179
Applied to the particular drug (ganja) of which
I am now speaking, the above test is rather diffi¬
cult of application. For if we discard the quan¬
titative test (i.e., the test of regarding one to be
moderate who consumes so much ganja, and one
to be excessive who consumes more than that
quantity), we can have no means of determining
what proportion of ganja smokers are moderate,
and what proportion excessive, without a detailed
inquiry into the habits and circumstances of each
particular individual. In fact, without the assist¬
ance of some quantitative test, we may, so far
as this particular case is concerned, arrive at some
manifestly absurd conclusions.
Ganja smoking is a habit seen rarely amongst
the higher classes of the people of this province.
Its use is confined to the lower orders. Now,
moderation is a virtue for which the lower orders
of no country is conspicuous. In fact, they are
conspicuous for the opposite quality, i.e., extra¬
vagance in expenditure with regard to marriage,
drinks, and other intoxicants. It will not be far
from the truth to say that a man belonging to the
lower orders will spend in his drink or habitual
narcotic as much as he can conveniently afford, i.e.,
a man of his class will consume as much of his
favorite intoxicant as his means will allow.
Consequently we arrive at the conclusion that
ordinarily a ganja smoker will set no limit to his
use of the drug, except that which will be impos¬
ed by his resources. He will, therefore, be glad to
consume the drug as often and as much as his
means will allow. Judged by the test of moderation
set forth above, every such man should be regard¬
ed as an excessive consumer, for he is always ready
to consume the drug, and is only prevented from
doing so by want of means. As a matter of fact,
however, a large number of people have so little
to spare after satisfying the first necessities of
life, that what little they spend in ganja can
hardly be said to make them excessive consumers
in any sense of the term. On the other hand,
there are people possessed of better means, who,
though they may be in the habit of consuming
the drug only at stated hours of the day, consume
it at those hours in such a large quantity that
they cannot be called moderate in any sense of
the term.
Here then ultimately we shall have to fall back
on a quantitative test if we wish to distinguish
moderate from excessive consumers.
I have taken some statistics on this point. The
ganja shop at this town of English bazar sells
ganja at the rate of R20 a seer. I inquired of a
large number of persons who come to purchase
ganja, at this shop as to their daily consumption
of the drug. Altogether 378 persons were ex¬
amined. Of these, 247 persons stated that they
spent a pice a day on this drug, 106 persons gave
two pice as their daily expenditure on ganja,
whilst only 13, 7, 1, 3, and 1 stated their daily
consumption to be three, four, five, eight, and ten
pice, respectively. I am sure most of these men
understated their consumption to a very consi¬
derable extent. But looking to the fact that
purchasers of ganja are not the only persons who
consume the drug, and that a large number of
persons who consume ganja do so at the expense
of their richer companions, I think it is safe to
say that the majority of ganja smokers do not
spend more than two pice a day upon ganja.
The retail price of ganja in this district is about
R20, so that two pice can fetch a man only one
eighth tola of ganja. This is not sufficient for more
than three chillums, I think it cannot be con¬
sidered as excessive. On this datum it can be
said that the majority of the ganja 'smokers are
moderate consumers. Beyond this, however, it is
not possible to fix any proportion between moder¬
ate and excessive consumers.
As regards occasional consumers, all that can
be said is that their number is [extremely small.
In fact, it is impossible for a man to consume
even a pretty large quantity of ganja unless he is
a habitual consumer and has kept up his habit by
daily use.
27. I have already mentioned that the upper
classes of the people very rarely take ganja (my
answer has reference only to ganja). It is only
the lower classes that are mainly addicted to it.
In general two broad divisions may be made
amongst the ganja smokers—(1) labourers, cul¬
tivators, boatmen, and, in fact, such as have to
earn their bread by constant manual labour;
(2) the village badmashes who follow no occu¬
pation, but generally form a band amongst them¬
selves, and are a constant source of nuisance and
trouble to their peaceful neighbours, and who
follow no occupation in particular, but manage to
subsist by the earnings of others, or by here¬
ditary properties, or by petty thefts, etc.
The first class are moderate consumers. They
smoke ganja after doing their legitimate work,
say, once in the morning, once in the evening,
and sometimes once at midday. Amongst these
may be mentioned the boatmen of East Bengal
and the Raj Bangsis and Koches of the Barindra.
The boatmen of East Bengal believe that ganja
enables them to withstand the inclemencies of the
weather. But this seems to be an erroneous
assumption. New boatmen learn ganja smoking
from the old ones, who, having acquired the habit,
extol it to the new comers. The new comers
begin to take the drug at first gratis in the com¬
pany of the inveterates, who, whenever any new
boatman takes up the calling, are generally fond
of telling him their own adventures and difficulties,
and generally end with a recommendation for
ganja as an elixir.
The Raj Bangsis and Koehes do not take much
of liquor, and, being well off, generally indulge
in this drug as a luxury. These men are very
indolent, and prefer to stay at home and smoke
ganja whilst their women do all the work for
them.
Amongst the excessive consumers are to be
found, as I have said, the village vagabonds. To
this class also belong the sanyasis and the bairagis,
and also the Gir Gosains. The sanyasis and
bairagis are generally those who, in early life,
were of the same class as village vagabonds,
and who became sanyasis and bairagis after
committing some crime, or having been detected
carrying on an intrigue with some females.
28. (a) 1 to 2 pice a day.
(b) 3 pice to 4 annas a day.
29. Ganja is smoked with tobacco leaves, the
proportion being half and half for moderate con¬
sumers, and varies with others who want to make
the preparation stronger or weaker according to
taste and habit. No one, however, can take
ganja without tobacco. Dhatura is used by
persons who have gone to a fearful excess. The
object of mixing tobacco is to render the prepara¬
tion mild—pure ganja being too strong to be
smoked alone. The object of mixing dhatura is
to render ganja stronger than it naturally is
Dhatura smoking often leads to insanity. I have
not heard any thing of bhang massala.
2 C 2