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6. Evidence of MR. H. LUTTMAN-JOHNSON, Commissioner of Dacca.
Oral evidence.
I came out in December 1867, and have served
in Bengal, Behar and Assam. I was only a year
in Behar, and have chiefly experience of Assam
and Bengal. Sylhet and Cachar are much the
same as Eastern Bengal, though part of Assam.
The Brahmaputra Valley practically constitutes
Assam as contrasted with Bengal. I have been
Secretary to the Chief Commissioner when he
managed excise direct, and have also been Com-
missioner of the Brahmaputra Valley; so I have
considerable experience of the Assam side of the
question.
The problem may be viewed for Eastern Bengal
and Sylhet and Cachar together on the one hand,
and for the Assam Valley on the other hand.
I have seen the hemp plant wild in Sylhet,
Cachar, and Mymensingh, and all the districts of
the Assam Valley and the Khasia hills; and I
know it grows wild in the Naga Hills and
Bhutan, because it is smuggled down. I should
say that the wild growth is from seed accidentally
sown. I judge this from its situation. I have
seen it near villages in bunches and so on, but
not actually in the jungles of Cachar or Assam.
I have seen it rather in connection with habita-
tions than in jungles; and I judge, therefore,
that it grows from seed of imported ganja. I
find that this view is stated in the last
Excise Report for Assam. I have noticed it
most in the waste spaces, especially near villages
on the Grand Trunk Road through Assam in the
Nowgong district, in tobacco fields in a village
near Korabandar Ghat in the Kamrup district,
and last cold weather, when out shooting in
Mymensingh, I found twenty or thirty acres of
it (more or less thick) in Thana Durgapur.
These instances occur to me at present. But I
have seen many other instances. In these cases
I did not think it had been intentionally sown.
I asked about it. The people said it was jungly,
grown up of itself, and that they did not use it
for anything.
I have known of illicit cultivation in Assam.
There were a good many cases discovered in the
Golaghat sub-division and also in the Dibrugarh
country.
The cultivation was, as a rule, only of a few
plants. In the Dibrugarh case there was not
ganja by the acre, but there were many plants.
All the people of the village seemed to be culti-
vating. I have not known any systematic cul-
tivation on a large scale; but agricultural culti-
vation generally is much scattered in Assam; and
I have known cases of cultivation of ganja on a
small scale being discovered in remote places.
I fancy the reason I do not remember many cases
in Sylhet and Cachar is because we did not make
any great effort to stop it or pay much attention
to it. It is since I left that greater efforts have
been made to stop unlicensed cultivation.
In my opinion the prohibition of cultivation
of ganja is effective both in Bengal and Assam.
I think it has been effective without much harass-
ing of the people. But you have only to stir
up the police with a circular and hope of reward
to give trouble. The cultivation which exists is
trifling; but, on the other hand, a little ganja
goes a long way. Cases of illicit growth are not
very common; the cases that do occur often turn
out not to be cases of cultivation, but merely
accidental growth. Complaints by licensed ven-
dors are very rare. The wild plant is not used
for ganja, but the leaf is used for bhang. The
ganja from the cultivation of the wild plant would
be very inferior. I must have seen ganja pro-
duced from this wild growth; but I cannot recall
a case. I know no case of ganja prepared from
the wild plant without cultivation. But I have
seen it smoked. We experimented with it; it
was not anything like excise ganja, but poor stuff.
My general conclusion is that it is not feasible—not
possible without giving the chance of oppression—
nor necessary to prohibit bhang. It is specially
difficult in Bengal, where the want of Revenue
establishment makes us so dependent on the police
in such matters. In Assam it would be possible,
thougheven there there would be great difficulty.
My experience in regard to the effects of
ganja on the health of the people is too limited
to enable me to give any information. The
number of people who take it in any quantity
must be very small as compared with the people
who take a decoction of bhang. I have never
had opportunity of observing cases. I think
the people, if asked, would say that smoking
ganja to any great extent was bad, but that
taking bhang was much better. They would regard
alcohol as worse. That is generally my view, as I
must base my view on what I hear. I cannot, from
personal observation, say anything definite. I can-
not, I fear, give instances of connection between
hemp drugs and insanity; but I think that if I had
the records of the Courts of the Brahmaputra
valley before me I should be able to show cases
of violence traced to ganja. It has to be borne in
mind, however, that ganja is often used as a
false plea to get men off capital punishment. I
have for the last fifteen months in this Dacca
division (which of course I remember better than
the more remote Assam experience) had all the
special police reports showing all serious crime;
and I do not remember any case of the connec-
tion of crime and hemp drugs.
I do not think there is any possibility of total
prohibition in the case of bhang. But I think
that ganja cultivation might be prohibited so
that the people might take to bhang, as I
believe they would. I do not think there is a case
for prohibiting ganja owing to the limited number
of consumers, and bhang does little harm.
Ganja is reputed to do so much harm that if it
were widely used it should perhaps be pro-
hibited if possible. One is, however, brought
so little among the people that I have little
chance of any personal knowledge of the subject.
But the opinion of the people is against ganja;
the tradition has come down against it; I even
learned before I came out to this country that
hashish was a terrible thing, and I have seen
nothing to show me the contrary. Opium
consumers come to see us, and we can talk to
them about the drug. It is not so with ganja.
Your syce may take the drug, but you could
not tell about its effect on him. So one has
nothing on which to base any judgment of one's
own in the matter. I am not in favour of
prohibition, because so few use ganja; and my
opinion regarding its effects can only be based
on hearsay and reading and not on personal ex-
perience.