526
substitute for ganja and then mixed with tobacco
leaves (surti).
24. Rajputs, Babhans, Chhattris, Banias, etc.,
use bhang, but most drink it. The proportion
between (a) and (b) cannot be specified, as the
drug is used privately, much as Europeans use tea,
only not so widely of course.
25. Ganja-smokers seem to increase in number,
but the amount used per annum seems lessening,
owing probably to rise in duty and price. Use is
becoming moderate. For bhang nothing can be
said, as it is used as prepared privately from the
wild plant. Only about 1 per cent. of those using
hemp drugs in this district use charas.
26. For ganja—
(a) About 60 per cent.
(b)
"
20
"
(c) Very difficult to say.
(d)
Ditto.
For bhang nothing can be said.
Probability
is that there is no very great excess, but no
figures can be obtained for reliable results.
27. For ganja—
(1) Rajputs, Brahmins, Babhans, i.e., agri-
cultural classes.
(2) Banias, Agarwalls, and Chhattris, i.e.,
trading classes.
(3) Kahars, Dhanuks, and other labouring
classes.
(4) Fakirs and religious mendicants.
Note.—Sadhus and sanyasis smoke habitually
to excess. (1), (2), and (3) represent habitual
moderate consumers.
28. For ganja—
(a) Two-sixteenths to three-sixteenths of a
tola, worth about 2 to 3 pice (6 to 9
pies).
(b) Quarter to half tola weight, worth 4
pice to 8 pice, i.e., 1 to 2 annas per
diem. Sanyasis may use more.
For bhang—
(a) One tola = 1 pice = 3 pies.
(b) One chhatak = 2 oz. = 4 pice worth per
diem.
29. (a) With ganja, dried tobacco leaf and otto
of roses. With bhang, aniseed, pepper, cucumber
seed, sugar, milk, rosewater, and kasni.
The
above is the bhang massala in use in these parts.
Dhatura is not ordinarily used. The object of
bhang massala is to reduce the strength of the in-
toxicant and to make it more palatable, improve
the flavour, etc.
30. Smokers use ganja more in company. But
these drugs are used both in solitude and in com-
pany. Mostly males, but females also, chiefly
prostitutes and sanyasi women, not children.
Smokers usually begin at the age of 15, much as
European children begin the use of tobacco.
31. Much as with other intoxicants.
32. Nothing special in this respect. Use of
these drugs not included in the Hindu ritual.
Ganja smokers invoke Siva.
33. Bhang is considered more beneficial than
harmful and is used by those moving in good
society, while ganja-smoking is held in disrepute
and associated with bad habits and badmashes.
No one worships the hemp plant.
34. Yes, certainly, and for obvious reasons;
specially the class of religious mendicants, etc.
Universal prohibition would be attended by serious
dissatisfaction. Ganja is said to be the poor
man's only luxury in this country.
35. No, certainly not. Prohibition would pro-
bably be followed by smuggling to a very great
extent, and would, besides, lead to very great
general dissatisfaction. The prohibition could not
be enforced with any practical result because of
the wide-spread smuggling that would at once
result. The discontent so caused would certainly
be serious, and the feeling aroused would be much
the same as that which would follow in England
on the stopping compulsorily the use of beer and
tobacco. The prohibition would not be followed
by the use of alcohol, but by wholesale smuggling
of hemp drugs.
36. Practically none.
37. The effects of ganja are said to be more
heating and keener. Intoxication more marked
and more violent. Charas much milder in effect
though actually a much stronger drug, but used
in greater dilution.
38. Not known. Chur ganja preferred.
39. Eating ganja more injurious than smoking.
No special difference between the effects of smok-
ing and of eating bhang.
40. Bhang used in cattle disease and in instesti-
nal disorders by native physicians; also very
useful in dysentery. Ganja used as a preventive
of the effects of damp and exposure to malaria
and said to be very efficacious.
41. Bhang in moderation promotes appetite,
much as moderate use of alcohol; not so with
charas. Ganja-smokers are unanimous in saying
that it increases appetite, gives staying-power
under exertion, and allays fatigue.
(c) Ganja is a good preventive of malarial disease.
Excessive use is damaging.
42. Within the limits of the answer to 41, the
moderate use of these drugs is harmless. Ex-
perience of the drugs teaches this lesson. Habi-
tual moderate consumers do not seem to suffer.
This refers to bhang. Ganja-smoking is said
always to be harmful because it is so rarely in-
dulged in moderation.
43. Yes.
44. Immediate effect is a slight refreshing
intoxication. It allays hunger for an habitual
consumer and creates appetite in a beginner.
Effects of ganja last half an hour or so. Want
of subsequent gratification produces uneasiness in
habitual consumers.
45. The habitual moderate use of bhang is held
to be not injurious.
With regard to ganja.—It affects the physique
and gradually impairs digestion. If moderately
used, increases appetite. Without proper food
must weaken digestion. Causes dysentery if used
in excess. Produces laziness, but not immorality
or debauchery.
If used in excess deadens the intellect and
produces insanity of a permanent type: sometimes
with melancholia, at other times with a homicidal
tendency.
46. Vide ante.
47 and 48. No.
49. It has an aphrodisiac effect. Excessive
use may produce impotence. Its use by prosti-
tutes not estimated.