331
to in the answer. I did not drink it on the latter
occasion. It is not my recollection of the bad
effects which has made me avoid the drug. I
avoid everything that is unpleasant to me, and I
have no attraction for bhang.
Question 54.—The whole of this answer is hear-
say. I have no experience of the criminal part
of the answer. The rest is based on the state-
ments of the Chittagong ganja-smokers.
Question 55.—I have no experience about this.
It is merely hearsay.
Question 64.—The ganja-smoker mentioned in
this answer is the lunatic of the four Chittagong
smokers first described.
129. Evidence of Civil Hospital Assistant TRAILAKYANATH BANERJI, 24-Parganas.
1. There are several ganja-smokers and siddhi-
drinkers in my village and adjoining villages, so
I got the opportunity of gaining some knowledge
about them. Also on one or two occasions I
saw some people smoking ganja at Bhawanipur,
Calcutta.
2. Yes; ganja, siddhi, and charas respectively.
23. Ganja-smokers, in the absence of ganja,
sometimes smoke siddhi in the subdivision of
Basirhat. By lower-class people, about double
the quantity of ganja at a time.
28. (a) Three chillums of ganja, costing about
three pice. (b) Twelve chillums of ganja, costing
about three annas.
29. (b) Sometimes dhatura, opium and tobacco
are mixed with ganja for the purpose of more in-
toxication. Dhatura, spices as cloves, black
pepper, cardamom, etc., and sugar are sometimes
used with siddhi for the same purpose.
30. Ganja and bhang are not confined to the
male sex, and even children become habituated to
these drugs, though not very common.
31. Habit easily formed. It is difficult to
break off. Moderate habituals of ganja soon
become excessive.
32. Hindus on the fourth day of the Durga
Puja drink siddhi for religious purposes. This
is done to please the goddess Durga, and it is neces-
sary from a religious point of view and temporary.
It is generally drunk temperately. It neither
forms the habit nor is injurious in most cases.
41. (a) Siddhi in moderate use is digestive.
44. Immediate effect of the moderate use of
ganja and bhang on the habitual consumers is
slight intoxication and creates appetite. Intoxica-
tion lasts only for a short time. Slight depression
is the after-effect. But no uneasiness is felt for
the want of subsequent gratification.
46. Habitual excessive use of ganja weakens
the constitution if proper food is not taken. Habit-
ual excessive use of ganja and bhang produces
insanity, and it is the exciting cause; but in some
cases there is predisposing cause, as hereditary.
Insanity produced by bhang is mania and tempo-
rary, and that by ganja is melancholia. The last
type is also temporary, but liable to become
permanent in a few cases. Symptoms may be
re-induced by use of the drug after liberation from
restraint. Insanes sometimes give history of ganja
and bhang where there is no record of them.
47. Yes.
48. Habitual excessive use of ganja and bhang
is hereditary habit.
130. Evidence of Civil Hospital Assistant MEER KOOMAR ALLY, Municipal
Dispensary, Cuttack.
1. The information on which my answers are
based owes to my experience as Civil Hospital
Assistant for about twenty-seven years in the
Cuttack District.
2. I have very little knowledge of charas, which
is almost foreign to this part of the province. As
regards the other two products, the terms most
commonly used are siddhi, bhang, subzi or patti,
and ganja; and their definitions, as given by Dr.
Prain, may be accepted.
19. Ganja is used generally for smoking, but in
exceptional cases when bhang is not available,
consumers in this district have been seen using it
in lieu of bhang after pounding it in a very small
quantity with spices such as panmohori and pepper
and mixing water with sugar.
As regards any other use to which ganja is put,
the kabirajes or baidyas make it a component of
madak or majum, and administer it in cases of
dyspepsia, colic, rheumatism, loss of appetite and
like diseases. I know of no places where the use
of ganja for drink as bhang is prevalent.
23. I have never come across in my experience
a person using bhang for smoking.
28. The average allowance and cost of bhang
per diem to—(a) habitual moderate consumers is
about a pice, (b) habitual excessive consumers is
about 2 pice; while that of ganja to—(a) habit-
ual moderate consumers is about a pice, (b) habit-
ual excessive consumers is about two annas.
29. The following ingredients are ordinarily
mixed with bhang by the different classes of con-
sumers:—
(1) Pepper, (2) panmohori, (3) water, (4)
sugar.
And the following exceptionally:—
(1) Kasni, (2) yellow substance of nageswar
flower, (3) cardamom (small), (4) rose-
water, (5) milk, in addition to the above.
As regards ganja only dry tobacco leaf is mixed
and rubbed with it before smoking, and nothing
else that I know of.
30. In solitude bhang or ganja is practised in
2 Y 2