130
mitted that when ganja works such a change on
a perfectly healthy brain, its work on the brains
of persons who are troubled with mental anxie
-ties or worries must not only be precipitate but
certain.
47. I cannot say that it is a hereditary habit—
indeed the son of a ganja-smoker is known to
eschew the drug. The evil effects are not seen in
the progeny unless such progeny be begotten
when the father was bordering on insanity.
48. Bhang-consumers do only transmit to their
progeny the weakness of their body and the
eccentricity of their minds.
49. There are two theories about the use of
the drug for this purpose: one is that devotees
use it for the purpose of destroying their sexual
desire and they therefore begin to smoke or drink
it from the very early morning before they had
had a morsel of food. The debauches uses it a
little before the requisite time. Both these
classes are obliged to carry it to excess, as it has
not the desired effect when used in normal doses
after a time, and whilst the former succeed in
attaining their object, the latter is soon played
out and becomes irrecoverably impotent. The reason
why the devotee is able to achieve his object need
not be told, and the reason why the chartered
libertine collapses is due entirely to the excessive
use of the drug which can help him only for
a time to excessive venereal indulgence. The
drug is also used by the prostitutes, but not for
the purpose of sexual pleasure, but just the
reverse: their object is the same as that of the
devotees and to stop procreation.
50. The answer to the last question is the
answer to this. I am simply touching on the
subject of ganja and bhang and not charas.
51. The people of India are proverbially law-
abiding, much more so are the illiterate class.
Ganja imparts them with temporary boldness for
the commission of crimes. I have reasons for
thinking that all criminal classes more or less in
-dulge in this drug, and but for this drug few
would make up their minds to break the law. I
had one or two cases in which confirmed ganja
-smokers evinced decided intention of homicidal
violence, and in one case a confirmed smoker
killed his own child.
52. The above applies to ganja and bhang.
53. Yes, it does. I have already stated that I
know of one case only.
54. Yes.
55. Yes.
56. This has already been answered before. I
will here simply quote the famous lines of Pope
(translation) on the drug, as they express exactly
what the people who use it think of it to
-day: —
Meanwhile with genial joy to warm the soul,
Bright Helen mixed a mirth-inspiring bowl,
Temper'd with drugs of sov'reign use t'assuage
The boiling bosom of tumultuous rage.
These drugs, so friendly to the joys of life,
Bright Helen learn'd from Thone's imperia
wife;
Who swayed the sceptre where prolific Nile
With various simple clothes the fatten'd soil
From Pœon sprung, their patron god imparts
To all the Pharian race his healing arts.
57. I do not know if this is done.
60. I have not studied this subject, and there
is no time to do so now.
61. No charas is imported.
62. No, I do not think it could be controlled.
63. No, in general.
64. No.
65. The ganja is much too cheap. It ought to
sell ten times as dear. Its cultivation should be
improved, and I am of opinion that it is just
possible by proper cultivation to make it less
deleterious. In the labouring districts liquor
should be much cheaper.
66. Not for Central Provinces.
68. No such houses are licensed that I know
of.
69. Yes, it should be, but it is impossible to
supply the legitimate wants of the people with
-out establishing too many shops, as the con
-sumers of the drug are pretty equally distri
- b u t e d .
70. The Bhopal and Holkar's, also Sindhia's
territories, march with Central Provinces, and it
is without the least difficulty that ganja is smug
-gled in.
Oral evidence.
Question 1.—A good deal of my information is
derived from books.
Question 3 .—The plant is quite common on
rubbish heaps in some places in these Provinces.
I have not been out in the country for 9 or 10 years,
but before that I used to see it frequently. If
the plant is on an exposed site, it is pulled up. I
did not pass the matter by when I saw the plant
growing, but had it pulled up. I believe such
growth is still common.
Question 25 .—In travelling among the people,
the Gonds especially, I have noticed that on ac
- c o u n t o f t h e e n h a n c e d c o s t o f l i q u o r o r d i s t a n c e o f
the liquor shop, people have used ganja instead.
These causes were alleged by the people.
Question 35 .—A t the time of writing this an
- s w e r , I d i d n o t r e a l i s e h o w l a r g e a n a m o u n t o f
foreign hemp drugs found its way into India.
The prohibition of cultivation in India would be
ineffectual in face of the free growth of the plant
in surrounding countries. I therefore would With
-draw the opinion I expressed. Bhang is not so
deleterious as ganja, and I would not charge it
with causing deterioration of the national intellect.
People must have some sort of intoxicant, and
the lower classes would substitute liquor for ganja
if they could possibly afford it. The higher classes
might take to opium.
Question 36 .—For the hill tribes I consider
liquor is better than hemp drus. It has more
sustaining power. I don't think other people re
-quire liquor. It is only in the localities inhabited
by wild tribes, therefore, that I would care to
see liquor cheapened.
Question 42.— I consider that even moderate use
of bhang, as well as ganja, is injurious. I have
seldom seen a really rational ganja smoker. They
are excitable and stupid. I do not call a mode
-rate consumer one who smokes ⅓ of a tola a day.
Ganja smokers are not, I think, confined to any
particular class. I don't think the Lodhis take it
more than other cultivators except in the Saugor
district. An unusually strong man among them
may not deserve my remark that no ganja consu
-mer is quite rational. I don't think that the peo
-ple would be better for total abstention from all