541
compared with opium and alcohol is the frequent
accompaniment of mania with homicidal or in-
cendiary tendency. The prolonged use of ganja
often produces a lasting mania or melancholia."
45. I do not think it causes bronchitis or
asthma, but ganja consumers do not shake off these
diseases as easily as others. See Dr. Powell's
reply to last question. Dr. Dundee of Labac
says:—
"I have noticed that confirmed ganja-eaters after
a time become weak and debilitated, and are
especially liable to get dysentery and also pneu-
monia. In the thoroughly drunken state I have
noticed the eyes getting injected and the eater
subject to fits of acute delirium, which in many
cases I could understand would result in mania."
51. (a) Yes.
(b) None.
53. See Dr. Powell's reply to No. 44.
58. Working well.
63. I think the price of ganja wholesale might
be raised to double its present rate gradually.
64. No.
65. I think duty on all excise articles might be
raised to double their present amount without real
hardship.
66. Yes; according to quality of ganja drug
contained in each kind.
67. Not to mode of taxation; the amount
might be gradually doubled.
69. Any objection raised to a site is carefully
considered. Local opinion should be considered.
9. Evidence of MR. E. A. GAIT, Director of Land Records and Agriculture, Assam.
1. I have served for nine years in Assam,
but cannot say that I have seen much of the
ganja habit.
2. Bhang in Assam is generally understood to
refer to the leaves of the uncultivated plant. The
terms siddhi and subji are not used locally. I
thought that flat ganja contained more leaves
than round ganja, but cannot speak definitely.
3. All the districts of the Assam Valley.
4. Ganja is the only name I know for the cul-
tivated variety, and bhang for the wild or uncul-
tivated. The leaves of the latter are larger than
those of the former.
6. Grows thickly in places, e.g., in the Man-
galdai town.
7. No recognized cultivation. There is a cer-
tain amount of illicit cultivation chiefly for use as
bhang.
10. No recognized cultivators in Assam—see
answer to question No. 7.
12. My impression is that the wild plant is cul-
tivated in the Assam Valley solely for use as
bhang.
16. Yes. Bhang is prepared mainly from wild
hemp. I have never heard of ganja or charas be-
ing prepared from the wild plant, but such cases,
even if they occurred, would not often come to
light. We detect (and prosecute) cases in which
the wild plant has been cultivated; but I have
never had a case before me in which ganja or
charas has been manufactured from it.
19. Only for smoking, so far as I know.
20. I don't think much charas is consumed.
Ganja is smoked mainly by foreigners, immigrants
from Bengal and the North-Western Provinces.
The indigenous inhabitants of the Assam Valley
(including Goalpara) do not smoke ganja.
22. Foreign, from Rajshahi in Bengal.
23. Rarely.
24. Bhang is frequently drunk, mixed with
milk and pepper, by youths of the Dom caste.
I cannot say what proportion take it.
30. I should say that the consumption of all
hemp drugs is almost entirely confined to the
male sex, ganja and charas being taken by adults
and bhang (as a drink) by adolescents.
31. Cannot say. It is very difficult to break
off the ganja habit. I am not aware of there
being any marked tendency for the moderate
habit to develop into the excessive.
33. Not much public opinion on the subject.
No doubt abstention from all drugs and intoxi-
cating drinks is looked upon as meritorious, just
as are abstention from marriage and other forms
of asceticism. But I do not think that the use of
the drug in moderation is looked down upon.
34. I think it would be a serious privation;
but have no special grounds for my opinion be-
yond that ganja-smokers find it hard to abandon
the habit of their own free will, and that they
would no doubt suffer equally if they were forced
to abandon it.
35. (b) The drug would certainly be consumed
illicitly. Lunatics in the Tezpur Asylum who
were formerly ganja-smokers are frequently found
to secrete wild ganja, and if they, with their
scanty opportunities, are able to do so, still more
would consumers whose movements are free be
able to.
(d) Yes.
(e) Not in the Assam Valley, where the number
of consumers is comparatively small.
(f) My impression is that it would in cases
where wild ganja could not be procured. Such
cases, however, would be rare.
36. The consumption of alcohol is, I fear, on
the increase. But I cannot say whether it is
being substituted for hemp drugs.
37. Charas is reported to be more powerful; but
I have no personal knowledge.
42 and 43. The moderate use is certainly harm-
less. I have often had syces who smoked ganja;
but they have never given any trouble in conse-
quence, nor have they been in any way less fit
for their work than abstainers from these drugs.
45. (b) No.
(c) No.
(d) Not that I know of.
(e) Not that I know of.
(f) Excessive use of any hemp drug is com-
monly supposed to produce insanity, but excessive
use is rare. Apart from cases collected in asy-
lums, only one case has come to my knowledge in
which a man lost his mental knowledge in conse-
quence of excessive ganja-smoking, and he only
lost it (temporarily) when he got an opportunity