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to go to excess more speedily than the man with
vigorous intellect and possessed of self-control.
The weaker will yield first in all such cases, and
is less liable to recover himself. I am convinced
that ganja weakens the will-power, making the
man liable to be influenced by others from with-
out; and, if so, more liable to be influenced from
within in moments of anger or under provocation
or delusion.
47. No; not hereditary, nor does it affect off-
spring to any appreciable degree.
48. I know it leads to neglect of the family
claims, rendering a man callous to natural affec-
tion; but this is owing to the commanding nature
of the craving for the drug.
49. (a) It is by young men.
(b) Yes; prostitutes take it, but drink or im-
ported liquor is fast supplanting it in this respect.
(c) It leads to over-stimulation of the sexual
function.
(d) It produces impotence in man as a natural
result of over-stimulation.
50. In excess it ultimately obliterates the
sexual desire, and makes the subject indifferent to
every desire, mental or physical.
To produce
this condition is the object of the Hindu devotee
when he indulges to excess. He becomes oblivi-
ous of all desire, set free from all worldly or
temporal attractions, and all mental desires. The
mind, they say, is thus put into the divine atti-
tude of neutrality or equilibrium, poised between
desire and non-desire.
51. Ganja-smoking demoralises the smoker and
slackens his moral fibre; but although they are
untrustworthy, still I do not find them largely as
a class given to crime. I would class them next
to opium-smokers in this respect. The tendency
is to make them reckless, and in times of great
scarcity or under temptation the ganja-smoker
would yield to temptation before the ordinary non-
smoker. It does not incite to crime directly, but
the ranks of crime would be more easily recruited
from ganja-smokers than from those who are not
demoralised by its use.
52. The smoker who uses the drug to excess
will ruin his home by selling off his goats, cows,
and effects rather than do without it. He thus
becomes its slave, and may be induced by the
craving to steal to supply his wants.
53. I have instanced under question 45 a case
which occurred in this district.
54. I am told that that is the general impres-
sion among the people.
55. I cannot say.
Yes; deep coma follows a strong draught of an
infusion of ganja, but I have never heard of it
being used alone for criminal purposes.
56. Answered previously as to effects. I am
not aware of dhatura being used with it.
57. No experience of this.
58. Not practically acquainted with this branch
of Excise administration. Popularly the impres-
sion is that there might be greater care exercised
in preventing illicit ganja from being sold to the
public secretly.
59. I cannot go into this question here.
60. I have no practical knowledge of this.
61. Not used in Rajshahi as far as I know.
62. Not much used in this district. The plant
is easily controlled by offering a small reward for
information of private cultivation.
63. Yes; to retail shops for ganja.
(1) There are 405 shops in Rampur Boalia for
the retail sale of ganja for a population of twenty
thousand. Two shops would be ample. (2) The
drug is too cheap; a lad may buy one pice worth,
and get a taste of the drug sufficient to produce
intoxication. (3) It should not be sold to lads under
twenty years. I know boys of ten to fifteen who
club together to buy ganja for smoking. It is
a shame that they should have the tempta-
tion thrust upon them by retail shop-keepers, who
will gladly supply the drug to mere children. (4)
Increase the price, say double what it is, and you
will reduce the number of smokers by 90 per cent.
This would put it beyond the reach of the labour-
ing man, who is the largest consumer.
64. No experience of this.
65. Taxation of ganja is not sufficient when one
remembers the minute quantity which produces
intoxication. One pice worth to a beginner is suffi-
cient to intoxicate. The same applies to alcoholic
liquors; they are too cheap and thrust too much
into the face of the public by the multiplicity of
shops.
66. I only know the one kind of flat ganja. Its
price certainly should be raised to save the morals
of the rising generation.
67. It is too cheaply sold (ganja), and the tax
should be doubled, as stated above.
68. Yes; four or five. Reduce them by half
or one-third. Two shops would be ample.
69. Never. I cannot say. I suppose the ganja
farmer chooses his ground and takes up the most
promising site for his shop. Local public opinion
would close every ganja, opium and liquor shop
in Rajshahi.
70. Untaxed ganja is procurable in this dis-
trict; from whom and to what extent I am unable
to say.
NOTE.—The wild ganja plant, of which so
much is made as a substitute for ganja proper,
is a large closely-growing fibrous plant, easily
seen and known by everybody.
It is not used for the following reasons:—
(1) It is too mild to gratify the habitual
smoker. (2) It produces intense headache and
leaves disagreeable symptoms which the cultivated
ganja is free from. (3) The severe penalty in-
flicted on those who are found with it in their
possession or have it growing on their ground,
deters even those who might take it from using it.
If ganja were suppressed entirely, there would
be no difficulty in preventing secret cultivation
by a small reward offered for information. It
does not grow wild like jungle; it must be sown
like other plants from seed or cuttings. It grows
round my stable, but was sown there by grains
of seed falling from the syce's hand who used the
drug.
2 Z