121
(d) Opium is said to induce impotence, but not
hemp.
50. Ditto.
51. (a) Yes, in the sense that there is a large
proportion of bad characters in the poorer classes
who are the majority using these drugs, especially
ganja.
(b) None that I know.
(Vide my notes to questions 20 and 45 as
regards political offences.—W. O.)
52. Pilfering is associated with excessive use of
ganja and opium.
53. Not to my personal knowledge. But ex¬
cessive ganja smoking certainly weakens the
brain, and may thereby lead to crime.
54. Kali Puja and ganja smoking are said to
be the indispensable preliminaries of a dacoity.
55. I am not aware of such cases.
(I have known many cases of drugging, but
none in which ganja was used. Dhatura was the
ordinary agent.—W. O.)
56. I am not aware that anything is mixed
with ganja or charas and smoked. In the drink
prepared from bhang, sugar is added to fortify it.
The admixture of dhatura is not known to me.
57. Not known to me.
58. Yes; it is working well.
60 and 61. I do not know much about the prac¬
tical working of the rules controlling its culti¬
vation.
62. The cultivation of bhang could only be
controlled if the wild plant could be entirely
suppressed. But this is not feasible.
63 and 64. None.
65. Yes.
66. Yes, because the quantity of ganja in the
three kinds varies. There is a large quantity of
sticks in the flat, less in the round, and it is
entirely absent from chur.
67. No.
68. Yes. But ganja, unlike chandu and madak,
is not generally smoked on the premises and there
is nothing objectionable about the shops.
69. Ganja shops are never considered a nuisance
and no one even objects to the site. Public opinion
is never hostile to these shops, and therefore it is
never consulted.
70. There are no facts regarding the importation
or smuggling of ganja from Native States. Yes,
duty is paid. There is no general use of untaxed
drugs.
(I have made close enquiry about this. We
have no reason whatever for thinking that untaxed
ganja is used: nor in Darjeeling, where the wild
cannabis is so abundant, was a case ever detected.
—W. O.)
52. Evidence of BABU MANMOHAN CHAKRAVARTI, Deputy Magistrate and Deputy
Collector, Jajpur, Cuttack, Orissa.
1. I was Excise Deputy Collector of the District
Puri for more than two years, and since then I
have been in charge of Jajpur Sub-Division,
District Cuttack. The frontier of both the
districts marches with those of many Tributary
States, and for the last four years I have had to
watch the smuggling of Gurjat ganja into these
two districts. While at Puri I made special
enquiries about the use and import of Gurjat ganja
into that district. I know the people of Orissa
pretty well. I was bred up here, and my entire
period of service has been spent here. My remarks
are to be taken as chiefly applicable to Orissa.
2. Patti (from Uriya pattar)—correctly defined.
Charas—Not used in Orissa.
Ganja is of two kinds—(1) Rajshahi, (2)
Gurjat.
(1) Generally round, occasionally flat, Raj-
shahi ganja is imported. All the
bundles contain seeds showing that the
male plants have not been completely
extirpated.
(2) Gurjat ganja consists of the dried flower-
heads, male and female, mixed with
leaves at the base of those heads.
Cannabis sativa of the tribe III Cannabineœ
Natural order Urticaceœ (Hooker's Flora Indica,
Vol. V, page 487).
3. Hemp plant does not grow spontaneously in
the regulation districts. I hear from traders and
several Gurjat residents that hemp often grows
spontaneously in the Tributary States of Mohur-
bhunj, Keonjhar, Dhenkanal, Boad and Athmalik.
7. The cultivation of hemp plant is prohibited
in the regulation districts of Orissa. In the
Gurjats many people grow this plant, both for
bhang and ganja.
8. For several years the cultivation of Gurjat
ganja was prohibited in the Tributary States of
Orissa. This prohibition has been lately with¬
drawn, and I believe the area under cultivation has
considerably increased. To what precise extent it
has increased, I am unable to say.
10. I speak here of Gurjat ganja. The seeds
are sown just before or at the beginning of the
rains. If the lands be small, the seeds are sown
broadcast; if the lands be large, the seeds are first
sown in a nursery plot. After a month or so,
the young plants are transplanted and put into
the ground. When the plants are two to three feet
high, the base of the stem is pierced and a piece
of pebble or khapra (broken bit of earthen pot)
put in. This, it is said, prevents over-vegetation
and hastens flowering. The plant flowers in the
beginning of winter (October—November). To
prevent overbranching of the flower-heads, they
are roughly twisted. The flowers begin to seed
in mid-winter (December—January). So in De¬
cember the flower-heads with a few base leaves
are cut and dried, and when for sale, are sent in
bundles.
13. See answer to question 7.
Ganja requires a cool moist climate for its
growth. For the development of its flower-heads
some amount of cold too is necessary. Hence most
ganja plants in the plains do not ordinarily flower.
14 and 15. I notice the products under Chap¬
ter V.
16. (a) Yes.
(b) Yes.
(c) Not necessarily.
T