169
per cent. of these suffer from deadened intellect ap-
proaching to insanity when advanced in years.
Actual insanity is often porduced in a young man
of sanguine temperament, even after a couple of
months' use of ganja and charas; but as I never
had an insane smoker of ganja and charas under
my treatment, I cannot say more than this, that
the insanity produced in a young man by the use
of these two drugs is sometimes of a permanent
and sometimes of a temporary nature, and curable
if treated in due time. These insanes seldom ac-
knowledge that they are ganja and charas smokers.
There are even now a few idiots in Daraganj who
lost their senses through the effects of these drugs.
They wander about in the streets as destitute,
inoffensive persons. A healthy young man, a do-
mestic servant of a gentleman here, some years
ago, became insane by a few months' use of ganja
and charas, and his master got him treated by a
medical practitioner of the city, who was his
family doctor. The treatment consisted of cooling
medicines and counter-irritants on the neck. The
man was cured. He gave up smoking of these drugs,
and it is now over eight years he has not had a
single relapse of the disease. He is now serving
as an industrious and faithful servant at Fatehgarh.
46. The habitual excessive use of the drugs in
question brings on a rapid attack of those complaints
which their daily habitual moderate use gradually
produces.
47. It has been often seen that the children of
persons who habitually use either ganja, charas,
bhang or opium inherit the tendency of their
parents, and become addicted to these drugs even
at an early period of their life. Even among the
members of good families this result is observable,
and a medical practitioner, who acts as a family
doctor to respectable native families, can confi-
dently make the above assertion from the intimate
acquaintance he possesses with the constitutional
leaning of his patients. In rare cases the children
of habitual consumers of these drugs are found
without such tendencies.
48. See above reply.
49. It has already been stated in my reply to
question No, 30 that the female sex very moder-
ately use the mild preparation of bhang as a do-
mestic medicine in several complaints. Bhang, if
slightly fried with ghi and powdered with "zira"
and "choti elaichi" though a narcotic to a certain
extent, would not only improve the digestive or-
gans, but also give strength to a weak person, and
prostitutes using this preparation are not expected
to suffer from the injurious effects of bhang when
used purely as a narcotic. Yes; the use of hemp,
without being admixed with other suitable ingre-
dients, fails to produce good effects, and it is
known that partial, if not complete, impotency is
caused by the use of pure hemp drugs, as it is pro-
duced by large and frequent doses of camphor.
50. I know of no instance in which the use of
ganja and charas has produced impotency.
56. (a) The effects of hemp used in moderation,
if taken occasionally as medicine, are conducive
to health.
(b) If taken in excess, even occasionally, is in-
jurious to health. Regarding the admixture of
dhatura and nux vomica with hemp drugs, all the
information that can be given is that when a
confirmed smoker of ganja or charas or a drinker
of bhang is not in possession of a sufficient quantity
of the drugs he uses, he mixes either dhatura seeds
or nux vomica to make up the deficiency. These
as well as cantharides (Indian "telni mukhi") are
used by Chamars with flour paste for clandestinely
killing cattle. They are also used by the criminal
classes as admixtures to hemp drugs for victimizing
the objects of their pursuits, just as in former days
the thugs used to do.
57. I know of no place where ganja and charas
are eaten and drunk.
Appendix A.
Numbe r
.
1
2
CLASS OF CONSUM-
ERS.
Habitual moderate
consumers.
Habitual excessive
consumers.
BHANG.
Number.
900
100
Average
allowance
per diem.
Srs. Chit.
3 14½
or 7 pounds
13 oz. 2 scru-
ples, and 16½
grains per
head or 33/4
mashas.
...
Average
cost per
diem.
R a. p.
3 14 6
one pice
for 4 per-
sons.
...
Number.
150
250
GANJA.
Average
allowance
per diem.
20 tolas or
7 ounces,
4 drachms,
9 grains
per head.
Average
cost per
diem.
R a. p.
6 4 0
one pice
per head.
Numbe r
.
50
1150
CHARAS.
Average
allowance
per diem.
8 tolas or
3 ounces,
71/5 grains
per head
J
Average
cost per
diem.
R a. p.
3 0 0
nearly one
pice per
head.
REMARKS.
N.B.—Out of a population of 13,000 souls.
Oral evidence.
Question 29.—The habit of mixing dhatura by
the poor is not a general but an occasional habit.
By "poor" I mean the ordinary poor and also
some fakirs.
Question 36.—The labouring classes to a certain
extent are taking to liquor in place of the drugs
because their wages are rising, and they can afford
liquor, though somewhat dearer. This is an in-
crease now as compared with the old days, forty
years ago or so. The increase continues. This
refers to the well-to-do labouring classes, not the
poor. The habits are interchangeable.
This
applies to ganja as well as bhang, for some ganja
smokers also take liquor. It is a matter of desire
for intoxication.
Question 45—Out
of one hundred ganja
smokers who come sick to the dispensary, I find
that seventy-five have chronic bronchitis or dysent-
ery, and twenty-five have some mental disorder.
vol. v.
2 c