401
rioration is exposure and natural effect of time
upon things. No special preventive measures can
be taken except preservation without exposure to
damp air and sun.
19. See answer under section 15 supra .
20. Ganja is generally smoked by workmen,
poor people who require intoxication, by fakirs,
and the sadhus of Northern India; in this province
the ganja smokers are generally low class people.
21. Those who want good intoxication smoke
mulki ganja, and those who look to their health
smoke mandam ganja.
25. The use of ganja is on the increase;
generally poor people, the lazy of them, find amuse-
ment in it. They assemble generally on the street
verandahs: the habit is communicated gradually
to those near them. The working classes take
to it as a cheap luxury. The use of ganja by one
tempts the neighbour and the inducement is rather
great.
26. ( a) ¾.
(b) ¼ .
(c) N i l
.
(d) Nil .
27. Moderate consumers are generally well-to-
do people and are of some respectability; secondly,
they are workmen, doing coolie work; thirdly,
they are vagabonds and stray fellows with no other
work except killing time in idle talk; these last
are generally mean folks.
(1) Class in the above use ganja as a luxury
with a view to be able to eat and drink well and
sumptuously.
(2)
Class use it as a recreation and to enjoy
sound sleep during nights.
(3) Class use it as a fashion of the day among
idlers, of the excessive consumers, the fakirs,
etc., use ganja to enable them to concentrate
steadily their mind on God and to secure one-
pointedness of the mind.
28. To smoke ganja it costs a man one pie or
two for a dose. Moderate consumers may be
said to have 2 or 3 doses a day.
29. Bhang massala consists of several ingre-
dients, such as poppy seeds, spices, milk, etc.
30. When a man smokes ganja, he usually
hands the chillum to the one next to him. They
smoke or drink in company. Smoking in solitude
is rare. Females and children also smoke ganja,
but not to a large extent in this presidency.
31. (a ) The habit is easily formed.
(b) The man habituated to the use of ganja
will feel very uneasy for about ten days or so if
be breaks off. Afterwards he may turn all right.
(c) The moderate consumer will not like to
smoke excessively unless he changes his mode of
life to that of an idle, sedentary habit, in which
case there is more probability.
32. The use of ganja by the Brahmins of this
presidency is prohibited by religion. The other
respectable castes follow suit in holding the same
view.
33. Ganja smokers in this province are looked
upon as people whose words cannot be relied
upon; the use of any form of the narcotic is
generally in disrepute, because intoxication blinds
the reason of man, his brain is muddled; and
under its influence the man evolves endless fancy,
mental pictures, and indulges in them to the detri-
ment of his duty in the world as man.
vol vi.
34. To them, of course, it is a privation, rather
of a serious nature too. It is very likely that
such enforced abstinence may affect the health of
some of the habitual consumers, who are mentally
very weak; but this can be remedied in the
natural way by lapse of time. Anyhow the con-
sumer is sure to feel a shock and labour under it
for about ten days at least.
35. Unless the cultivation of the hemp plant,
which is now promiscuously done, be stopped, it
is not feasible to prohibit the use of any of these
drugs. The prohibition will eventually produce
serious discontent, but this feeling will die away
in course of time. There can be no political
danger from such a step.
Ganja consumers will not take to other intoxi-
cants, as the latter are more costly than ganja.
The fact that as much intoxication as from four
annas worth of liquor could be got from one pie
worth of ganja, stories foremost to all, and this
is how even poor people also afford to use ganja
freely. Perhaps after ganja toddy may be liked
by these people, as it is only cheap intoxicating
beverage available next to ganja.
36. No; I do not think alcohol is substituted
for any of these drugs.
37. I do not know.
38. Mandam ganja does not impair health.
Mulki ganja is more intoxicating than either of
the other two. Javaji ganja is ordinary in its
effects.
39. Smoking ganja is mere injurious than
eating or drinking. The sharpness of its nature
is softened when mixed with ghee or milk
, w h e r e a s i n s m o k i n g t h e g a n j a i s u s e d i n a r a w
state and thus produces more heat in the body.
40. Ganja is used in medicine; but no medical
man prescribes the use of ganja regularly in a
habitual manner. Ganja is also used in the
treatment of cattle disease.
41. ( a ) Ganja consumers taste food well, eat
much and can digest all that.
(b) To some extent it is beneficial in al-
leviating fatigue.
(c) Decidedly it is a preventive of disease
in malarious and unhealthy tracts.
There can be no occasional use of ganja,
whether moderate or otherwise. If at all a man
uses it, be would be a habitual consumer;
as a new man cannot withstand its intoxicating
effects.
42. I do not think it is quite harmless. It
renders a man unfit to some extent for worldly
purposes of active life. The habituated man
generally runs mad after it if he could not get
it in time.
43. They are inoffensive.
44. It is refreshing in a slight manner, pro-
duces intoxication; it does not allay hunger, but
the man is insensible of the appetite, being biliously
giddy. Yet the man can take in a large quantity
of food if offered. The effect may last for nearly
six hours.
45 and 46. It impairs the constitution if proper
nourishment is wanting.
It does not injure digestion directly.
It causes dysentery, costiveness: invariably
bri ngs on ast hma.
It induces laziness generally; but steadiness in
the work in hand or taken up at the time
47. It is so for the most part in Northern
India.
3 H