76
proportion of whom are Hindus. The beverage
compounded is regarded much as Europeans look
on light wines, claret or table beer—is taken for
similar reasons and has like effects.
Ganja—( a) 60 t o 180 gr ai ns.
(b) 180 to 360 grains.
Bhang, i.e. , chur ganja, for internal use—( a )
90 to 180 grains.
(b) None.
29. Ganja—( a ) tobacco invariably, (b) dhatura
or opium very rarely, by religious mendicants.
Bhang—see definition ante—(a) sugar, black
pepper, spices. (b) Perfumes, expensive spices,
milk, almonds, sugar, i.e. , a posset, or pleasant
highly spiced exhilarating drink.
No preparation kept for sale in Central Provin-
ces : each consumer has a different formula.
30 Ganja—generally in company but by rich
alone. Bhang, i.e. , chur ganja, for internal use,
generally in company or in presence of others.
Almost entirely confined to male sex and to adults.
31. Ganja. Habit formed in about two months ;
not very difficult to break off, except in the case
of rich and idle. There is no great tendency to
increase.
Bhang, i.e. , ganja internally. Easily formed ;
not difficult to break; no tendency to increase.
32. At " Holi " bhang is used by almost all
classes of Hindus. The use is considered essen-
tial ; is generally excessive ; but does not lead to
formation of habit or produce injurious effects.
It is also used at male convivial meetings.
33. Ganja—Considered disreputable by rich
and respectable people as practice is mainly con-
fined to religious mendicants and low castes who
toil for livelihood.
Bhang : ganja, internally—Taken by all classes
at certain seasons. Considered a very wholesome
and refreshing drink in hot weather. Not looked
on as disreputable.
Not worshipped, but smokers of low castes make
offerings of ganja to Mahadeo and " Mata Devi's "
attendant sprite.
34. Would be a serious privation to labourers
and others who undergo severe and prolonged toil
at certain seasons, i.e., rice transplanting and work
during rains, long journeys on foot with insuffi-
cient clothing, poor food. Fishermen and others
who lead outdoor, laborious lives, exposed to all
weathers.
Perhaps 25 per cent. of adult males.
35. Quite impossible. The plant would be cul-
tivated secretly all over India, and the constant
prosecutions and espionage by police would be
intolerable. It might thus possibly amount to a
political danger. The prohibition would inevitably
be followed by increased consumption of alcohol or
other drugs, opium or dhatura.
36. Yes—see reply to question 25.
37.
Intoxication produced by charas of longer
duration and greater intensity.
38. Ganja and " chur" when smoked produce
exactly similar effects.
39. I consider ganja smoking as far more injuri-
ous than bhang eating or drinking. In the former,
acrid smoke containing nicotine from tobacco,
carbon, and other products of combustion, is drawn
directly into the lungs, setting up asthma, chronic
bronchitis, emphysema, and eventually valvular
incompetence. I have frequently found at post-
mortem examinations, the lungs of old ganja smokers
so full of carbon as to resemble miners' lungs in
England.
40. Bhang or chur ganja is used as an anodyne
by native practitioners. It is also occasionally
used in the treatment of cattle, to relieve colic
spasms, etc.
41. Ganja and bhang only.
(a) Yes, both valuable.
(b) Yes, both valuable; ganja particularly.
(c) Ganja much used and considered beneficial.
(d) Both used during prevalence of cholera
to some extent by nervous and timid people.
(a) and (b) Those exposed to weather at all
seasons and toiling hard for a living, perhaps 75
per cent. of male adults. (c) and (d) All classes :
numbers cannot be stated.
The moderate habitual or moderate occasional
use is referred to above.
42. Though moderate ganja smoking is not in
my opinion quite harmless, still its beneficial effects
are certain for a long period, and on the whole I
regard it as a lesser evil than spirit drinking or
opium smoking. I have never observed any harm-
ful effect from bhang drinking or eating.
43. Yes, quite inoffensive.
44. Ganja produces immediately a feeling of
contentment, not amounting to actual intoxica-
tion : all sense of fatigue is lost, hunger is pro-
duced and a large meal of even badly cooked,
insipid food is eaten and digested without trouble.
The effect lasts an hour or more, and before it
wears off, if it be after the day's work, the smoker
is asleep and enjoys a sound and refreshing sleep.
Another pipe is taken in the morning and the
labourer is ready for another day's toil. The want
of gratification does not produce any severe un-
easiness or longing. The feeling of appetite and
hunger is so marked that a plentiful supply of food
is a necessity for a ganja smoker.
45. Ganja smoking only.
(a) None : it brightens the faculties, I am told.
(b) See reply to question 29.
(c) No; has the opposite effect.
(d) Dysentery, no ; bronchitis and asthma, yes.
(e) Not laziness but possibly some tendency to
immorality. Not more so than alcohol.
(f) The habitual, moderate use has no such
effect.
(g) No such cases are known to me, but I have
seen young lads who contracted the habit about
the age of puberty and who afterwards became in-
sane. Deficient self-control may have been here-
ditary or produced by excess in other directions.
46. The habitual, excessive use of any of these
drugs would necessarily prove harmful and, in my
opinion, would be more productive of insanity
than other forms of intoxication. The insanity
produced was dementia with timidity, at first
temporary, I believe.
47 and 48. No.
49. Not largely used as an aphrodisiac, for which
purpose it is considered weaker than liquor or
opium. Prostitutes appear to use it, not as an
aphrodisiac, but as an alleviator of muscular fa-
tigue, and to give them endurance at special times.
I have never heard that the moderate use of hemp
caused impotence.