289
25. I am informed by the shop-keepers that the
use of ganja and charas has decreased somewhat
of late. They attribute this to the increasing
dearness of food.
26. (a) 85.0 per cent.
(b) 2.0 ditto.
(c) 12.5 ditto.
(d) 0.5 ditto.
100.0
27. Muhammadans
of the lower classes,
Chamars and other low caste Hindus.
28. (a) 7½ to 15 grains per diem, cost 1 to 2
pice.
(b) 60 grains per diem, cost 2 annas.
29. As far as I could discover, nothing (except
in the case of bhang massala) is ordinarily or ex-
ceptionally mixed with these drugs in Dacca.
Dhatura is not so used here.
Bhang massala is used for the purpose of mix-
ing with.
It is composed of—
Dried rose leaves, lettuce seeds, aniseed,
poppy seeds, black pepper, cucumber seeds,
mowri,
kakoor seeds, kashni
seeds,
gokhura thorn.
30. The consumption of these drugs is usually
practised in company and mainly confined to the
male sex, except in the case of prostitutes.
They are generally used in middle and ad-
vanced life. About 70 per cent. of persons ad-
dicted to these drugs are middle-aged or old. It
is not usual for children to consume them; but
from enquiry among the shop-keepers here I find
about 8 per cent. of these customers are young
people from 12 to 16 years old.
31. The habit is easily acquired, and, like the
habits of smoking and moderate drinking, is not
easy to break off; but this difficulty increases with
the amounts consumed. Seeing the small proportion
of the excessive to the moderate users of the drugs,
I do not think in the vast majority of cases there
is a tendency for the moderate habit to develop
into the excessive.
32. Ganja smokers are in the habit of meeting
together in parties for the purpose of indulging in
the consumption of the drug. Its practice appears
to be mainly used among the lower classes of
people as an accessory to social intercourse, and
is then temporarily used and not likely to lead to
the formation of habit, nor is it otherwise
injurious. Excessive consumers usually practise
the vice in solitude, and it is then injurious.
33. Bhang is considered less hurtful when taken
in excess than charas, and lastly, ganja is thought
to be most deleterious in excess.
I am not aware of any public opinion in regard
to the practice.
I do not know of any custom of worshipping
the plant.
34. It would be a serious privation to all classes
of habitual consumers to forego the consumption
of the drug they use. My reasons for this opinion
are as follows: The cases may be compared with
the cases of persons who are in the habit of using
alcohol. In the case of the moderate user a want
is felt if the stimulant is witheld; if taken in
larger quantity appetite and digestion may suffer,
and lassitude and a general feeling of uneasiness
may result. In the case of the excessive con-
sumers this want and malaise becomes an im-
perious craving, which must be satisfied at all
costs.
35. I do not think it would be feasible to pro-
hibit the use of these drugs. I believe they
would be consumed illicitly. The prohibition
would occasion serious discontent among the cus-
tomers. I cannot give any opinion as to the pro-
bability of such discontent amounting to a politi-
cal danger, or as to the effect of the prohibition to
the consumption of other stimulants.
36. I have no reason for thinking that alcohol
is being substituted for these drugs.
37. The effects of these are much the same, but
charas is weaker.
38. They appear to have much the same effect.
39. I do not know. Ganja and charas is only
used for smoking here, and bhang is usually drunk.
I have not seen cases of ganja and charas eating,
so cannot compare the results of smoking and
eating and drinking.
40. Kabirajes use bhang in bowel complaints
especially. The preparations of Cannabis indica
are largely used by native doctors, generally in
the treatment of dysentery, chronic diarrhœa, etc.
Bhang is used in the treatment of cattle disease
and in the form of condition powders.
41. (a) Yes.
(b) Yes.
(c) I have no experience of their use as a
preventive of malaria.
(d) I have found the moderate use of
Cannabis indica very useful in the prevention and
treatment of attacks of chronic dysentery. I refer
to the moderate use.
42. I consider the moderate use of these drugs
to be harmless, and in many cases beneficial, for
the reasons I have given in paragraphs 41, 44,
and 57a.
43. Yes.
44. The moderate use of these drugs produces
a sense of exhilaration and refreshment, but not
intoxication. It allays hunger and creates appe-
tite. As ordinarily used the effect of bhang lasts
three or four hours, ganja fifteen or twenty
minutes, charas fifteen or twenty minutes.
45. (a), (b), (c), (d), (e), (f) No. See below,
Nos. 46 and 57a.
46. The habitual excessive use of ganja pro-
duces intoxication and sometimes sleep, which
usually last two or three hours, the constitution
is gradually impaired, the digestion is injured,
asthma and bronchitis may supervene, and disin-
clination and incapacity for work results, and the
moral sense becomes blunted. (See Medical
Report 57a.)
47. No.
48. No, I cannot find any evidence which would
lead to the conclusion that either the moderate or
excessive use is a hereditary habit. Cases occur-
ring in the same family probably result from the
effects of example.
2 R