361
tion are mostly the persons who swell the list of
the inmates of the asylums and are prone to
commit mischief.
I am not prepared to accept the opinion that
ganja smoking or bhang drinking are doing great
injury to the moral tone of our society. I believe
that more misery, distress, poverty, and untimely
deaths amongst the population of the country are
produced by the wide-spread sale of spirits and
liquors than by the consumption of ganja or
opium, or by the both. Before any legislative
measures are taken for stopping the sale of ganja
or opium, or before any step is taken to increase
its duty, it is imperative on Government to ap-
point a Commission to enquire into the wide-spread
belief that our country is suffering more from the
evils of easily accessible Europe wine shops and
country liquor stalls than those arising from the
sale of ganja or opium. In well-informed circles,
it is considered almost a truth, that the moral
tone of our society has undergone a change for the
worse since, owing to the increase in the number
of shops, the public have improved facilities for
obtaining liquor and spirits; and the people fear
that if Government restricts the sale of ganja,
opium or bhang, many of them are sure to con-
tract the vice of drinking, which, in their estima-
tion, is a worse evil than the existing ones.
150. Evidence of DURGA NATH CHAKRAVARTI, Brahmin, in charge of Tangail
Dispensary,
Mymensingh.
1. I am a resident of Tangail and practising here
for these fifteen years. Ganja consumption is
very great here. I have seen many ganja smokers
myself.
2. Bhang plant is indigenous here. Ganja
plant is a different species of the same plant, of
which one or two I have seen here. The distinc-
tion I could make is only in the vigorous growth
of ganja plant and its containing more resinous
matter. In all other points I accept the definition
laid out here.
19. I have no experience about charas. My
answers will deal about ganja and bhang only.
Ganja is generally used for smoking, but ganja
is also taken mixed up with sweetmeats known
commonly as majum.
23. No. I have seen one man only who smoked
bhang occasionally.
28. Bhang being indigenous here, it costs
nothing to the people here.
About ganja the cost will run thus:—
R a. p.
(a) Habitual moderate consumers
0 0 6
(b) Habitual excessive consumers
0 2 0
29. Ganja for the purpose of smoking is ordi-
narily taken in its simple form without any ad-
mixture. Bhang mixed with ganja, betel-nut,
cantharides and nux vomica, in the shape of sweet-
meat, is exceptionally taken for heightening its
aphrodisiac property. Ganja mixed with bhang
is used by sanyasis (hermits) to keep them ab-
sorbed in religious meditation. Bhang is taken
here in the form of liquid. At first the leaves
are made into a pulpy mass and then mixed with
water and salt, or milk and sugar, and taken
internally by mouth.
30. Ganja and bhang are generally used by
the male sex only. I have seen some ten women
to smoke ganja habitually. I know many children
to smoke ganja. Use of bhang is restricted here
only among adults and old people. Few children
take them.
31. Ganja smoking easily begets into a habit
and is difficult to break off; difficult to keep the
habit moderate without going to excess.
Bhang also begets a habit, but not so easily;
and not so difficult to break off. Moderate habit
can be kept up.
32. There is a custom here among the com-
mon class of people to smoke ganja and worship
"Trailakyanath." Some ten to fifteen men
assemble and offer ganja to the deity, and then
they sing for the whole night and take ganja.
Habitual ganja smokers generally are the votaries
of the worship, but it is not uncommon that now
and then some persons are converted.
36. Ganja smoking is very common among the
common people here. Alcohol is generally taken
by middle and higher class people. Some class
of common people, such as Bagdis and Modbais,
etc., take alcohol and ganja both. I don't know
why one is substituted for another. The higher
expense of alcohol plays most likely a part in it.
37. Bhang drinking is practised generally to
check diarrhœa and indigestion. It is used
moderately. I have no experience about charas.
40. Yes; bhang is generally used to check
diarrhœa and dyspepsia, to produce sleep, and is
said to be aphrodisiac by the native physicians.
It has really some power to check diarrhœa and
dyspepsia. It produces sleep.
41. (a) Ganja and bhang both in small quan-
tities assist digestion.
(b) Yes; they give power of endurance to
fatigue and exertion.
(c) They do not escape malaria. It being a
malarial place, I have many opportunities to get
patients suffering from malaria among ganja
smo kers, etc.
(d) Ganja smokers are generally muscular, and
so much that ganja smokers can be made out
from common men.
42. I do not think their moderate use to be
beneficial and necessary. They are not essential
for the sustenance of our health and life. We
have enough of harmless articles in our food to
bear us up under fatigue. Their use should be
restricted medicinally only.
44. (b) Yes.
(c) Yes, but not always and in small doses.
(d) Do not know.
(e) Yes; I have seen voracious appetite
under its use.
(g) Dullness and somnolence.
(h) Most marked longing and uneasiness.
45. (a) Produces a tendency to take in excess.
(c) No.
(d) Ganja causes dysentery after a long use.
(e) Generally not. Occasionally we meet such
cases.
3 C