77
50. Not used as an aphrodisiac. Not used by
prostitutes. Said not to cause impotence.
51. No. The only connection would seem to be
that the poorer classes use ganja largely, and these
furnish the larger proportion of offenders in all
countries.
52. Uncertain.
53. No.
54. No exact information, but it is possible.
Criminals under sentence of death, who had run
" amuck," have told me that they were addicted
to ganja, nux vomica and other drugs ; that the
same had been secretly administered to them ; but
I could place no reliance on their statements as
they were evidently seeking commutation of sen-
tence.
55. Complete stupefaction cannot be produced
by hemp alone. The admixture of dhatura is some-
times practised for this purpose.
56 and 57. No information.
Oral evidence.
Question 1.—I studied in Calcutta up to the
Apothecaries examination. I have never been in
charge of a lunatic asylum. I have been Civil
Surgeon for five years. I have frequently made
casual enquiries about the hemp drugs, and paid
more attention to the subject since receiving the
communication in question. I have enquired of
old ganja smokers in jails. I have frequently
questioned bairagis on the road and at the dispen-
saries.
Question 2.— Of late years the stalks and
coarser leaves are destroyed by Government orders.
I was not aware that bhang was imported from
the North-Western Provinces.
Question 29 ( b ).—My information about
mixture of dhatura is derived from enquiry. One
bairagi, and only one, told me he had used it, and
given it up because its intoxication was too intense.
He did not volunteer the information. The inform-
ation about mixture of opium is of the same kind,
derived by enquiry. The above bairagi did not, he
said, experience complete intoxication from ganja
alone. He lives at Bhandara still.
Question 35 .—Liquor is comparatively expensive
in Bhandara. If ganja were prohibited, the ganja
smoker, who could afford it, would take to opium,
the next cheaper, and then to liquor. The liquor
habit is considered more disreputable than the
opium habit. I think the resort to opium smoking
would be more hurtful physically. The resort to
alcohol drinking or opium eating would not be
more hurtful, because the classes who smoke ganja
could not afford much of the other intoxicants. I
think prohibition might encourage consumption of
dhatura on account of its greater powers and its
cheapness ; but I know of no cases of ganja smok-
ers having taken to the habitual consumption of
dhatura. I know of no case in which the ganja
habit has been relinquished for the opium habit.
Question 39 .—Every ganja smoker I have
spoken t o has had some af f ect i on of t he l ungs or
bronchial tubes. A special effect is due to the
effort of strong inspiration. The affection here
eferred to is emphysema. The second sentence of
my answer would be true of tobacco also, if it was
constantly smoked in the same way as ganja is
. The third sentence would, under the same condi
tions, be true of tobacco. I am of opinion that
a very large proportion of the poorer class of toba
c c o s m o k e r s w h o a t t e n d d i s p e n s a r i e sm
i x
g a n j a w i t h
their tobacco. Congestion of the eyes is frequently
noticed, and, I regard that as symptomatic of
ganja smoking. It was only since receiving the
Commission's questions that I came to regard the
deposit of carbon in the lungs as the effect of ganja
smoking. The presence of carbon in the lungs is a
diagnostic mark of smoke having been drawn in-
to the lungs.
Question 41 .—In regard to the first part of my
answer, I made full enquiries before arriving at
the opinion that ganja was digestive as well as
bhang.
Question 42. I mean that the beneficial effects
of ganja may endure through a very long period of
indulgence in the habit. I know men in Bhan-
dara who admit having been smokers for 30 or 40
years. The lung troubles are the only harmful
effects I know from the moderate use.
Question 44.—The reason why I consider a
ganja smoker requires a plentiful supply of food is
that ganja smoking is a great provoker of appetite,
not that he requires food to resist the evil effects
of the drug. I do not consider that it can be said
to allay hunger.
Question 45 .—The cases to which I refer at the
close of my answer were cases in which the youths
had probably contracted the excessive habit and
were addicted to other vices, besides being of weak
physique. One was admitted to the Nagpur
Asylum from the Bhandara Jail about 1889. The
other was a Punjab case. The vices, especially
sexual excess, might produce insanity without the
stimulus of ganja. There were no special symp-
toms which led me to suppose that ganja had been
used.
Question 46 .—The congestion of the eyes and
the speedy intoxicating effect of ganja lead me to
suppose that the drug must affect the brain more
markedly than other intoxicants do. Intoxication
supervenes on indulgence in ganja much more
rapidly than on drinking of liquor. Congestion of
the conjunctiva is not necessarily connected with
congestion of the brain ; but in the cases of ganja
smoking in which I have observed this symptom,
I believe in the connection, because I could ascer-
tain no other cause. Congestion of the brain does
not always produce congestion of the conjunctiva.
The congestion of the conjunctiva appeared to me
in observed cases to be permanent, and I should
expect that a corresponding permanent congestion
of the brain existed. Congestion of the conjunc-
tiva is found in cases of alcohol poisoning ; and in
those cases there is corresponding congestion of the
brain, leading afterwards to other degenerating
changes. I should think it probable that similar
degeneration took place in the brain of the ganja
smoker. I have never noticed in post mortem
examinations any brain changes due to ganja,
because the point was not in my mind at the time.
I have not followed up cases of ganja insanity
One symptom is timidity. When permanent chan-
ges in the brain have occurred, there can be no
cure. The two cases mentioned under question 45
are those on which I base the description of ganja
insanity given in question 46.
Question 49.— On the subject of ganja as an
aphrodisiac, I made enquiries from a large number
of ganja smokers, and particularly from one man
in the Bhandara Jail, who was connected with
prostitutes. My conclusion is that ganja may
have a slight effect, that bhang and its prepara-
tions have none.
Question 50.—I do not believe that bairagis
and fakirs take the drugs to allay their passions,
but the reverse.