240
25. The use of ganja is on the increase, especi-
ally in those districts where the outstill system
(cheap liquor) is not in vogue, and where people
are comparatively poor and cannot pay the high
prices of liquor.
26. (a) .5
(b) .1
(c) .3 Ganja and bhang.
(d) .1
27. Ganja is indulged by the lower classes of
the people and bhang by the middle classes of the
gentry, especially during the time of festivals,
such as Bijaya and Sivaratri.
Fishermen and boatmen, etc., who are generally
exposed to the inclemency of the weather, take to
ganja.
Charas and majun are taken by those shame-
lessly intemperate persons of the middle class,
whose pleasure it is to amuse themselves with all
sorts of drugs and drinks.
28. (a) 3 pies per diem.
(b) 1 anna per diem.
29. Nothing is mixed with ganja or charas.
Milk and sugar is exceptionlly mixed with bhang
to make it more intoxicant. I don't know any-
thing of bhang massala.
30. Ganja and charas are smoked in company,
whilst bhang is drunk in solitude. Mainly con-
fined to the male sex. Bhang is mostly drunk at
declining age when men become susceptible to
attacks of diarrhœa. It is not usual for children
to consume any of these drugs.
31. Habit not easily formed. It is difficult to
break off. Not very much.
32. There is no such religious custom. But
there is a social custom observed by a very few
men of the lower classes of people to smoke ganja
during Chait Sankranti festivals, and bhang is
drunk by some of the middle class of men of West
Bengal during Bijaya Dasami, which practice is
not at all observed by the people of East Bengal.
It is not at all regarded essential to use the drugs
on the vain plea of such festivals. Generally tem-
perate. It does not lead to the formation of the
habit, or otherwise very injurious, owing to its
rare use.
33. The consumption of any of these drugs is
regarded with abhorrence. Yes, there is a strong
public opinion (social) against the use of the
drugs. There is a saying throughout the country
—"That man is a ganjakhor"
(a "ganja
smoker"), marking him as possessed of all sorts
of waywardness and peevishness.
No custom of worshipping the hemp plant.
34. Yes; the fishermen and boatmen, etc., who
are exposed to the inclemency of the weather, feel
themselves much relieved of their labour and ex-
posure by a chillum of ganja, which is supposed
to bring back their energy and drooping spirits.
35. It may be feasible to prohibit the use of
charas and majun, and the use of bhang to a cer-
tain extent, but that of ganja doubtful. Yes,
ganja and bhang to a certain extent would be
consumed illicitly. Prohibition can be enforced
by strong legislative measures, with the inevitable
result of serious discontent among the consumers.
Never amount to any political danger. In all
probability the prohibition will be followed by re-
course to (a) alcoholic stimulants.
36. The occasional smokers may take to cheap
liquor; but it would never be the case with habi-
tual smokers, who indulge in it as a matter of
necessity and not as a matter of pleasure as with
the others.
37. The narcotic effects of charas smoking are
not so instantaneous as those of ganja, which make
the smokers peevish and headstrong. The effects
of bhang are slow and mild, never making the
consumers violent, but rather jolly and witty.
38. Not to my knowledge.
39. Nil.
40. Bhang is prescribed to arrest the progress
of diarrhœa. It is also used in the treatment of
cattle diseases.
41. (a) Moderate use of bhang helps digestion.
(b) Ganja gives staying-power and alleviates
fatigue.
(c) Nil.
(d) Nil.
Middle class men of declining years, who ail
from indigestion, use bhang habitually, their pro-
portion being one in a thousand. Lower classes
of people, such as fishermen, boatmen, palanquin-
bearers and others, who are constantly exposed to
weather, smoke ganja to give staying-power or to
alleviate fatigue, their proportion being ·25.
Moderate habitual use is only referred to.
42. Moderate use of bhang is harmless, if not
wholly beneficial. Bhang relieves a sufferer from
a malady without causing proportionate harm as
an intoxicant; whilst ganja stimulates a poor
labourer to earn a better livelihood by overcoming
fatigue and sustaining staying-power.
43. Yes.
44. Stimulating and refreshing.
Does not
produce intoxication. No, rather increases the
appetite. Effects last for an hour or so. No
after-effects. These drugs are indulged in at
fixed hours, producing longing or uneasiness if
not gratified at those hours.
45. (a) No.
(b) No.
(c) No, rather increases it.
(d) Bhang stops dysentery.
But ganja, if
much indulged in, causes dysentery, bronchitis
or asthma.
(e) Yes. No. No.
Ganja makes a man
rather more active.
(f) It certainly possesses the effect of deadening
intellect and causing a nature of insanity in some.
Some such cases can be brought round if taken in
time by preventing the use of the drug. Some
are hopeless. There is evidence that insanity may
often tend to indulgence in the use of hemp
drugs by a person deficient in self-control through
weakened intellect.
I know of two cases of sepoys who suddenly
showed signs of inaction and wandering propen-
sity, and a great desire for sleep and solitude and
want of appetite.
One turned out incurable,
and the other man recovered when taken in time,
and the reasons became known that he was ad-
dicted to ganja and charas smoking.
46. See above.
47 and 48. No. Not so as of liquor.
49. (a) Yes.
(b) No.
(c) I am unable to say.
50. None to discuss.
51. (a) No.
(b)
Nil.