504
short of prohibition. This could be effected by
making the drug less accessible to the people;
but how this could be done is more than I
can say. At present every one can get ganja or
bhang for a pice or a couple of pice. I should like to
see the drugs made dearer. Of the three I should
like ganja to be the most expensive, next charas,
and then bhang. If it were possible to prohibit
ganja alone, I should like to see it done, leaving
charas and bhang to be used under restriction;
but I am not sure that it would be possible. I
don't know at what price ganja is now being sold
in Bhawanipur; but I sent a pice, and they gave
me a bit of flat ganja about the weight of a
quarter tola, enough for one chillum. I know one
pice worth goes to fill a chillum. I don't know
the price of charas or bhang, and I did not know
the price of ganja till I sent for the one pice
worth. I would like to see ganja made in-
accessible to lunatics and youths up to 16 at
least. Government should not allow them to use
any. I am not prepared to say that Government
should lock up all lunatics. I have seen the
patient I was talking of going to the shop morn-
ing and evening. There should be a prohibition
against sale to a lunatic. I have no other sugges-
tion to make in regard to the administration.
I have seen so much of the evils caused by the
drugs that restriction appears to me necessary.
I have found people become pale and emaciated
on beginning to smoke ganja, and after three or
four months to become thoroughly changed for
the worse, mentally and physically. I judge that
these are the effects of the drug, because people,
before using the drugs, were healthy and bright
and intelligent. I have seen these effects in
members of families I have visited in the course
of my practice. I can remember at least a dozen
cases which showed the above changes in three
months. All these were sons of families I visited,
and, except in one case, the other members of
the families did not smoke. The young men
were scapegraces who had taken to evil courses
against the will of their families.
Kalighat is probably worse than any other part
of Calcutta in the matter of ganja smoking, and
it is the evil effects I have seen there which make
my heart bleed and make me wish to lay my views
regarding restriction before Government.
Ganja is worse than alcohol. Alcohol does not
make people so utterly useless and worthless as
ganja does, at least among respectable families.
Among the lower classes also, I think ganja is the
more harmful. This is my experience in Kali-
ghat.
238. Evidence of the INDIAN RELIEF SOCIETY, Calcutta.
Introductory.—Hemp Drugs.—The hemp drugs
include in their category, ganja, siddhi or
bhang, charas and majum.
Ganja consists of the dried flowering tops of
cultivated female hemp plants which have become
coated with resin in consequence of having been
unable to set seeds freely.
Siddhi or bhang, subji or patti are different
names applied to the dry leaves of the hemp
plant, whether male or female and whether
cultivated or uncultivated.
Charas is the name of the resin which naturally
exudes from the flowers and leaves of the hemp
plant.
Majum or majun is a preparation of ganja
or siddhi.
Ganja.—The cultivated ganja of Bengal is
grown in only a very small tract of country
within a circle having a radius of about sixteen
miles. In this small tract, it occupies an area
of about 3,000 bighas lying in three districts,
riz., Rajshahi, Dinajpur and Bogra, and is
called Ganja Mahal. Ganja is also prepared in
the Gurjats of Orissa. The manufacture is
simple. It consists chiefly in drying the plants,
getting rid of the leaves and part of the stalks
and compressing the smaller twigs and flowers
into bundles. There are three kinds of it, viz.,
flat, round and chur according to the process of
manufacture.
Its use.—It is used by people for intoxication
in the form of smoking by mixing 25 to 30
grains of the flowers with dry tobacco leaves.
The intoxication lasts for several hours and per-
manently injures the constitution.
Medical testimony.—The evil effects of this
intoxicant have been testified to not only by
medical authorities, but also by high Government
officials. Dr. Chevers, in his standard work on
Medical Jurisprudence in India (p. 504), writes
as follows:—
"Late in their miserable career the ganja-
smoker and the opium-eater become utterly shat-
tered, alike in mind and body
The ganja-
smoker and bhang-drinker often remain chroni-
cally inebriated and are sometimes excited to acts
of frantic violence. A madman, who had used
ganja, would probably continue insane for months,
if merely confined without medical treatment."
Again (p. 541)—
"It is a matter of popular notoriety both in
Bengal and the North-West Provinces that
persons intoxicated with ganja are liable to com-
mit acts of homicidal violence; hence we find
several cases in the Law Reports in which the
accused urged the plea of intoxication by ganja
in mitigation of their crimes."
Dr. Chevers also mentions several cases of
"running amuck," as it it called, where a man
madly attacks and stabs every person whom he
meets whilst he is in this state of frenzy. Dr.
A. Hilson, late Inspector-General of Civil
Hospitals, thus wrote in his Annual Reports of
the Lunatic Asylums in Bengal (1890, p. 5), State-
ment VII, para. 14:—"Causes of Insanity.—
one of the chief features in this return is the
evidence it affords of the potency of ganja-
smoking in the production of mental disease
"
Again (1891, p. 4) Statement VII, para. 15:—
"As usual, this return shows that ganja smok-
ing is the most potent cause of lunacy. The
general opinion confirms this, and I am inclined
to believe it." It has been ascertained that nearly
26 per cent. of the inmates of lunatic asylums
are recruited from ganja-smokers.
Kabirajes of renown have also testified to the
evil effects of ganja. Their opinions are appended
here (vide App. 1).