397
There is no likelihood in the case of charas of its
being illicitly used. Charas is not made in this
province; it is imported in small quantities from
distant places; the price is higher than that of
the other hemp drugs; and after its use is prohi-
bited, it is likely that the demand would cease, or
would be so small as not to make it any body's
worth while to risk the dangers of smuggling.
The case is different with bhang and ganja.
In the first place, the consumers are a much more
numerous class, including the sadhus who are
notoriously held in reverence by the masses; and as
the prohibition would soon come to be regarded
as an interference with the liberties of those
sadhus who are also religious teachers, a colorable
interpretation might be put upon the prohibition
as being interference with religion itself. This
would be a political danger undoubtedly. In the
second place, I do not think it would be practicable
to prevent the illicit use of bhang at any rate, as
it grows wild in the province; and nothing short
of an army of excise men would be able to enforce
the prohibition; while, on the other hand, the
enforcement of such prohibition by the medium
of under-paid men would naturally become in-
quisitorial in its character.
It is more than possible that the prohibition
would be followed by recourse to alcoholic
stimulants and in a smaller number of instances
other drugs like nux-vomica and dhatura.
36. I believe so, and I attribute the fact to the
growing fashion among the English educated
classes of indulgence in alcoholic stimulants.
Alcohol is now much more consumed in an illicit
manner by members of classes to whom its use is
socially or religiously prohibited than was the case
fifteen years ago. Numerically such consumers
may be very small, but the fact is there all the
same, and indicates that while Western education
has the tendency to obliterate ancient customs
and many social restraints as superstitious, it does
not always provide healthy substitutes for them.
39. Rather the contrary. The general belief is
that the smoking of the hemp plant is more in-
jurious than the eating or drinking of the same.
Excessive ganja smokers are greater sufferers in
health than excessive bhang drinkers. In the case
of the former the evil effects appear sooner than in
the case of the latter. Cases of excessive bhang
drinkers are known who have lived up to old age
as not suffering materially in health owing to
their habit, while excessive ganja smokers sooner
or later contract diseases of the chest or the brain.
It is, however, unsafe to generalise from a limit-
ed number of instances, but the popular belief is
that eating or drinking is the better form of using
hemp drugs than smoking them.
40. Bhang is used in the preparation of several
Ayurvedic medicines; it is also frequently drunk
alone or in combination with suitable drugs for
the removal of hæmorrhoids and constipation. In
the treatment of cattle diseases it is also used
largely. Ganja is used by Ayurvedic physicians
in the preparation of several kinds of oils for ex-
ternal application.
41. The moderate use of bhang may be bene-
ficial in its effects—
(a) As a food accessory or digestive. Under
the influence of bhang a larger quantity
of food, especially of a saccharine and
starchy kind, can be consumed and
digested, and this effect is popularly
well-known.
(b) Moderate use of ganja may be beneficial
in its effects to give staying power under
severe exertion or exposure or to alleviate
fatigue. The immunity of sadhus from
the evil effects of exposure to which they
are extremely liable is attributed to the
use of ganja. I have known members
of this class to sit all night on the bank
of the Ganges or any equally exposed
place in the coldest month of the year
without any shelter over their heads or
any cloth to cover their bodies except a
narrow strip of loin cloth, and to bear this
extraordinary exposure with impunity
by taking chillum after chillum of ganja.
Dhobies, boatmen, and fishermen, who
have constantly to be out in all sorts of
weather, and to be always coming in
contact with water, attribute to the use
of ganja their escape from the evil
effects of the exposure. As an allevia-
tion of fatigue I have seen palki-bearers
tramp for ten miles with their un-
sightly machine and its occupants in the
hottest sun, and at a brief break perspire
like horses and look utterly exhausted,
but after a chillum or two of ganja had
been passed round they would tramp for
another ten miles like a relay of fresh
animals.
The latter part of this question is answered by
what has been stated above. I refer to moderate
habitual use for the purposes of (a) and (d), and
to moderate occasional use for the purposes of (b)
and (c).
(c) As a febrifuge or preventive of disease in
malarious tract, it is well known that
sometimes a draught of bhang taken a
few hours before the "paroxysm in ter-
tian quotidian" and other kinds of ma-
larial fever cuts short the attack, and it
is not uncommonly used for this pur-
pose.
(d) In any other way, as stated elsewhere,
sufferers from hæmorrhoids and habitual
constipation find a daily use of a moder-
ate quantity of bhang extremely benefi-
cial in alleviating and even curing their
complaints.
43. Undoubtedly.
44. The immediate effect of the moderate use
of bhang on the habitual consumer is an exalta-
tion of the physical powers. The effect is refresh-
ing as well as intoxicating. The drink does not
allay hunger; rather it increases the appetite.
The effect may last up to twelve hours or more.
There is no after effect, so far as I am aware;
but as the times come round when it is habitual
for the consumer to take the draught, there does
arise a sort of craving for it, and if it is not forth-
coming uneasiness follows.
45 and 46. So far as my observations go, ther
do not follow any noxious moral effects from the
habitual moderate use of the hemp drugs nor from
habitual excessive use.
The physical effects of the habitual moderate
use of bhang lead to longevity in popular belief; at
any rate, the effects are not harmful physically,
but habitual excessive use is harmful physically.
I believe the effects of a moderate use: of bhang
on the mental faculties are to produce partial
stupor or sluggishness in their action. Of exces-
sive habitual use the mental effects may be
partial idiotcy and melancholia.