148
Ganja smoking is confined chiefly to the male
sex. Not more than 5 per cent of ganja smokers
are women. Ganja smoking is not peculiar to
any special age. Boys begin from 12 to 15, fol
-
lowing the example of their fathers and elders.
31. It is not easy to learn ganja smoking.
People have to learn by degrees. A fellow takes
15 days or a month to learn to smoke ganja with
appreciation and enjoyment. Once learnt, the
habit of smoking ganja is difficult to give up.
There is a tendency, but it is not a strong one, for
moderate consumers to begin to smoke ganja to
excess. I cannot recall any instances of consu
-
mers who have taken to smoking ganja to a
ruinous excess, The great majority continue to
be moderate consumers for life.
32. I know of no custom, social, or religious,
involving consumption of ganja.
33. Among classes and families, who do not
smoke ganja, it would be considered a disgrace if
one of their sons was to take to ganja smoking,
and he would be given the reproachful title of
"ganjeri." But among classes accustomed to
ganja, no such reproach attaches to the habit.
It is only prejudice on their part, for half the male
population indulge in ganja without injurious
effect.
I never heard of any custom of worshipping the
ganja plant. I have, however, heard that some
people consider ganja the (buti) flower of Mahadeo,
and offer the flower (kali) of ganja in their
worship of Mahadeo. But nothing of this kind
has come across my personal observation.
34. It would be a serious privation to deprive
habitual consumers of the ganja smoke to which
they are accustomed. It would affect all their
energies and their digestion, and lay them up
more or less for a month. I say so from what I
imagine. I have never known a case of the
kind.
35. It would be feasible to prohibit the use of
ganja. Is anything too difficult for the Sarkar ?
But let the Government first make certain that it
is really for the good of the people to stop the use
of ganja. If Government is satisfied on this
point, two years' notice should be given by pro-
clamation, that people may gradually accustom
themselves to do with less and less ganja, till they
can dispense with it altogether. I do not think
the prohibition could be enforced by fine or im-
prisonment. If ganja smoking were made punish-
able, even after two years' proclamation, with fine
of even Rs. 5, I apprehend that the jails would
not be large enough to hold all the persons who
would become liable to imprisonment. There
would be a very general plotting to obtain the
drug illicitly. Serious discontent would be roused,
and there would certainly be riots.
Probably about 50 per cent. of the present
consumers of ganja would bow to the proclamation
and give up smoking ganja, 30 per cent. would
submit after making all the commotion and resis
-
tance they could, and 20 per cent would take to
alcohol or opium instead.
I do not, however, advise any such attempt to
suppress the consumption of ganja.
36. Alcohol has certainly not begun to super
-
sede ganja in this district. One pice worth of
ganja suffices for a chillum (pipe), which will re
-
fresh and invigorate three or four men. It would
require a bottle of liquor to refresh them equally,
and that would cost 2 annas or 2½ annas,—the
whole of a labourer's daily wage. Ganja is the
poor man's stimulant, and they cannot afford to
take to liquor instead.
42. I do consider that the smoking of ganja is
beneficial to the outdoor labouring classes. It
enables them to endure fatigue andexposure, and
to work on hard, without evil effects.
43. The moderate consumers of ganja are ab
-
solutely inoffensive to their neighbours.
44. I can speak for bhang because every year,
in the season of Holi, I partake several times of
bhang. Its effects are exhilarating but not in
-
toxicating to exent of disqualifying for business,
unless taken to excess. On the contrary, it
makes me quicker and readier for business. It
does not affect my shrewdness, nor dispose me to
be weak in bargaining, or in according a lower
rate of interest. Bhang does not allay appetite ;
on the contrary, it makes a man twice as hungry
as usual. The effects of moderate indulgence in
bhang pass off in about a couple of hours. It has
no after effects, except to those who indulge in
excess. After my indulgence in the season of
Holi, I revert without uneasiness to my wonted
abstinence from bhang.
45. The habitual moderate use of ganja is
general in this district, and it has no injurious
effect on the constitution; neither does it injure
their digestions or affect their appetite; nor does
it cause dysentery, bronchitis or asthma; nor make
our labourers and artizans lazy or immoral; nor
affect their intelligence or produce insanity.
46. I have heard of people going off their
heads from excessive indulgence in ganja; but
such cases are very exceptional. None has ever
come under my personal observation.
47. The habitual moderate use of ganja has no
effect of any kind on children. On the contrary
our Goads and outdoor labourers have notoriously
large families, and their children are as strong
and healthy as any one's. I never heard of any
hereditary habit or taint in children of
g a n j a
smokers.
48. Even the excessive use of ganja does not
affect the children of consumers who have a hard
outdoor life, wherein they work off its effects. Near
my neighbourhood there lives Dharmoo Kunjra,
a Khatik, who sells fruit, vegetable, and spices,
and cultivates his own land. He smokes five or
seven chillums of ganja a day, which is excessive
compared to other people. He has two very fine
healthly children of 10 or 12 years of age.
49. I never heard of ganja in moderation either
exciting or reducing sexual desire.
50. I never heard that excessive indulgence in
ganja makes a man impotent.
51. Moderate indulgence in ganja is not more
general among the criminal classes than any other,
At least half the honest labouring classes of this
district are addicted to the moderate smoking of
g a n j a .
52. There is no connection between excessive
indulgence in ganja and addiction to crime.
53. I never heard of excessive indulgence in
ganja developing a homicidal tendency.
54. I never heard of criminals fortifying them
-
selves with ganja or bhang before commencing
a premeditated crime.
55. I never beard of criminals using ganja to
stupefy their victims before robbing them.
56. I have heard of hardened ganja smokers
mixing dhatura seed with the ganja they smoke
to increase its intoxicating effect; but I have no
special information on the subject.