224
Bhang is more or less prepared in every district.
The ganja prepared gives supply to the whole
of Bengal, besides export to other provinces.
Bhang is prepared in small quantities for pri-
vate consumption, and, under licenses, when re-
quired to be prepared in large quantities for sale.
15. [a (A) ] The ganja seeds are sown in a wet
ground and when the seedlings grow they are
transplanted. They are cut after four or five
months. The male plants are weeded out by
experts, employed for the purpose. After a little
drying, the leaves and flowering tops are pressed
with foot or rolled, and ganja for smoking is
prepared. Ganja is sometimes smoked by being
mixed with tobacco leaves. [a (B)] The dried
leaves of both the male and the female plants are
either made into pills which are swallowed or
mixed with sweets called majum or [a (C)]; they
are powdered and mixed with water and the mix-
ture is again sweetened by addition of sugar and
milk for drinking. The resinous matter at the
flower tops of the plant is charas, and is smoked
with ganja. [ b (A. B. C.) ] Wild plants are sub-
jected to the same process. In this district,
however, the Nepalese people who alone are ac-
quainted with the use of this plant use it always
in smoking and do not know the preparations for
eating or drinking.
16. Bhang is often prepared at home. It can
be prepared from the hemp plant wherever grown.
Charas is not prepared from the wild plants as
they are never so vigorous as the cultivated ones.
Even ganja cannot be prepared from the wild
plants unless the plants are taken care of and
tended.
17. Muhammadans are said to be mostly en-
gaged in ganja cultivation, but the business is not
confined to them.
18. Yes. Ganja, charas and bhang will keep
for eight or nine months. It will, however, take
some years for them to be entirely devoid of their
intoxicating properties. Dampness is the agency
which primarily deteriorates the properties of the
hemp preparations. The storage of the articles
should be made on a certain elevation from the
ground and should be protected from damp as
much as possible.
19. Yes, only for smoking.
20. A very small fraction of the people only
smoke ganja and charas, and charas is still less
used than ganja. In some of the districts, for
instance in Darjeeling, charas is entirely unknown.
But ganja is used in every district in Bengal;
ganja is pre-eminently the thing of the poor and is
mostly in use amongst sadhus, jogis, fakirs,
bhakats, lower class labourers, mehtars, dhobis.
Up-country people are more addicted to it than
people of Lower Bengal.
21. Flat ganja is generally preferred.
22. Nepal charas was generally preferred but
latterly Bengal obtains its supply of charas from
Amritsar and Mirzapur in the North-Western
Provinces.
23. No. But the Nepalase people do not know
the preparation of bhang as in Bengal or the
North-West. They prepare a crude sort of ganja
which they call bhang and this they always
smoke.
24. Bhang is used throughout the province, more
or less amongst all classes of the people. The
eating of bhang in pills or sweetmeats is a matter
of fancy and convenience, but the drinking of
bhang is the ordinary method of its consumption.
25. In Bengal the use of ganja, charas and
bhang among the Bengali population is fast
decreasing owing, among the upper classes, to a
change of taste by the influence of English edu-
cation, and among the lower classes, to an influence
of the example of the upper classes. No percep-
tible diminution of its use among the up-country
people.
26. Out of every 100 consumers are—
(a) 75,
(b) 5,
(c) 15 and
(d) 5, I should think.
27. Vide question 20. The excessive use of
ganja is resorted to by those who have very little
else to do. Companionship with ganja smokers is
another cause of its inducement. It is said that
the smoking of ganja produces a state of mind,
when persons, who have by steady effort tried to
do so, are enabled to concentrate their minds in
divine contemplation. Hence Hindu ascetics are
hard ganja smokers, but I think most of them
fail to turn its use to that purpose.
28. (a) One anna or less, (b) two annas or more.
29. With ganja tobacco powders are sometimes
mixed up in the proportion of 3 : 1. Dhatura is
sometimes mixed with bhang to induce excessive
intoxication.
Bhang massala contains cucumber seeds, black
pepper, coriander seeds and some other substances.
Where the massala is not obtainable, only black
pepper, milk and sugar are added.
30. The drugs are mostly used in company and
seldom in solitude. Females seldom use it. Chil-
dren do not use it except in rare cases.
31. This is just like drinking of liquor and
all other intoxicating drinks or drugs.
32. In Bengal during the Dashara and the
Sivaratri festivals, and in the up-country during
the Holi and the Sivaratri festivals, bhang is used
by persons who are not habitual consumers.
This is done from a religious point of view. The
quantity drunk is very small and not taken with
a view to induce intoxication. Those who are
habitual drinkers consume in excess at these times.
The religious part of the consumption is not inju-
rious, as it is only nominal.
33. The consumption of charas is abhorred by
the public. That of ganja is looked down upon.
The use of the bhang in moderate quantities is
allowed though not approved of except at festi-
vals. The custom of worshipping the hemp plant
is not known to me.
34. There is no doubt that there will be serious
privation for a time but that will be temporary.
The after-effects of such foregoing will be salu-
tary as is seen in the jail population of Bengal.
35. Yes. I don't see why it would not be. It
could not be illicitly consumed with that ease
which attends on the illicit use of liquor, for the
former would necessitate the rearing of some plant
on a fixed spot for months together, while liquor
can be made in an hour. The discontent would
certainly be serious but it could not amount to a
political danger. Some provision should, however,
always be made to meet the religious portion of
the consumption. If the hemp drugs are pro-
hibited, a portion of the consuming population
will resort to alcohol and opium.
36. Alcohol has to some extent taken the place
of the hemp drug, as the people are imbibing a
taste for the former intoxicant.