589
15. Madak as sort of medicine made by native
doctors, mixing bhang finely powdered with sugar
and few other spices as stimulant and promoter of
digestive power; these are eaten as pills.
Siddhi
or ghota is made with powdered bhang mixed with
milk, water and sugar, and used in certain religi-
ous occasions for drinking, and so also with sugar
and rice powder used as sweetmeat in Sivaratri
day for the worship of god Siva.
16. Bhang can be prepared from the wild hemp
plant; ganja cannot be prepared from them.
17. By all classes, generally by Brahmins for
religious affairs.
19. As far as my knowledge goes, ganja and
charas are used only for smoking.
20. Smoking ganja among Assamese is scarce
in present days. Two per cent. would be number.
It is most common among the up-country people
and coolies, and all fakirs and monks consume it
considerably as one of the necessaries to stick to
their holy devotions, more especially as because
god Siva was using it.
21. Flat ganja generally gets easy sale here.
23. I did not see any using bhang for smoking.
24. Among Assamese in religious days, espe-
cially by Brahmins, and few of all other classes.
25. Use of ganja is on the increase. Assamese'
seeing its use by the up-country traders, coolies,
etc., gradually copying and learning it.
26. (a) 60 per cent.
(b) 30 Ditto.
(c) 10 Ditto.
(d) Nil.
27. Labourers, songsters and fakirs. The la-
bourer and songster classes to stimulate them to
work, and fakirs to stick their minds to devotions.
28. (a) Two pice to one anna.
(b) About two annas per diem.
29. Tobacco leaf for smoking ganja; dhatura
never seen used.
30. Practice is more in company than in soli-
tude. It is confined to male only, to whole time
of his life. It is scarcely usual amongst the
Assamese children to consume these drugs.
31. Yes. It is difficult to break off. There is
tendency to develop into the excessive use.
32. In Assam it is customary among princi-
pally Brahmins to use bhang in way of sweet-
meat for worshipping Siva once a year in the
day of Sivaratri, and siddhi or ghota in the last
day of Durga Puja. For Siva worshipping on
that day it is considered to offer ganja sweetmeat
in the puja, but it is not compulsory for the de-
voters to eat them. The preparation is temperate,
but excessive use is injurious.
33. These drugs are generally regarded as hate-
ful and injurious to mental power. The public
opinion in regard to the practice of the drugs is
quite against for the use of all forms of narcotic.
I attribute general disrepute to the ganja. No
custom of worshipping the plant in Assam.
34. There will be none in Assam.
35. It would be feasible to prohibit the use of
these drugs and would be a blessing to the people
in my opinion. I don't think they would be con-
sumed illicitly. Stopping importation and sale
and prohibiting cultivation, a small quantity being
kept for sale with restrictions for religious occa-
sions and medicinal purposes. The prohibition
might occasion little discontent among the fakirs
for some time and shall never amount to a poli-
tical danger in Assam. None shall follow to other
stimulant, as, excepting fakirs, ganja is being now
considered as ruinous drug by the general public
here.
36. No.
37. Effect of charas is heard to be not stronger
than ganja.
38. No.
39. Smoking is more injurious than drinking,
as the former affects in lungs and brains sooner.
40. Assam Bez Borooahs, Kabiraj, use bhang
in few stimulant medicines, and raw bhang as
digestive medicine in some cattle-diseases.
41. As far as I find, it is especially used to give
staying power under exertion by the labouring
class, and for pleasure only by the youths of higher
classes; at first as moderate occasional use and
afterwards habitual.
42. I don't think moderate use even harmless,
as it is liable to gradually become habitual, and it
harms the weak brains easily, though moderate.
43. Nothing much heard against them.
44. Generally believed to be refreshing; it pro-
duces intoxication and lasts from two to three
hours, and want of subsequent gratification pro-
duces uneasiness. Creates appetite to the begin-
ners only.
45 and 46. (a) Yes.
(c) No.
(d), etc. Yes. I saw three cases of dysentery and
bronchitis caused by habitual smoking. It impairs
moral sense, but induces no laziness to my know-
ledge. It does deaden the intellect, and eventually
produces insanity to those with weaker brains, I
witness two cases of two youths of respectable
Assam families becoming insane by smoking
ganja for pleasure; one since died after ten years'
lingering and the other still alive.
53. I believe so in certain cases. I saw a cooly
in my garden and a pensioned sepoy, the former
attempting to kill his wife with a dao, and the
other seriously beating his wife.
54, 55 and 56. None to my knowledge.
58. Working well.
60. Ganja not cultivated here.
61. No.
62. Present control is good enough.
63. In my opinion, if ganja is not altogether
abolished, the present system is good.
64. Existing regulations are quite satisfactory.
65. I prefer heavy taxation to lessen consu-
mers.
66. No.
67. No.
68. Yes. I have nothing to object against
them.
Oral evidence.
Question 1.—I am a pensioner and was in the
Public Works Department and served in Upper
Assam. My answers relate to Upper Assam, from
Dibrugarh to Golaghat.
Question 3.—The growth of the wild plant is
prohibited. If there are signs that it is cared for,
4 I