451
55. Yes ; the criminals keep these drugs ready
made in their possession; in some instances they
use bhang prepared in sweetmeats and cakes for
eating purposes; in others they use charas and
dhatura in tobacco for smoking. In many cases
complete stupefaction is effected through bhang or
charas only.
56. The undersigned does not know the effects
of the hemps used in moderation or in excess,
modified by the admixture of other substances as
mentioned in the question, whether for personal
consumption or for administration to others.
57. Ganja and charas are known to the under-
signed to have never been eaten or drunk to such
an extent as worth taking any notice of.
5S. The undersigned is not well acquainted with
the administration, taxation and control of these
drugs.
Oral evidence.
Question 1.—I have been twenty-five years a
Hospital Assistant. I passed at Lahore. I was
thirteen years at Jhelum Hospital and three years
in Rawal Pindi Jail.
Question 45.—I have never heard any lunatics
confess to the use of ganja. I have heard lunatics
confess to the use of charas and bhang; but ganja
is not used in the Punjab.
The lunacy cases given under this answer are
not asylum cases: they were Jhelum and Pindi
cases. I joined the Lahore Asylum only in
December last and took over charge in January.
They were all four eases that came to the Jhelum
Dispensary as out-patients, except No. 2, which
was a Pindi Jail ease. They were none of them
sent to the asylum. They were all temporary cases
treated by me and speedily cured. These are the
only cases I have known.
Question 55.—This is based on information given
me by criminals in jails. I have been eight years
connected with the Pindi and Multan jails. Crimi-
nals in course of conversations which I had with
them told me that criminals (not they themselves)
generally have these drugs ready. Pickpockets in
sarais, railway stations, etc., do so. The criminals
told me this in the course of conversations I used
to have with them while connected with jails, not
in connection with the present inquiry. I have
never seen complete stupefaction produced by the
use of bhang or charas. I have never seen charas
smoked. I have seen bhang drunk, but only very
rarely. The persons I saw take it, were friends of
mine.
45.—Evidence of HOSPITAL ASSISTANT GOPAL DASS, Deputy Superintendent,
Lunatic Asylum, Delhi.
1 I have been a Hospital Assistant in Punjab
during the last nineteen years, and for the last six-
teen months have held charge of the Lunatic
Asylum, Delhi.
2. Bhang and charas are excessively used in the
Punjab. I have not seen any ganja smoker in
this province.
19. The majority smoke charas, but there are
exceptional cases who eat it dry and drink milk
afterwards.
23. No one smokes bhang at all.
28. The average allowance of charas for each
man per diem is—
(a) About one tola during the whole day.
(b) About two chittacks during the whole
da .
29. They mix with bhang black pepper, poppy
seeds, aniseed, red rose petal, seeds of melon, grape,
pista, almond, and sugar to make it tastable. To
increase its intoxicating effects, they mix in the
bhang, dhatura, opium, arsenic, and root of moth.
They call it Pach Ratini bhang, that is, the bhang
containing five jewels.
Charas is often smoked with tobacco in a chillum,
but some persons use it with opium, ganja, arsenic,
and moth ki jar, to make it more intoxicant, and
they call it Pach Ratini chillum.
30. Some persons drink bhang in solitude, but
charas is always used in company. I have seen
in the villages near Simla where several women
and children smoke charas; in Delhi on Nigam
Bodh Ghat some women have been seen to smoke
charas and drink bhang.
31. This habit can easily be learned with
society. There is some difficulty to break it at
once. There is tendency in all hemp drugs for the
moderate habit to develop into excessive.
32. There is not a single fair of Hindus or
Muhammadans in Delhi where bhang and charas
vol. v.
are not used excessively. The majority of the
Hindu caste use bhang on the days of Dashara,
Dewali, Shibratri, and Holi.
36. Among the wealthy and educated classes,
alcohol is taking the place of other intoxicants.
37. The charas smoker impairs the appetite and
the bhang drinker can eat more food than the
former.
39. The excessive smoker of charas often be-
comes insane. I have several cases of this kind of
insanity in this Asylum, but bhang drinkers seldom
become insane.
40. The native physicians use these drugs in
some diseases, and bhang only used in cattle
diseases.
41. (a) The moderate use of bhang produces
false appetite.
42. The daily use of all these drugs is injurious
to mental and physical strength of the human
body.
44. These drugs first refresh and afterwards
produce intoxication and allay hunger.
45. The charas smokers are generally emaciated
and weaker, and depress their intellectual powers.
This always produces cough and loss of appetite.
It impairs the moral sense and induces habit of
immorality. All kinds of hemp drugs can produce
insanity. In some cases it becomes an exciting
cause and in others a predisposing cause of insanity.
It produces temporary insanity, not permanent.
The symptoms can be reinduced by use of the drug
after release from the Asylum, and several lunatics
of this kind are readmitted in the Asylum many
times.
The insanity is always of an excitable and noisy
kind; the patient sometimes sings and at other
times weeps.
3 P 2