154
Fakirs and gosains who live on chary are
fairly well provided with money, and therefore
they will he able to buy liquor. I know some of
them take liquor already in secret. This is the
practice of some mahants of Hanuman Gadhi in
Ajudhya. The hemp and liquor habits are to
some extent interchangeable.
Question 29.—The mixing of dhatura is not a
common practice. The boiling of bhang in copper
vessels is, however, the usual method of prepara-
tion. After boiling the bhang is washed with
cold water and dried and kept for use in that
state. For consumption this is taken alone, or
mixed with the ingredients I have mentioned.
The poorer people mix it with black pepper alone.
The other ingredients are used by the more
wealthy.
Question 35.—Dhatura-smoking would in case
of restriction take the place of ganja and charas,
and the leaves would be used in the place of
bhang. I have, however, no experience of the
leaves of dhatura being used in this way.
Brahmins and others who do not smoke but con-
sume bhang would use dhatura leaves. The use
of dhatura would have very bad effects, especially
the smoking of it, for in that form it affects the
brain very rapidly and severely. I have seen
charas and ganja when smoked cause sudden in-
toxication, so that the smoker has fallen insensible.
I have seen the same effect follow from the smok-
ing of a mixture of dry and moist tobacco by
Muhammadan swho have been fasting at the Muhar-
ram. There is this difference between the effects
of the use of tobacco on the one hand and of ganja,
charas and dhatura on the other, that in the latter
case the smokers talk incoherently after they
have recovered their senses. Arsenic has no
intoxicating property, and I do not think it would
be used in place of the hemp drugs.
Question 41.—I have tried bhang on myself, and
I have found that it cuts short the cold stage of
fever. Many people in my own village in Sul-
tanpur use it in this way. It is taken before the
ague is to come on, and the fit is cut short by it.
Bhang taken in this way acts as a diuretic.
Question 45.—The smoking of ganja and charas
have caused asthma and bronchitis within my
own observation. Tobacco has not the same
effect. I have found these diseases very prevalent
among those who smoke the drugs to excess. The
moderate use will bring about the same result in
time, but I have no personal experience of this.
It is not the fact that ganja-smoking is a domest
tic remedy against asthma and bronchitis, but
dhatura is so used. I was seven years at Unao
There was a mali of the dispensary and a syce of
mine who had asthma. I saw other cases in my
dispensary practice. The two cases I have men-
tioned were under my continuous observation. It
takes some time for the disease to develop. The
mali's asthma came on with bronchitis first.
There was profuse discharge, and after three years
the man died of congestion of the lungs and
jaundice. The latter disease I attributed to dis-
ease of the lungs as the cause. This is the first
and only case I have seen of jaundice arising from
disease of the lungs. I never heard or read of
any other case. The second Unao case of asthma
is living, but the man is weak and unable to fol-
low me on horseback. Both of these cases began
with moderate use, which developed into the ex-
cessive before the effects I have described came
on. I have no experience of the moderate use
causing such serious results, but I think it prob-
able it could if long continued.
I do not think the moderate use of the drugs
produces insanity. I refer to the excessive use
when I say in this answer that the drugs do pro-
duce insanity. With regard to the bad effects on
the mental faculties, I maintain that the habitual
moderate use of ganja and charas are harmful.
I base my remark solely on my ideas of the phy-
siological effect of these drugs on the brain. The
brain becomes congested and not anæmic. The
degree of congestion depends on the quantity of
the drug consumed. With moderation the con-
gestion would not be serious nor lasting. It
would not be similar to the congestion caused by
alcohol, which is gradual and long continued,
whereas this congestion is more rapid and dis-
appears sooner.
Question 56.—In the case described bhang and
dhatura were given to the policeman by the pri-
soners. The drink was offered as thandai, and the
policeman did not know its strength or that it
contained dhatura.
106. Evidence of ASSISTANT SURGEON MOHAMMAD ABDURRAHIM, KHAN BAHADUR,
Lucknow.
1. As a student of medicine and as a Govern-
ment servant in this country, I had the oppor-
tunity of knowing something about the hemp drugs
from those who use it, and at times I have myself
been prescribing certain preparations of the drug
to. my patients as an anodyne.
2. These definitions are quite correct. The dry
leaves of the plant are called subzi, bhang. The
word "siddhi" is not used in these provinces, and
so the word "patti" is not so commonly known
as "blrang" and "subzi."
All varieties of ganja are known by one name,
"ganja."
3. I have seen it growing spontaneously on the
banks of rivers and in damp soils at Barrh in
Patna district, at Lahore (Punjab), and at Lucknow.
I have not seen it growing abundantly.
4. It is mostly known by the name "bung," or
"bhang," and sometimes "buti" (herb), and
"hashish."
6. What I have seen of the wild hemp growth.
I have found it pretty dense.
7. I know of none where the cultivation of the
hemp is carried on extensively. There is a place
near the city of Lucknow called Gowghat, where
hemp is cultivated on a small piece of ground for
the production of bhang only.
8. Do not know.
9. Cannot.
10. Don't know positively.
11. Don't know.
14. Cannot say.
15. Bhang is generally prepared out of leaves
of the cultivated plants. The leaves of the wild
plants do not produce good bhang. Out of the
wild plants they generally prepare ganja, which
consists of the flowers and the fine buds and tops of
the plant. Charas.— The active principle which
exudes on the leaves and the plant is collected both