64
36. Certainly liquor is substituted for these
drugs among rich people. The proofs are the
books of the wine merchants, and a more direct
proof can be had by going to liquor shops at
night ; causes for the change being the looseness
of character.
37. None I think.
38. Round or baluchar is better, superior, and
with better flavour. Flat or pathar is inferior,
having bad smell. Chur being the broken pieces
of the above two, poorer people are compelled to
be contented with the latter.
39. No ; in everyday life drinkers seem hale
and healthy and stout, while the others sickly, pale
and feeble.
40. For piles they generally allow a drink of
bhang and for stopping bleeding. They also put
small round cakes on the part affected with piles.
They give to horses and oxen when their hunger
is lessened for some reason or other.
41. Charas is not beneficial anyhow, except
that it has some effect in preventing malarious
diseases. They consequently use it in the Terai or
submontane tracts. So also is ganja. Almost all
classes of people use it. A moderate habitual use
of the drugs is regarded beneficial. Bhang is of
course beneficial in moderate quantity as digester
of food, creater of appetite, and it causes its con-
sumer to eat more after a drink. The drinkers
are an idle class of people ; they do not work, they
lie on their beds. It also serves as preventive of
malarious effects.
42. It is not harmless either. The charas and
ganja create cough, asthma, loss of appetite, etc.
Bhang, on the other hand, makes a man stout, for
its drinker eats much and his appetite is never
dead. Its drinker eats everything with a relish.
43. Yes.
44. Laziness, drowziness, talkativeness. Bhang
only is refreshing. All the three produce in-
toxication : charas and ganja immediately after
smoking, and bhang after it is digested. Bhang
only creates appetite ; the others lessen it. The
effects of bhang last for five or six hours, and so
also those of charas and ganja.
45. Ganja and charas create cough, asthma,
weaken the body, reduce a man to skin and bone.
Mind becomes wholly inactive but does not tend
to immorality : certainly they burn blood. They
injure digestion also and cause loss of appetite.
They deaden the intellect and occasionally produce
insanity. It is sometimes temporary and it can
be re-induced by their use after once leaving them.
Bhang improves digestion, creates appetite. It
does not create any of the diseases enumerated
above.
46. Ganja and charas have worse results in the
forms given above. Bhang as above.
47. No.
48. As above.
49. No ; it is rather the contrary. It thins
the semen and burns it. Fakirs use it purposely.
Charas and ganja cause impotency, but bhang
does not. Charas and ganja takers generally leave
no issue.
50. Worse than above.
51. Habitual bad characters do not take these
drugs. They make money and use liquor.
Moderate use of these drugs has, I think, no con-
nection whatever with crimes.
52. Still less.
53 and 54. No.
55. I have come across one such a case in
Kashipur, where a man was murdered after he was
stupefied by taking bhang. I hear they do prac-
tice it by administering dhatura or other thing in
chillums, and thus stupefy their victims.
57. I do not think so.
60. Ganja plant is not cultivated : it grows
wildly in the Terai, which people pluck and use as
they like. There seems no check for it. Poorer
classes use it whenever they like.
61. Charas is not made in these provinces
except in some parts of the Terai where the hemp
plant grows in abundance, but that charas is not
in use in the plains, as it is not of good quality,
There is a thorough control over the charas of
foreign production.
44. Evidence of M. MAHOMED WAST, Sheikh, Deputy Collector, Partabgarh.
1. I had had many opportunities of obtaining
information regarding the matters connected with
hemp drugs as a zamindar, pleader, Tahsildar and
Deputy Collector in the districts of Ghazipur,
Ballia, and Partabgarh—generally as an executive
officer, and specially as an officer in charge of ex-
cise and drugs—where I bad many things to en-
quire into. I was greatly assisted in answering
these questions by my subordinate official, Excise
Superintendent of Sadar Distillery, Partabgarh,
viz., Saved Hassan Ali, who is an experienced offi-
cial, and also a hakim.
2, Bhang, sabzi, patti or thandhai are the
different names applied to the leaves of the hemp
plant ; siddhi is the name rarely applied to the
leaves by sadbus or Hindu fakirs. These leaves
lose their blue colour and turn pale. The seed of
this plant resembles mostly with the grain called
maize (bajra). Although bhang and ganja are of
the same shape, yet there can be no doubt that
they differ from each other in kind and. the
effect produced by them. In the printed set of
questions the word "subji" is probably used for
"sabzi." There are two sorts of charas. (1)
Shaljahan, and (2) charas.
Shaljahan is brought by the Bhutias from the
mountains in the Nepal territory. It is said to be
obtained in the following manner :—In the evening
the Bhutias throw ashes, etc., on the plant, from
which this resinous matter is obtained. The ashes
dissolve with the resin during the night on account
of dew falling on the plant. Then in the morn-
ing the Bhutias enter into the jungle of this plant
with a leathern dress on their persons and rub
their bodies against these plants. The matter
which comes over on their leathern dress is col-
lected by them. This sort of charas is very strong
in its effects of intoxication, good in kind, and
very dear. But it produces slight intoxication,
and is used by noblemen and persons of delicate
disposition.
Charas, which is known after its own name, is
used every where. It is brought from Laddakh in
Bokhara. It consists of resinous matter, but is
not pure gum, and in greater part it consists of
earthly matter. When dried up it is nothing but