25
4,000 or 5,000 people in this district who would
perhaps feel aggrieved if their supply of ganja
was stopped.
35. Of ganja with the greatest ease. Pro-
hibit the cultivation altogether and no ganja
could possibly be produced in Naogaon; or
enforce strictly the various restrictions already
prescribed with regard to the cultivation, manu-
facture and storage of ganja, and the cultiva-
tors would gradually throw up the cultivation of
the plant in disgust and betake themselves to
the cultivation of jute and sugarcane. I may
add that the profits from sugarcane now equal,
if they do not exceed, those from ganja; and there
is no inquisitorial supervision connected with the
cultivation of the former. There would be no
illicit consumption, because there would be no
ganja at all. Ganja cannot be cultivated secretly
by a cultivator. If it were so cultivated, every
one would know all about it. Neighbours would
turn informers to get the reward which would be
offered. The prohibition of the use of ganja
would occasion much discontent among the con-
sumers; but such discontent could not in any
case amount to a political danger. I do not
think there would be any recourse to alcoholic
stimulants in case of the prohibition of the use
of ganja, because the influence of alcohol is so
different from that of ganja. Excessive indul-
gence in alcohol makes a man generally noisy
and boisterous. Ganja renders him quiet and
sedate, sometimes morose and sullen, occasionally
irritable with a decided disinclination to be
disturbed. Recourse to opium would not follow,
for opium is too expensive.
36. There is no reason.
37. I do not know anything about charas-
smoking.
38. They are all from the same plant, the
method of manufacture only being different as
between flat and round, and there cannot be any
difference in effects.
39. I am acquainted only with ganja, and that
is never eaten but smoked. I cannot tell.
40. Not that I know of.
41. The moderate use of ganja in smoking is
said to be beneficial, because (a) it promotes diges-
tion and acts like a tonic; because (b) it gives
staying-power under severe exertion or exposure,
and alleviates the sense of fatigue; because (c) it
prevents and cures dysentery and bowel com-
plaints. Only labouring men use ganja habitually
in moderation in this way, and very few even of
this class.
42 to 57. I believe the moderate use of ganja
in smoking to be harmless, because, in my 32
years' experience of Bengal, I have never come
across a single instance of the injurious effects of
such ganja-smoking. Surely if ganja-smoking
was so baneful, and so widespread as many people
wish to make out, there would be numerous
examples to be met with in every large town, and
especially in the hospitals maintained therein. I
do not remember to have ever been made acquaint-
ed with a single case. I believe moderate con-
sumers of ganja to be inoffensive to their
neighbours if left alone; if disturbed, I am told
they are very irritable. About the effects of
ganja-smoking, immediate or remote, I can say
nothing. I have no personal experience. I could
speak only from hearsay, and there must be
many people able to speak of the effects of ganja-
smoking at first hand: I believe, principally
because I have not met with a single instance in
my long service, that excessive ganja-smoking is
rare—one man in 10,000 perhaps has contracted
the vice. It is so easy to indulge in sensational
writing in the matter; but the absence of instances
leads me to believe that the crusade against
ganja-smoking has no grounds. Why should the
habit be hereditary? As well might tobacco-smok-
ing be hereditary. Ganja-smoking is a cultivated
appetite. The son of a father who smokes ganja
might, by the force of example, be led to learn
this habit, but certainly not from a natural
craving for the indulgence.
I have been told that a draught of bhang, by way
of sherbet or perhaps a decoction, is sometimes used
as an aphrodisiac. I have never heard about its
effects leading to impotence. As I have said
before, in the course of 32 years' residence in
Bengal, I have never had a criminal before me
who was said to have committed an offence under
the influence of ganja-smoking. I do not think
ganja-smoking has any connection with crime.
I do not believe that a large proportion of bad
characters are ganja smokers at all. Criminals,
when about to commit a premeditated act of
violence or other offence, may possibly have a
good pull at the ganja chillum as a preliminary
in order to fortify themselves or get up Dutch
courage, but I have never heard of any instance.
An English criminal, very much more often, I
believe, takes a glass of grog as a sort of preparation
before embarking on the commission of a daring
burglary—to steady his nerves, as he would say.
You would not stop the consumption of alcohol
entirely because it was once in a way used in this
manner. A glass of coca wine would act better,
I should say, to secure this end than any stimu-
lant, but you would not prohibit the drinking of
coca wine altogether. I have never heard of
criminals inducing their victims to partake of a
ganja smoke so that they might become stupefied.
I believe complete stupefaction cannot be induced
by smoking ganja without admixture. Tobacco
is constantly used with ganja in smoking to take
off the harshness of the last-mentioned article,
which is said to burn the throat even in half-a-
dozen whiffs if smoked pure. I know nothing
about the admixture of dhatura with ganja. Ganja
is not eaten or drunk in Bengal.
The use of charas for smoking alone is so limited
in Bengal that it is not possible to take it into
account.
58. I think the present system of administra-
tion of ganja in Bengal is working extremely well,
especially when the moderate dimensions of the
entire cost of the establishment are taken into con-
sideration. I believe there is very little smug-
gling—not 50 maunds—while over 8,000 maunds
represent the annual outturn. I doubt that there
would be much appreciable reduction in smuggling
if ganja was made a monopoly like opium, and the
expense of the system of monopoly would be con-
siderably greater. Larger establishments would
have to be entertained and store-houses construct-
ed all over the ganja tract.
59. All the material improvements in the sys-
tem that could have been introduced have already
from time to time been applied. Perhaps there is
not sufficient pressure put upon cultivators to build
proper store-houses, and the duty of chur ganja
might be raised, so as to be proportionally equal to
that of flat and round. But it should be remem-
bered that the duty has been increased from Re. 1
both for flat and for round in 1854 till it has now
reached Rs. 6 for flat, Rs. 7 1/4 for round, and Rs.
8 for chur. Originally only flat and round ganja
G