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carnal sensibilities, as hunger, thirst,
etc. Siddhi is consumed by the well-
to-do people to "cool the system
when it is very hot," for certain ex-
citement and as medicines when the
bowels are out of order. Religious
mendicants take it for the same pur-
pose as that for which they consume
ganja.
29. Ganja is smoked by itself and siddhi is
taken as drink mixed with sweets and spices or
eaten with bread (luchis). The object of the
admixtures is to make it palatable and increase its
strength.
30. The consumption of siddhi is practised in
company on occasions; the habitual consumers
take it by themselves but not for privacy. Ganja
is smoked in solitude as a rule, or in select and
private company. Adult males and prostitutes
use ganja and siddhi.
31. The habit of consuming ganja is easily
formed among the people of the low classes. It
is difficult to break off. There is a tendency for
the moderate habit to develop into the excessive.
As regards siddhi, the habit is not so easily form-
ed; it is easy to break off; and there is not
much tendency for the moderate habit to develop
into the excessive.
32. There is a custom among the people of
West Bengal to drink siddhi on the last day of
the puja during the Dassara festival. Even
children are given to drink it. lt is not essen-
tial. Only a little is used. The custom, however,
has been almost done away with. I knew it as a
boy. I do not see it now. In Eastern Bengal
the custom is unknown. It is likely to lead to the
formation of the habit and is otherwise injuri-
ous. There is no custom, social or religious, of
using ganja.
33. A ganja-smoker is regarded as an outcast
of society. "Ganja-khor" and "ganjel" are
terms of opprobrium. They have no position in so-
ciety and are looked down upon. They are pests of
society, shunned by all and never pitied by any.
There is a strong public opinion in regard to the
practice. A "ganja-khor" (smoker) is a ruined
and a wrecked man; he is potent for mischief and
may be up to anything. He may commit murder
with an easy conscience. There is no act that he
will not do.
Hence is the strong sentiment
against him. When strongly under the influence
of siddhi a man may be as bad as a ganja-smoker,
but the moderate drinkers are not generally so
regarded.
34. It would not be a serious privation to any
class of consumers to forego the consumption of
the drug they use.
35. The use of all these drugs may be prohibit-
ed. They would not be consumed illicitly to any
appreciable extent. The prohibition can be en-
forced by stopping the cultivation of the plant
altogether and by making it penal for any private
individual to do so as an article of trade. The
prohibition would not cause serious discontent.
It cannot create apolitical danger. It would not
be followed by recourse to (a) alcoholic stimulants
or (b) other drugs.
36. If the leisured classes get employments for
their vacant hours (and the struggle for life is get-
ting keener day by day to leave none an unoccu-
pied hour now); if the poverty-stricken labouring
people get enough to eat for strength to undergo
the hard work without being under the necessity
of using their reserved force brought forth by a
stimulant; if the criminal classes are to be
checked from their acts of violence and terror; the
use of the drug (ganja) may be prohibited with-
out risking anything whatever. The religious
mendicants really do not need it, and many of the
mendicants are but the deep-dyed criminals in
disguise. If the whole class is suppressed, society
would not be the worse for it.
37. The effects of charas-smoking differ in
degree from those resulting from ganja-smoking.
Charas-smoking is stronger than ganja-smoking.
38. I cannot say.
39. I have not had sufficient experience.
40. Ganja and siddhi are used by the kabirajes
as medicines in bowel complaints.
41. (a) (b) (c) No.
(d) Yes, medicinally otherwise than as a
preventive of disease in malarious and unhealthy
tracts, or a febrifuge. The fishermen, the boatmen,
the dâk-runners, the palki-bearers and the sweepers
consume ganja under the idea that it gives them
staying-power under severe exertions or exposure,
and alleviates fatigue. It is a mistaken idea. It
simply deadens the feelings and sensibilities.
While under its influence a man may bring into
use all the strength in him without feeling bad till
all his strength is drained away and lie is left a
complete wreck; just as a man with a paralysed
hand (the sensibility only being affected) would
handle a piece of live charcoal till the hand is char-
red and dead and useless, he never feeling at any
moment what had been coming on. This is the
case with the insufficiently fed poor hard-working
men. Those who can afford to eat up to the stand-
ard may keep off the injurious effects of the
drug for a time, but ultimately they do succumb as
well. I refer to the habitual use of the drug.
43. Moderate consumers are inoffensive to their
neighbours; but all the same they are ever dreaded
and never trusted, for they may break into vio-
lence any moment by taking an extra dose. None
are safe who have got a consumer in their midst.
I say this of ganja and charas smoker especially.
44. As regards siddhi, a habitual consumer
after a moderate dose feels refreshed and light;
a slight intoxication may be produced. It
allays hunger and fatigue; it creates appetite
and cools the system. The effect lasts for about
two hours. As regards ganja, in a habitual con-
sumer it cheers up the system, creates appetite
and removes fatigue. The effect lasts for an hour
or two; the after-effects are very pronounced; the
appetite is gone, insomnia is induced, the chest is
affected, and the constitution breaks down com-
pletely. A man cannot eat nor sleep, and be-
comes a prey to all its concomitant evils. He is
either a raving maniac or a religious idiot; the
inmate of an asylum or a street beggar or the
hermit of a cell.
45. (a) Yes; ganja and charas particularly.
(b) Ganja impairs the constitution in more than
one way. (c) Yes. (d) Yes. (e) Yes; a ganja-
smoker is never a moral being. He or she is
generally a debauchee. He is active as long as
he lasts. (f) It does not deaden the intellect
altogether. It produces insanity of a violent type,
which generally has a religious element in it. It
is often permanent. (g) A man takes to ganja-
smoking not with a hope to obtain relief from
mental anxieties, but for forgetting his physical
wants when he is ill-fed and hard-worked, or for
driving away the heaviness from an unoccupied
2 Y