561
49. Not as far as known, but undue stimulation
by any drugs tends to produce a lessening of
power eventually. I have found from experience
that ganja-smokers are put under the influence of
chloroform with much more difficulty than non-
users.
50. The same; but enhanced.
56. No experience of admixtures.
57. Not known.
In conclusion, a ganja-smoker is not a trust-
worthy person as a rule, and there are many
objections to its use. Its use tends to excite, and
causes a desire for exertion; it helps to exalt the
mind's tendency at the time, and the person may
thus be dangerous. The complete stoppage of its
cultivation, importation, and sale in Assam would
be no hardship, but rather a great benefit.
25. Evidence of ATUL CHANDRA ROY,* Bengali Vaidya, Assistant Surgeon, Emigra-
tion Department, Tezpur.
1. I am a Bengali by birth, and have lived in
Assam for about 11 years. In both the provinces
I have had opportunities of seeing people using
hemp drugs and also the drugs themselves in wild
state. I was also for some months in charge of
the Lunatic Asylum of Tezpur.
2. The name bhang is applied in this province
as well as in Bengal to the leaves, both fresh and
dry, of the hemp plant, whether male or female,
and ganja is known here as mohini bhang. I
have seen both ganja and bhang plants in wild
state. They look as different plants; the leaves
of the former are broader and larger than those of
the latter, and I have never heard of ganja plants
growing from bhang seeds; charas is unknown in
this province.
19. Charas is not at all used in Assam. Ganja
is usually smoked, but is also occasionally drunk
mixed up with milk and sugar after being moder-
ated with water. There is, as far as I know, no
speciality as to places where it is so used; i.e., it
is used more or less all over the province, although
to a very small extent.
23. Yes, used for smoking occasionally—perhaps
more so in Assam than in Bengal. Drinking of
bhang, of course, is by far the more common
practice in both these provinces. I cannot say if
any particular class of people has any special
liking for smoking it in preference to drinking this
drug.
28. (a) 18 to 24 grains of ganja, which costs
one 3 to 4 pice a day.
(b) There are persons who take so much as 4 to
6 annas worth ganja per diem.
Bhang is scarcely purchased in this province,
the wild bhang being in use.
I have no knowledge about charas.
29. (a) Ganja is usually smoked alone or mixed
up with tobacco. Bhang is usually drunk mix-
ed up with milk and sugar. Sometimes a little
black pepper in powdery form is also thrown into
it.
(b) I have heard of dhatura being excep-
tionally taken with bhang and not opium and
nux-vomica, etc.
The object of the ordinary admixtures is to
make the thing palatable and also to increase its
effects, and that of the exceptional admixtures is
simply to increase the effects of the drugs. I
have no knowledge of any such preparation as
bhang massala.
30. Siddhi or bhang is usually consumed in
solitude, but ganja is enjoyed much more in com-
pany than in solitude. I have no knowledge as to
the consumption of charas. It—I mean consump-
tion of bhang and ganja—is mainly confined to
the male sex and to the grown-up people, children
scarcely consuming any of these drugs.
31. Yes, easily formed, and it is not difficult to
break off the habit in comparison with opium.
Yes; there is a tendency for the moderate habit
to develop into the excessive.
32. As far as I know there are no such cus-
toms in Assam. In Bengal there are people who
take bhang on the last day of Durga Puja, but
this practice is never regarded as essential, and is
not likely to lead to the formation of the habit or
otherwise injurious.
Sadhus and sanyasis (religious mendicants),
who are mostly North-Western Provinces' men,
use ganja or bhang invariably for the alleged
reason of concentrating their minds for devotional
purposes, and this leads to the formation of the
habit.
36. I don't think so.
37. The effects of the drinking of bhang are
much more lasting than those resulting from ganja-
smoking, but are not so instantaneous as the latter
are. In other respects they are much about the
same. I have had no occasion of observing the
effects of charas smoking.
38. No answer.
39. I should think so. The effects of the drugs,
when drunk, are more lasting, and are therefore
likely to be more injurious than when they are
smoked. This perhaps is due to the difference of
quantities respectively used in drinking and smok-
ing. Bhang drinking, however, is less injurious
than ganja smoking.
40. Bhang is prescribed by the kabirajes for its
digestive and soporific effects. I don't know if it
is used in the treatment of cattle disease. Ganja
or charas is never prescribed by them in any disease.
Bhang is also used as anodyne both internally and
externally.
41 and 42. I don't think that the habitual use
of these drugs, however moderate it may be, can
in any way be beneficial in the long run. The
popular notion is that it proves injurious (especially
the use of ganja) in the long run. The use of
these drugs usually forms a depraved habit, and it
is then only that a consumer feels their necessity
in giving him (a) appetite, or (b) staying power
under severe exertion or exposure or in alleviating
fatigue.
Any of these drugs is not considered as febrifuge
or as preventive of disease in malarious and un-
healthy tracts. Of course they may be certainly
very beneficial when used medicinally in cases of
illness. But I understand these two questions
to refer to moderate habitual use.
44. Yes; it is refreshing and intoxicating. It
is said to allay hunger and to create appetite. In
* Summoned to attend at a sitting of the Commission for oral examination, but was unable to appear.
4 E