567
rare cases the average rises up to one chattack
which costs annas 15. I knew of a consumer who
required sometimes more than a chattack, but that
was an exceptional case.
29. (a) Ordinarily dry tobacco leaf is mixed as
an ingredient in preparing a chillum of ganja.
Some people (up-country men generally) use molla
as a substitute in filling up the chillum with
ganja.
(b) The other ingredients mentioned in the
question are not used here. Some people are sus-
pected to mix dhatura to make the drug strong,
but that is done privately. Tobacco leaf is mixed
with the object of making ganja burn well in the
chillum and also to make it more tasteful. Bhang
massala is not known nor sold here.
30. Ganja is generally smoked in company.
In rare cases females (generally prostitutes) are
found addicted to ganja smoking, otherwise it is
confined to the male sex. It is not confined to
any limit of time in age. Tea garden coolie
children sometimes smoke ganja, but that is not
an usual practice.
31. Habit is not easily formed. It is difficult
to break up. Moderate habit does not generally
develop into excessive. At least there is no such
tendency in the use of these drugs.
32. The use of siddhi or bhang is considered
essential on the fourth day of the Durga Puja,
the day when the worshippers bid farewell to the
goddess. It is usually used also on the Sri-
panchami Puja day.
Ganja is prepared in
chillums and offered to the god Siva and Trinath
and afterwards the company of consumers assemble
and smoke it by turns. Generally on such cere-
monies, which are purely religious, the quantity
used varies according to the number of consumers
assembled. In the Surma Valley ganja is offered
also in the name of Pir (Muhammadan saint) for
the benefit of the cattle.
36. I know of one or two cases in which ganja
or bhang has been substituted for alcohol, the
latter being more expensive; but I am not aware
of a single instance in which alcohol has been
substituted for ganja. Ganja smoking is looked
upon by the middle and higher classes as a degra-
dation, and it is naturally confined to the lower
classes, and as they can hardly afford the cost of
alcohol they scarcely choose to change the habit.
37. Both charas and ganja produce instantane-
ous effect in making the smoker intoxicated. The
intoxication under the effect of the former is how-
ever stronger. Bhang acts slowly and its intoxi-
cation lasts for a longer duration. All these drugs
work upon the brain, and the consumer instantly
after the use feels a whirling sensation all around,
and his optical nerves are affected also to a great
extent. The eyes generally shrink after the effect
has been produced and the consumer sees before
him a cloudy space filled in with moving branches
of yellow flowers similar in shape to those of the
mustard crop.
39. Smoking, in whatever method it may be,
is more injurious than drinking. Bhang is a cool
drink and when moderately used it improves diges-
tion and general health of the drinker. It has no
tendency to insanity, but smoking ganja, if carried
to an excess, produces temporary insanity by affect-
ing the brain.
40. The native physicians use bhang with other
medical ingredients to make different kinds of
stomachic and nervous tonics. It is used more
especially in dyspepsia.
Bhang is used also in the treatment of cattle
disease when horses or ponies suffer from kurkuri.
Bhang is prescribed with other carminatives.
41. Moderate use of these drugs is beneficial.
(a) Digestive.
(b) Gives staying-power and alleviates fatigue.
(c) Are anti-malarious.
(d) Improves general health and weight.
44. Moderate use is refreshing. Produces in-
toxication. Does not allay hunger, rather increases
it. It creates appetite; generally the effect lasts
two or three hours. There are no after-effects
after moderate use. No longing or uneasiness is
felt.
45. Moderate use does not produce any noxious
effect. The constitution is not impaired. Does
not injure the digestion or cause loss of appetite.
Does not cause dysentery, bronchitis or asthma;
rather moderate ganja smoking allays hard breath-
ing in asthma. Moderate use does not impair
moral sense or induce laziness, rather a moderate
smoker can concentrate all his attention to a work
undertaken, and can labour harder. Does not
deaden intellect or produce insanity.
46. All the evil effects mentioned in question
45 are caused by the excessive use of these drugs.
The insanity produced is exciting and temporary.
47. The habit is not hereditary and the children
of a moderate consumer are not affected in any
way.
48. Even in excessive use the habit is not
hereditary, neither are the children of an excessive
consumer affected in any way.
49. The drugs are used more with the object
of getting intoxication than for their aphrodisiac
effects. The prostitutes also use for the same
purpose. I do not know of hemp ever causing
impotence.
50. Excessive use may cause impotence, but no
such case has come to my notice.
56. I am not aware of any of the substances
mentioned being ever used as admixture with
ganja or other drugs.
57. I have never known of charas being ever
drunk or eaten. Ganja is rarely eaten or drunk.
Eating and drinking act more slowly than smok-
ing.
In conclusion, if the use of any of these drugs
be checked, or restricted, the use of alcohol will
correspondingly increase, which will impoverish
the poor people who generally satisfy their desiro
for intoxication by the use of these drugs.