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I know, exclusively by the people who cultivate
the plant, while siddhi is prepared by all classes of
people indiscriminately.
18. Bhang prepared from the wild plant does
deteriorate by keeping. I do not know if the
others deteriorate also. I think bhang loses its
effects altogether by lapse of time. By ordinary
care bhang may be kept good for one to three
years, but from the second year it begins to lose its
intoxicating and narcotic properties little by little.
I do not know if the other two varieties deteriorate.
I do not know the causes of deterioration, or how
deterioration could be prevented.
19. As far as I know, ganja and charas are
almost exclusively used for smoking, though occa-
sionally, but very rarely, the former is used for
drinking by people who have been thoroughly habi-
tuated to the drink. This latter use of the ganja
is almost always conditional upon the want of the
siddhi proper, or prompted by a desire to get stronger
drinks than what is obtainable from bhang.
20. A very small proportion of the people smoke
ganja and charas. These people are generally of
the lower order of society. Ganja-smoking obtains
more or less in almost all districts of Bengal pro-
per, while the people of Behar and Sonthal Par-
ganas residing in Bengal are, comparatively speak-
ing, greater smokers. Excepting Bengal proper,
I have no knowledge of the extent to which, and
the class of people among whom, ganja smoking
prevails in other parts of the country.
21. The round variety of ganja is preferred.
22. I do not know of any foreign charas.
23. Bhang is very rarely used for smoking. It
is never smoked except when confirmed and habi-
tual smokers cannot get ganja to smoke or cannot
procure it for want of means. Its use for smoking
even among the poor ganja smokers is only tem-
porary, for they have an inveterate tendency to
procure ganja with the first penny that they can
turn.
24. I have never seen any people eat bhang,
except with some other thing or a substitute for
bhang; but, unlike gang-smoking, the drinking
of bhang is not restricted to any particular class
of people. Many respectable people drink bhang
occasionally, and some respectable persons are
even habitual drinkers of the drug. The wor-
shipppers of Jagannath in Orissa and the Dobeys,
Chowbeys, &c., of the North-Western Provinces
who make tours in different parts of Bengal
are, almost without exception, habitual drinkers
of bhang.
25. I have no accurate information, but I think
the use of all the three drugs, and more especially
of the first two, is on the decrease. My reason for
thinking so is that in the same localities I now
see a smaller number of people to use them than
I saw in my early age.
27. Habitual excessive consumers of ganja
belong to the lower classes of society, while occa-
sional moderate consumers and occasional excessive
consumers are to be met with (though the instan-
ces are rare) in the higher classes of society
as well. This also applies to the consumption of
charas. As regards bhang, my answer to question
No. 24 states all that I know about it. I do
not know the habits of life or circumstances which
mainly lead to the practice.
28. I cannot say what the cost is for consumers
of bhang and charas.
For ganja smokers—
(a) From two to four pice a day.
(b) From two to four annas, and sometimes
six annas a day in exceptional cases.
29. Dry tobacco leaves are ordinarily mixed
with ganja in order, I fancy, to dilute the smell
and soften the strength.
Some or all of the following ingredients are
ordinarily mixed with bhang, viz.-—(1) seeds of
cucumber (sasa), (2) poppy-seeds, (3) anise, (4)
cloves, (5) cardamom, (6) pepper, and (7) milk.
Exceptionally, bhang is mixed with—(a) cocoa-
nut-water, (b) juice of date-tree (not toddy), (c)
syrups, (d) rose-water, (e) keora-water, &c. In
very exceptional cases, dhatura may be used for
enhancing the intoxicating effects of the three
drugs, but I have never known any such case,
excepting one, in which dhatura was mixed with
bhang without the knowledge of the consumers
in order to perpetrate what I consider to be a
practical joke.
The object of using the above admixtures,
especially those marked (a), (b), (c), (d), and (e), is
to make the drinks spicy, cool, sweet and fra-
grant.
Yes; a kind of bhang massala is sold in the
bazar, consisting mostly of articles marked (1) to
(6) above, together with some others of which I
have no idea. I have seen such massala in Calcutta.
30. Usually these three drugs are consumed in
solitude, but in localities where more people addict-
ed to the drugs are available, the consumers pre-
fer to, and they do generally, form groups and
companies in order to enjoy themselves better.
As regards ganja, the shops where it is sold are
almost always used by several people at a time for
the purpose of smoking. Indeed, they are places
where the largest number of people necessarily
meet together, and whatever be the object of their
going there, if they are smokers, they join, and are
taken in by the company that might be already
sitting from before.
Except by habitual drinkers, bhang is always
drunk in company, and even habitual drinkers
like to have companions if they can get. Children,
do not usually consume these drugs. Excepting
this, it is not confined to any time of life. Except
prostitutes, females do not use them.
31. There seems to be no difficulty in getting
habituated to the use of these drugs. Of the three
drugs, the difficulty in getting habituated is,
comparatively speaking, greatest in the case of
ganja. Even in the case of ganja, excepting
persons of very delicate and extremely nervous
constitution, one has to smoke a little every day
for a few days in order to be able to withstand
the narcotic effects; and when this is to a certain
extent overcome, there seems to be no other
difficulty in the way. I do not consider it to be
very difficult to break off the habit of using any
of these drugs. Here also the difficulty is
greatest with the ganja smokers. Excepting
habitual excessive consumers of ganja, all others
can, I think, easily break off the habit. I
do not consider the difficulty of breaking to be
anything like insuperable even in the case of
habitual excessive consumers of ganja; but I
must note that instances of excessive habitual
consumers of ganja giving up the habit is ex-
tremely rare, and none is known to me. I think
there is a tendency in the case of ganja and
charas for a moderate habit to develop into the
excessive.
32. As regards ganja and charas, there is none,
excepting that some people, their number exceed-
ingly few, resort to them—more to charas than to