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13. Evidence of MR. J. R. DRUMMOND, Deputy Commissioner, Gurgaon.
1. I have served in the Punjab Commission since
December 1874, and have had my attention turned
to the administrative and social aspects of the
matters dealt with in my answers, while serving
in different capacities in a number of districts from
time to time. I have had most of the questions
raised before the Commission as regards charas
and bhang practically before me in the course of
my official business as—
(1) Assistant Magistrate and District Magis-
trate.
(2) Cantonment Magistrate.
(8) Superintendent of Jail.
(4) Deputy Commissioner (controlling the
Police).
(5)
„
„
(Member of Lunatic
Asylum Board).
(6) President of District Board (and thus an
employer of labour sanctioned on a
considerable scale).
(7) Collector of Laud Revenue.
(8) Collector of Excise.
(9) Census Officer of a District (1891) and
Assistant to the District Census Officer
in 1881 previously.
1 have also filled different Civil Judicial posts,
but my experience as a Civil Judge has not elicited
anything positively bearing on the use or abuse
of hemp drugs.
I have been employed at different times in the
Trans-Indus districts, in what is now the Rawal
Pindi Division, and in the Central Punjab; not
in the South Western districts however.
My most recent experience and the longest on
the whole is of the Cis-Sutlej portion of the pro-
vince.
I have at the same time paid some attention to
the hemp plant, privately, in its economic and
physiological aspects, in the Punjab Himalaya
and in different parts of the plains.
My answers to questions framed by the Commis-
sion have been drawn up after consulting different
official and non-official persons who seemed likely
to have reliable information and to express fairly
independent views.
2. Dr. Plain's report appears from the quota-
lions embodied in the question to deal with the
question of hemp drugs for the whole of India.
It is difficult, therefore, to give a categorical
reply to a question based upon his work with re-
gard to an individual province or tract. Stewart
(Punjab Plants) give sahzi as a bazar name for the
tops of hemp. I am not acquainted with terms
sabzi and patti as specifically applied by Dr. Prain.
I have not heard the term siddhi used in the
Punjab, and I understand that ganja is not pre-
pared in this province.
What is said of bhang and charas may be accept-
ed for the Punjab generally, except that I am not
personally aware that charas is obtained from the
hemp plant growing in this province. Charas is
ordinarily imported, I believe, from outside the
Punjab limits.
3. The hemp plant is self-sown in every dis-
trict of the Punjab in which I have served or tra-
velled. I have observed it to be produced abun-
dantly, and its spontaneous propagation to be
apparently established in the following districts
or corresponding areas, viz., Karnal, Umballa,
Simla and the Hill States adjoining Simla, Kulu,
Hoshiarpur, parts of Patiala, part of Jhind. But
in the plains it is usually a local plant, though
prolific and gregarious where it finds suitable
conditions.
4. The universal name for the hemp plant
throughout this province appears to be bhang. I
have not observed any other species of cannabis in
this province than the common hemp, or any
distinct sub-species.
5. Cannabis sativa will thrive from the sea
beach in Europe to 13,000 feet above the sea
level in Asia and in almost any climate, but such
extremely hot or arid climates as that of Bikanir
for example. It resists extremes of cold with all
the tenacity of its order, but weathers also severe
and protracted heat provided it can maintain its
root in a saturated medium. It is probably an
intrusive species even on the southern face of the
Himalaya. In the plains it seems to spread along
the irrigation lines. The hemp, all the world
over, is one of those plants which might be called
domestic, that is, it follows, like its ally, the
common English nettle, the tracks of man and of
the domesticated animals. Fallows, ballast, rub-
bish heaps, water-holes, deserted yards and pens,
and the like are congenial to it.
6. The self-sown hemp is often dense over a
considerable area.
7. So far as I know personally—
(a) None.
(b) None, in the Cis-Sutlej tracts, at all
events.
(c) Not in the Cis-Sutlej tracts, except a
little in some parts of the Himalaya,
perhaps,
(d) None except as under (c).
I believe the plant is grown for narcotic pur-
poses in certain part of the province, but not in
the eastern districts, so far as my direct know-
ledge extends.
14. So far as my personal knowledge extends
bhang is prepared and bhang only.
15. I know of no difference in the preparation
of bhang from spontaneously produced and culti-
vated plants respectively in this province.
I am unable to say anything about the prepara-
tion of charas.
The preparation of bhang is a very simple
matter. In the initial stage it consists merely in
the plucking of the leaves, or for preference the
flowering shoots of the plant. The hill peasantry
in the Simla Himalaya collect it for themselves,
and probably for sale to dealers also. The supply
that comes into the south-eastern districts of the
Punjab, throught Jagadhri in the Umballa Dis-
trict and Saharanpur in the North-Western Pro-
vinces, is said to be collected in Garhwal, where it
is raised, it is alleged, in plots by the Garhwalis.
Hindu sadhus (monastic persons and devotees) are
also said to gather the hemp tops for sale to local
dealers. The tops are sun-dried, and then packed
in bags or sacks of tât (gunny).
In this condition the crude hemp reaches the
hands of the wholesale and retail dealers. The
consumer buys it in this state in quantities
according to his means and convenience, the
excise limit of half a pound being supposed to be
observed. When required for use, a quantity of