330
mind, or for stimulating the carnal desires when
he has got more than enough to enjoy.
46. Excessive ganja-smoking would occasionally
cause temporary insanity, a mania of homicidal
character. A man would commit murder under its
influence. The habitual excessive use completely
ruins a man: his intellect is gone, his moral
faculties are dead, and his constitution is a wreck.
The effects of bhang-drinking on a man, who
never had it before, are horrid. He never forgets
them after he had experienced them once.
47 and 84. I do not think so.
49. Yes. It is so used by the prostitutes. Its
use for this purpose is more injurious, or it has
to be taken in less increasing doses to keep up
the exciting effect till the excessive excitement
ends in impotence as its just reaction.
50. The strong excitement due to the excessive
use brings on the reaction sooner. With this view
religious mendicants take to the use of the drug.
They must need suppress their carnal desires.
51. A large proportion of bad characters are
habitual moderate consumers of ganja and siddhi.
Moderate use deadens the moral faculty. Exces-
sive use excites the will-power to a high pitch,
and a man may commit any act of daring while
so excited.
54. Yes. These drugs have the peculiar pro-
perty of helping abstraction and concentration of
forces, both mental and physical. If a man
wants to concentrate his mind to a special subject
or wants to bring all his engergies to bear upon the
performance of a certain act, he smokes ganja.
While under its influence he forgets everything
else; all responsibilities gone, his conscience and
reasoning powers are laid at rest. He acts with
vigour as if not his own, for there is no dissipation
of energies. I have had no instances. A gang
of dacoits would consume their ganja before they
start on their business. A man is bent upon
taking revenge on his adversary; he is weak and
timid; he smokes his ganja and is in a moment
turned to a ferocious being.
56. I cannot say.
57. I know of no such cases.
62. It should be stopped as far as the Govern-
ment is concerned. The people may cultivate a
little for their private use or for medicinal pur-
poses.
63. The cultivation of the plant or the sale of
the articles should not be in the hands of the
Government. No countenance whatever should
be given to the use of the drug.
64. I asked a ganja-smoker why he did take
to the use of it. He said because it was brought
to him, otherwise he would never have sought it
out.
68. There are shops licensed for the sale of
these drugs. These shops should be closed.
69. Local opinion ought to be taken before
a shop is opened; and if it is taken, I think there
would be no occasion to open one in any locality,
for the ganja-smokers are cowards and the public
have no sympathy for them whatever.
Oral evidence.
Question 1.—I passed through the Medical Col-
lege in 1883 with the degree of M. B. I have
served in the Central Provinces for four years;
and after that in some six or eight districts in
Bengal. I have never been attached to a lunatic
asylum, nor had any special experience of insanity.
I made special investigations after getting the
Commission's questions; but four years previously
at Raipar I had made special investigations into
certain intoxicating drugs and made notes of
them. I have not those notes by me; but I
consulted them in framing my answers. My
investigations four years ago were carried on in
one opium shop only. It consisted in my examin-
ing the people I found there. Recently I sent
for all the ganja-smokers of Chittagong. I have
noted of eleven men, but I only actually saw four
men who came up to me. I told my Hospital
Assistant to invite the ganja-smokers to come to
me, and I would give them some pice. The four
men who came were all inveterate smokers. I
have not mentioned any of their cases in my
answer. One was an Arabic scholar; another
was a Sanskrit scholar and a pandit; another a
press compositor; and another a lunatic. These
were the only four ganja-smokers of whom I made
enquiries in Chittagong. I enquired the history
of the lunatic from his mother. The Arabic
scholar was also mad, going about the streets
and catching people by the leg. The pandit went
three times to jail. He was a pickpocket, and
not in full possession of his senses, though not
insane. The fourth, the compositor, is not mad.
He is a moderate smoker. He was always being
discharged from employment because he was
useless. All these four persons admitted the use
of ganja. There was a fifth man, a Muhammadan
fakir. I recollect now that more than four men
came to me, but I have not noted their names.
There was a sixth man who came to me.
Question 33.—The description in this answer
applies to every ganja-smoker, however little he
may take. I have seen many ganja-smokers.
Almost every one of the lower orders smokes ganja,
and I have mentioned the classes to which they
belong. Every ganja-smoker is potent for mis-
chief, and may be up to anything; but he is
not a wrecked man unless he goes to excess. In
Chittagong I only found four ruined and wrecked
men. My experience is confined to towns, and
does not extend to the country. My experience is
not among my friends or acquaintances, but con-
nected with cases I have sought out. As a
member of society, a moderate ganja-smoker is
more dangerous than the inveterate smoker, be-
cause the latter has become powerless.
I had no prejudice about the drug. Some of
my friends belonged to a temperance society and
wished me to join, but I could not take pledges.
I, however, entertained a strong opinion against
the drugs from my boyhood. When I was a boy
of twelve I used to see my superiors and relatives
smoking ganja and charas. They smoked pri-
vately and that roused my dislike, because I
knew they were doing wrong; but I did not see
any of the pernicious effects in them.
Question 44.—By affection of the chest I mean
bronchitis and asthma. Out of the four men I
first mentioned, two had these complaints.
Question 46.—The latter part of my answer
46 is based on my own experience. The drug was
once administered to me when I was 12 years of
age. The effect was bad. On another occasion
the drug was administered to me without my
knowledge in a cake, and the effects were alluded