363) Out)
the drug certainly impairs the moral sense and
makes a man lazy and useless. When the people
speak of a man as " a ganja man," they mean a
lazy, good-for-nothing fellow who cannot be
trusted. I know a great many ganja smokers,
and I believe hardly one of them is capable
of distinguishing between truth and falsehood
in the narration of an occurrence. As a rule
ganja smokers work spasmodically and fitfully
and are incapable of prolonged exertion. I have
not met any cases of persons who have taken to
hemp to obtain relief from brain disease, nor of
insanity disposing people to indulge in these
drugs.
46. There can be no question of the effect of
the habitual excessive use of ganja, I have met
with a considerable number of persons who have
become insane through such use. In about half
of those the insanity was of the dull idiotic type,
in half of the active excitable type. One man
Shantayya, a village servant, and elder in the
Christian congregation in the village of
A n a m a l a - g u t t i , s o m e f i v e y e a r s a g o b e g a n t o u s e g a n j a i n
large quantities. Before that he had been a hard-
working honest man, but in a few months his
character became entirely changed. He stopped
work, began to indulge in petty thefts, and before
long was put in gaol for attempted arson. His
mind has been permanently affected, and he is now
wandering from place to place an excitable mad-
man, begging and stealing in order to get a
supply of the drug.
47. Not to my knowledge.
49. I do not know of this use. The use of hemp
certainly tends to produce impotence. Consum-
ers admit this and lament it bitterly. " That's
the plague of it, " they have told me. In
questioning people on this, I have not distinguished
between the moderate and excessive use, but some
of those who admitted the fact were moderate
consumers.
51. Most of the lazy disreputable characters in
the villages used ganja.
The ganja habit, by making a man unfit for
regular work and weakening his moral sense, cer-
tainly helps to increase crime.
59. The cultivation must be dealt with, not the
sale, if Government wishes to lessen the evils
connected with the use of these drugs. Under
the present system consumers can freely cultivate
for private use. They can also purchase the drug
without difficulty at the gardens or even in un-
licensed shops. Ganja can easily be concealed,
and its illicit sale is consequently hard to detect.
60. The hemp drugs are in no way useful or
beneficial. Their action is decidedly injurious,
and the effects of their use are wholly bad. I am
strongly in favour of the total prohibition of the
cultivation of the plant and the production and
sale of the drug. I believe such a measure would
command the assent of the great majority of
the people. The small quantities of the drug
needed for strictly medical purposes might be pro-
duced in Government gardens and sold under care-
ful restrictions as, say, arsenic is sold in England.
62. See No. 60.
63. All these drugs are dangerous poisons and
ought to be sold as such posions are sold in
England.
65. The taxation of ganja is certainly not reason-
able in reference to . alcohol, as the less danger-
ous and less hurtful alcohol is made very muck
more costly than the wholly injurious . ganja. As
3 c 2
are restive and refuse to permit themselves to be
milked, ganja is sometimes given to stupefy them
in order that they may become accustomed to being
milked.
41. The use of hemp drugs is always pernicious.
It is not a food-accessory or a digestive, but on
the contrary injures the digestive organs by inter-
fering with their natural healthy action. It
undoubtedly prevents hunger and fatigue being
felt at the time, but at the expense of a very
severe reaction. A moderate consumer of ganja
is not capable of the same fatigue and endurance
as a non-consumer of the same physique. I have
never heard of ganja keeping off fever. Here
ganja smokers are at least as liable to malarial
fever as any others.
42. I consider the moderate use of these drugs
to be distinctly harmful. There is in the first
place an almost inevitable tendency toward excess
in all who use the drug. Use creates appetite,
and habitual use necessitates a gradual increase in
the amount of the drug used in order to produce
satisfaction. In the second place, the action of
the drugs is in itself injurious to the digestive
and nervous systems, and through these to the
intellectual and moral nature of the consumer.
43. As a rule moderate smokers are inoffensive
to their neighbours, but they are generally regard-
ed as untrustworthy. No one would think of trust-
ing a ganja smoker or of accepting his word on
any matter of importance.
44. The habitual consumer certainly feels re
freshed and invigorated by the moderate use of
the drug. Until he uses it he feels restless and un
comfortable, and the idea of exertion of any kind
is distasteful to him. When he has had his smoke
be feels at rest and is ready to begin his work. A
small quantity of the drug will not produce intoxi-
cation in a habitual consumer, and consequently
such a one is always tempted to indulge to ex-
cess in order to experience the pleasant effects of
intoxication. Habitual consumers as a rule use
the drug three times a day as they say they cannot
remain longer without it. The effect may thus be
supposed to last about three hours when the after-
effects begin ; and when these become distinctly dis-
tressing, the man must again resort to the drug.
The after-effects are very distinct. They are exces-
sive lassitude and an accompanying irritability,
headache and giddiness, and an uneasy gnawing
sensation in the stomach. If the drug is not speed-
ily resorted to, the symptoms become very much
more pronounced.
45. The use of ganja certainly injures the
digestive organs and causes a lack of appetite.
Many smokers have told me that they didn't care
whether they got their food or not if only they
could get their supply of ganja. A young man
named Philip, a teacher in a school under my
charge, had his constitution completely ruined by
indulging in ganja smoking for about a month or
six weeks. His digestion was destroyed and some
time he had no appetite and felt repulsion at the
sight of food. After he had been given strong
purgatives, this to a great extent disappeared.
When I saw the young man. which was about a
fortnight after his illness commenced he was very
weak and trembled and started from time to time.
He seemed unable to look steadily at an object
for any time and could not answer my questions
intelligently. His mind was permanently affected
and he has never since been able to do any
work. So far as I could find out he had not used
the drug for more than six weeks and had never
gone to any great excess. The moderate use of
vol. vi.