431
199. Evidence of BABU SASHI BHUSHAN ROY, Chairman, Satkhira Municipality,
District Khulna.
20. Coolies and palki-bearers use ganja, some
in moderation, and some in excess. Saivas also
use ganja.
Charas is not in use here. Bhang is used in
moderation by some in higher classes.
28. Six pies worth ganja per diem may be
regarded as moderate consumption.
29. Tobacco is used as admixture with the hemp
drug, the object being to soften the narcotic effect
of it. No other noxious drugs (such as dhatura,
etc.) are consumed knowingly with hemp drugs.
31. Moderate use generally tends to develop
into the excessive use.
32. Lower class people generally use ganja in
the time of marriage ceremonies. Higher class
people use bhaug in the night of the Bijaya
Dasami, i.e., the day following the Durga Puja.
35. The use of hemp drugs should not be pro-
hibited. Labouring classes and lower classes in
damp districts use it more for health than for
pleasure. If its use be prevented, it would be
injurious to their health.
In my humble opinion the ganja trade should
not be prevented, as many lower class people use
it. If the use be prevented, these will resort to
drinking, which will bring ruin to themselves and
their family.
41. Coolies and palki-bearers use ganja only to
enable them to labour hard. Bhang is used more
for medicinal purposes. Ganja and bhang make
men jolly.
In damp climates ganja in moderate use may
protect from malarious fever; coolies and palki-
bearers can labour hard if they use in moderation.
But use in excess, instead of doing any good,
injures health. Bhang in moderate use improves
digestion, and in damp climate prevents malaria.
55. No such other drugs are administered with
any preparation of hemp.
59. Duty on ganja is very heavy. The shop-
keepers who purchase and pay duty for the whole
year suffer loss for the unconsumed amount of
ganja in the end of each year, which is burnt by
Government.
200. Evidence of BABU AGHORE NATH BANERJI,* Vice-Chairman, Serampore
Municipality, District Hughli.
1. Eyesight of ganja and charas smoking and
bhang drinking.
Informations from ganja and charas smokers
and bhang drinkers.
Personal experience.
2. May be accepted.
Ganja is locally known by the name of Bara
Tamak and Ceyeeah.
Charas is locally known as charas.
Bhang is locally known as siddhi or bhang.
14. Not manufactured in the Hughli district.
16. Never seen any one preparing bhang in his
house.
18. Ganja, charas and bhang stand good for a
year. They lose their qualities and become useless
after one year. These informations I have derived
from the ganja and charas smokers and bhang
drinkers. The resinous matter in each of the
three drugs gets dried up after a year, and con-
sequently they lose their narcotic power owing
to the loss of the resinous matter which is the
active principle.
19. Ganja and charas are used for smoking
purposes only. The former sometimes, when
boiled with cocoanut oil, is used domestically in
Bengal to cure itches and other allied skin affec-
tions. Extracts and tinctures of Cannabis indica
are made pharmaceutically and imported from
Europe for the cure of certain diseases.
20. Lower class people above 30 years of age
smoke ganja generally. Among females some
prostitutes smoke ganja, and few middle class
men and a very few rich men smoke ganja.
Charas is smoked by very few young men of the
middle class within teens. Proportion of ganja
smokers among lower and middle class men, 1 per
cent.; of charas very much less; localities cannot
be particularized.
21. Round ganja is preferred in our district,
but I have heard that flat ganja is preferred by
up-country people.
22. I have heard that Nepalee charas is chiefly
used here, and that it is imported from up-
countries.
23. Bhang is never used for smoking in the
district.
24. Up-country people of all classes, not except-
ing those even of Mewar, Marwar, etc., generally,
with few exceptions, drink bhang. Sanyasis, i.e.,
ascetics, or in other words, religious mendicants
generally use bhang; people of Bengal proper use
it either in its liquid or powdered form as a cure
against indigestion and bowel complaints.
25. On the decrease; reasons—
(a) That the narcotic effects of these drugs
on persons using them have ended in-
variably in untimely and premature
deaths resulting from insanity, dysentery
and complaints of a like nature, a fact
that has operated in no inconsiderable
degree on the rising generation to ab-
andon its use in a great measure.
(b) Intelligent men hate ganja and charas
smokers by calling them "ganja-khor"
or "charas-khor," and many people, in
order to avoid being called as such, do not
get inclined to use them; or, if they have
been using them, they either do so very
privately or discontinue them altogether.
The drinking of bhang is neither on the de-
crease or increase; those using it find no serious
cause to abandon the practice.
* Was invited to attend at a sitting of the Commission for oral examination, but failed to appear.