448
produce no ganja nor the resinous substance
known as charas. The plants are male.
12. No, not in the Lower Provinces of Bengal.
13. I am informed the female plant is exten-
sively cultivated in Nepal, Terai, Gorakhpur, and
many other districts of the North-Western Pro-
vinces for ganja and charas. The best charas
comes from Kasghar in the north-eastern border of
China. It is highly priced, and is a luxury to
rich people.
14. (a) No.
(b) No.
(c) No.
See answer to question No. 7.
15. As far as I am aware, green leaves are
plucked from the plants and dried and kept for
drinking purposes.
16. Male plants produce the best bhang, and it
is prepared in the houses of the people. The
leaves of the female plants may be used as bhang,
but as a rule they are discarded, being very strong
if used as a drink.
18. If kept with ordinary care, ganja and bhang
do not deteriorate for two years, but charas can be
preserved in good condition for a much longer
time. The former lose much of their strength
after two years.
19. Used only for smoking.
20. These people who are exposed to inclemen-
cies of weather, such as boatmen, carriers of loads,
palki-bearers, fishermen, night-watchmen, men
who spend their lives in manual work, and sanyasis.
Charas is not used by low class people. The men
of the higher class rarely use it too.
Hindu and Muhammadan mendicants, vil-
lage cultivators, day-labourers in the fields, boat-
men, up-country Hindus, and Muhammadans of
the lower classes, cartmen and the women of the
town are chiefly the classes which supply customers
to the vendors of ganja, charas or bhang.
It is difficult to determine what particular class
is addicted to what particular form of the drug,
or if all the classes are equally fond of all the
forms of the drugs together. But from a careful
observation of all the facts falling within my own
experience, I venture to think that ganja claims
greater number of votaries, drawn almost equally
from all the sources enumerated above, than charas
or bhang, which should take a second place in this
connection. Charas is the favourite form of the
drug indulged in chiefly by the women of the
town and the men who resort to their places, par-
ticularly the younger men.
Charas is also
favoured by a class of young men of a higher status
in life apart from the classes described above.
Bhang is used almost exclusively by Hindus with-
out distinction of classes. It is taken by them in
the form of a drink, generally with the object of
stimulating appetite which was weakened by in-
digestion or other causes.
21. The flat kind is commonly used in these
parts. Smokers would prefer the round kind, but
it is dearer.
22. Native charas is chiefly used.
23. Not aware that bhang is used for smoking.
24. Bhang is used by sanyasis (ascetics), both
eaten and drunk. The up-country durwans and
up-country traders are the largest consumers. In
Bengal, I may guess, the proportion is one to
four thousand.
By far the greater number of the drinkers of
bhang consists of the Hindu sanyasis, who make it
a point to drink it in pursuance of the dictates of
a religious sentiment. It serves the purpose of
casting away the sad thoughts of a sanyasi's life
who, while he is conscious of his being a unit of
the busy world around him, yet feels himself
abandoned and neutral and an intruder in society
according to the practical experience of life. The
drink enables the sanyasi to pass the time in
pleasant and pleasurable mood, and he who is
sincerely a seeker of truth is enabled to fix his
attention to religious contemplation unmoved
from the object to which he had directed his
thoughts.
The Commission wants to be informed if any
special class uses the drug in moderation or in
excess. The mendicants excepted, all other classes
use it in moderation.
Excess, in the sense the term is used in
the question, signifies, I opine, a quantity used
which brings on intoxication of a degree which
would render the user incapacitated for a time.
Among habitual users, there does not appear any
visible symptom of physical failings under the
influence of the drug taken in excess.
Exces-
sive indulgence is very frequently noticed among
the lower order of people of all the classes.
25. On information I may say the use of charas
is decreasing daily. I can't say the use of ganja
is decreasing at all.
28. The quantity consumed daily by a moderate
smoker of ganja or charas is about 1/8 of a tola, A
moderate drinker of bhang consumes about 1/4 of a
seer in a month.
N.B.—The weight of a rupee is a tola, and
eighty such tolas are in a seer. One pice or at
most two pice worth of ganja or charas will be
enough to satisfy the cravings of a moderate
smoker. A moderate drinker of bhang will be
satisfied for a whole month with a quantity pur-
chased at half a rupee.
29. Ganja is smoked with a little tobacco leaf
mixed with it. The compound is moistened with
water and cut with a knife repeatedly till it be-
comes thoroughly mixed and ready for the fire.
Charas, before being smoked, is placed in the heart
of globule of manufactured tobacco and slightly
heated; then the two are mixed up together and
smoked. The admixtures are given to modify the
action of the drug and to give an agreeable fla-
vour. Bhang is made stronger by the admixture
of sugar, kitchen cobwebs, black-pepper, and
some other ingredients of a pungent nature.
Ordinary drinkers do not mix dhatura, except the
sanyasis.
30. Except under medical advice, the women
and children do not take bhang. Charas is the
favourite form of the drug indulged in chiefly by
the women of the town and the men who resort to
their places, particularly the younger men. Ganja
and charas are generally smoked in company. It
is mainly confined to the male sex. It is not
usual for children to consume any of these drugs.
31. The habit of consuming either ganja or
charas is not easily formed. After the habit has
been formed one cannot easily leave it. The habit
of eating bhang is comparatively more easily
formed, but it is more easily given up. There is
no tendency in the case of any of these drugs for a
moderate habit running into excess. They are
not known to run into excess.
32. On the occasion of the Bijaya day after the
Durga Thakur is thrown into the river or any
sacred place, this custom is observed. All the
members of the family, as also many villagers, sit