417
18. These drugs keep very well for eight
months in the year, but deteriorate and lose their
strength during the rainy season. They won't
keep for an indefinite length of time.
19. Ganja and charas are used only for smok-
ing.
20. Charas is not used in localities near us.
Ganja is used more or less by all castes and classes.
Sadhus and fakirs (religious mendicants) smoke
most heavily. It is said these use it chiefly to
deaden sexual appetite.
21. The flat kind, as it is the most potent.
22. No charas is sold or used in this neighbour-
hood.
23. Bhang is not used for smoking.
24. Bhang is not usually eaten. Mixed with
pepper and sugar in water it is used as a sherbet
or drink.
25. The use of these drugs is on the increase.
About 10 years ago there were three licensed
shops in this Municipality which paid excise tax
of Rs. 25 monthly each; now there is one paying
Rs. 135 a month. The licensed sellers know
that young boys of 10 or 12 are taking to it
more than formerly.
26. Most of the adults in this town, or at least
one-half, are moderate habitual consumers. Half
a dozen men in the country round about are
known to be habitual excessive consumers. There
are hardly any occasional consumers, for once the
habit is formed it must be daily gratified.
27. All castes and classes are addicted, from
the poor or rich Brahmin and Rajput to the poor
or rich Chamar and Dosadh. There are no
particular habits of life or circumstances which
lead to the habit or practice. Indulgence on a
few occasions leads insidiously to the settled habit,
which must be satisfied.
28. (a) Two katcha pice worth (2/7th of an anna)
will purchase five rattis weight = 5 X 1 7/8 = about
9½ grs. troy.
(b) Will consume four times as much as (a),
and sometimes on special occasions a good deal
more.
29. (a) With ganja, ordinarily "khaini" or
tobacco for chewing.
Dhatura is never used.
With bhang are mixed sounf (aniseed), ground
peppercorns, the seeds of cucumbers, rose leaves,
and sugar. These admixtures are said to prevent
the heating properties of the bhang and to reduce
the intoxicating effects. This mixture is taken
with water as a sherbet or as a "quid" for the
mouth.
30. Chiefly in company, and is confined to the
male sex of all ages above 10 or 12 years.
31. The habit is very easily formed after in-
dulgence twice or thrice. The habit is difficult
to break off, and there is a tendency for the
moderate habit to develop into the excessive.
32. It is quite the custom, if not actually in-
cumbent on every male person, to take some one
of these intoxicating drugs on the day of the
Holi festival. Bhang is chiefly used.
There is a shrine or grave in the neighbourhood
called the "Doodnath," where a sadhu addicted
to the use of these drugs died generations ago.
Many people take vows at this grave or shrine on
the Holi day, and offer up ganja and bhang to the
spirit of the sadhu. Such offerings may be and
are made on other occasions also.
33. There is no religious or social feeling
against the consumption of these drugs, nor does
any disrepute attach to the practice.
The hemp plant is not worshipped on certain
occasions more than other crops are.
34. The privation would not be serious.
Those addicted to the consumption of these drugs
would feel the want of them for a few weeks,
and would be disinclined for exertion of any kind
till the craving wore off. No serious harm would
result.
35. Prohibition could be easily enforced as in
the case of opium, and illicit consumption would
not be general. There would be no serious dis-
content, and certainly no political danger, at any
rate in rural tracts. The prohibition could not
be followed by recourse to alcoholic stimulants
in the case of the higher castes, who must not
touch alcoholic liquor of any kind. Such castes
might take to opium, but this is doubtful; the
lower castes would generally take to alcoholic
stimulants.
36. I don't think this is the case. For intoxi-
cating purposes these drugs are cheaper than al-
coholic stimulants, even though their effect is not
probably so lasting.
37. Charas-smoking induces severe headaches
and affections of the air passages, causing cough
and phlegm. Not so ganja.
38. Except that flat ganja is the strongest and
chur the weakest, the three kinds produce the
same effects in different degrees.
39. In smoking ganja there is more harm done
than by eating or drinking bhang. The latter in-
creases the appetite for food; the former tends to
destroy it. Bhang has a beneficial effect on the
physical frame; ganja reduces the physique,
bodily and muscular. One reason given is that
ganja is smoked unmixed with softening ingredi-
ents; another is that the act of smoking is a tax
on the heart and lungs, whereas mere eating or
drinking bhang involves much less exertion.
40. Very seldom bhang is prescribed as a febri-
fuge. Bhang mixed with "sattu" (ground
gram) is sometimes given to fatigued cattle after
extraordinary exertions with very good effect.
41. (a) Bhang acts as a fillip to the appetite,
not so the others.
(b) Bhang is taken more to comfort the
system as it were than to give staying-power or
alleviate fatigue.
(c) Occasionally used as a febrifuge.
The moderate habitual use of the drug is
referred to above.
42. The consensus of opinion available near me
is that the moderate use of these drugs, especially
bhang, is not harmful.
43. Yes.
44. Very slight intoxication. The effect is
more soothing than refreshing. Ganja spoils or
weakens the appetite. Bhang increases it. The
effects last about two or three hours. The after-
effects are disinclination for physical exertion.
45. No noxious effects are produced from the
habitual moderate use of these drugs.
46. Habitual excessive use induces affections of
the lungs, throat, and air passages generally.,
The constitution is impaired and the body be-
3 K