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they take it at all ages medicinally. Ganja is
boiled with ghee, and a sweet preparation is made
for children as a preventive of diarrhœa and
dysentery.
31. The habit of consuming is easily formed,
and it is very difficult to break off. For the first
five or six days its consumption causes violent
in-toxcation. If consumption is stopped, the indivi•
dual loses appetite, gets indigestion, fever, etc., and
dies. There is a tendency to go from moderation
to excess and to increase the quantity consumed.
32. There are no social customs known. It is
consumed on festival days. There is no religious
custom with which it is associated or to which it
is essential.
33. The consumption is not regarded as a re
- s p e c t a b l e a c c o m p l i s h m e n t ; r a t h e r i t i s r e g a r d e d a s
a bad habit as producing intoxication. The habit
is generally confined to the lower orders. If a
stray plant is found anywhere, consumers, it is
said, make obeisance. It is given to fakirs as a
mark of respect. Habitual consumers are said to
burn frankincense before a plant found unex-
pectedly.
34. As the consumers are generally poor people
who cannot afford to buy liquors, it will be a serious
privation to make them forego the habit of con-
sumption, as it is difficult to give up the practice.
In the Trichinopoly taluk there are reported to
be about 1,000 persons who smoke ganja and eat
bhang. In the Kulitalai shop there are from 40
to 50 customers a day. The figures are of course
not accurate, but the number of consumers is
undoubtedly very small compared with the number
of those who use alcohol.
35. It would not be feasible to enforce a prohi-
bition of the consumption of so easily carried a
drug, even if it were desirable. There is no doubt
that the drug would be illicitly consumed. The
prohibition would cause discontent, but not here,
probably political danger. I think there would be
very probably a desire to have recourse to alcoholic
stimulants, but I do not know enough of the effects
of the drug, to say certainly.
36. The number of consumers of these drugs
being small, and there being but little accurate
information of the amount actually consumed, no
general statement can be made. I know of no in-
stance of a ganja smoker giving up ganja and
taking to liquor.
37. No information.
38.No round ganja here. Flat ganja has
more intoxicating effect than chur.
39. Smoking is said to be preferred, as being
less injurious than eating or drinking; but the
Head Assistant Collector reports that it is con-
sidered to be more exciting.
40. It is mixed with other drugs by native
doctors and used for diarrhœa, dyspepsia, etc.
None of the drugs is said to be used in the treat-
ment of cattle disease.
41. (a) Yes, so it is said.
(b) It is used for this purpose.
( c )
Y e s , b u t w h e n d r u n k i t i s s a i d n o t t o b e
effective.
(d). It is said to prevent illness due to
change of water.
42. The prevailing opinion is that a moderate
use of the drugs is harmless, but the question is
one for medical men to answer.
43. Yes.
44. According to consumers, it is refreshing and
slightly intoxicating. Does not allay hunger but
creates appetite. The effect lasts from three to six
hours. The after-effect is said to be a feeling of
weakness, unless the dose is repeated, but not to
the same extent as in the case of opium eating.
If the dose is not repeated, headache, loss of
appetite, indigestion, looseness of bowels, etc., are
said to follow. Its use is said to produce a religious
frame of mind.
45. I have no satisfactory information. Some
consumers stated to the Head Assistant Collector
that, as long as the consumer has sufficient nourish-
ment, no ill-effects follow. But if food is in-
sufficient insanity may follow. I know of no
case.
46. Habitual excess is no doubt injurious, but
what are the precise effects I cannot say.
47 and 48. Consumers say that it is not here-
ditary and does not affect children.
49. Not so far as I know.
51. Yes. Most of our bad characters are not
habitual consumers. So far as I can ascertain,
there is no traceable connection between the use
of ganja and crime here. The General Deputy
Collector remarks that poor consumers may com-
mit theft to provide themselves with means to
procure the drugs they require.
53. Not so far as I am aware. I know of no
case here.
54. No.
55. A case is reported to have occured at
Tuva-rankurichi in Marungapuri zamindari, Kulitalai
taluk. A man used to visit the bandy stand,
throw ganja into the pots in which rice was cook-
ing, and afterwards rob the bandy men. Com-
plete stupefaction can be produced. The dhatura
is generally preferred to ganja by criminals for
stupefying victims.
58. The sale of hemp drugs is restricted to
licensed shops, but there are no other restrictions,
and there cannot, therefore, be said to be much
of a system at all. No one will deny that the
system is capable of improvement in the sense
that it is not ideally perfect; so far as it goes it
works well enough, but cannot do much to regu-
late or control consumption.
60. Ganja not produced in this district.
61. Charas also is not produced in this district.
62. No cultivation in this district.
63. I have no improvements to suggest in the
method of regulating the sale of drugs so long as
the manufacture and transport are left unre-
stricted.
64. There are none.
65. (a) No differences made.
(b) The only taxation is the license fee paid
by shopkeepers and the ordinary land tax paid by
growers. It is not proportionate to the taxation
on opium, but it would not be at present practi-
cable to equalise them.
68. Shops are not licensed for consumption on
the premises.
69. As the shops are not licensed for consump
- t i o n o n t h e p r e m i s e s , t h e y d o n o t a f f e c t t h e l o c a l i t y
in which they are situated any more than a shop
for the sale of any other commodity. It is not
usual to consult the people before fixing on sites,
but any objection received would be considered.
70. No.