas every day.