519
42. Moderate use of these drugs is always
beneficial.
43. Moderate consumers are always inoffensive.
44. The immediate effect of the moderate use
is refreshing; slight intoxication is produced,
hunger, and creates appetite. The effect lasts for
three or four hours. No after-effects; neither it
produces longing nor uneasiness.
45. Habitual moderate use of these drugs never
produces any untoward symptoms but on the
contrary the excessive use produces all the symp-
toms enumerated in the question.
46. The excessive use of these drugs tends to
bowel complaints.
247. Evidence of the DISTRICT BOARD, 24-Parganas (Sub-Committee).
1. The answers are framed after discussion at a
meeting of the Sub-Committee nominated by the
District Board, 24-Parganas.
2. The definitions of the drugs as given by
Dr. Prain may, on the whole, be accepted as
correct.
Bhang, siddhi, subji, or patti consists of the
leaves and seeded flowers of varieties of Cannabis
sativa supposed to be indigenous.
Flat ganja is locally known as chapta,
Round "
"
"
" gol,
Broken "
"
"
" rora or chur,
i.e., by chapta, gol, rora or chur, respectively.
3. The hemp plant grows all over India spon-
taneously. Confining our remarks to this pro-
vince, ganja has been grown under license in a
compact tract of country within a radius of 16
miles lying in three districts, viz, Rajshahi, Dinaj-
pur, and Bogra. In the Bengal districts of Sha-
habad, Champaran, Monghyr, Bhagalpur, Dacca,
Rangpore, Darbhanga, Chota Ngapur, and Orissa
the hemp plant grows.
4. Shan, pat, naltapata, kashmiri, subji and
patti.
They do not exactly refer to the same plant but
to varieties of it.
5. The plant flourishes in the alluvial plains of
Lower Bengal.
6. Ordinarily dense.
7. Yes, see answers to question 3.
Charas is produced in the North-Western Pro-
vinces and not in this province.
This has already been answered in questions 3
and 4.
8. The cultivation of ganja in the area lying in
Dinajpur, Bogra, and Rajshahi for the last five
years has been fluctuating, as the figures below
go to show:—
Bighas.
Cottahs.
1887-88
1,780
3
1888-89
2,433
4
1889-90
2,408
1
1890-91
2,669
18
1891-92
1,315
15
Paragraph 48 of Babu Hem Chandra Kar's
report is in point.
9. See paragraph 48 of the above report.
10. Anybody, whether Hindu or Muhamma-
dan, can cultivate hemp. It is grown by the
ordinary agricultural cultivators.
11. No.
12. None.
13. With the exception of the places mentioned
above, the cultivation is prohibited in this
province.
Hemp is said not to grow in such districts as
Bankura and Birbhoom, where the soil is stiff
and the climate dry.
14. See answers to questions 3 and 7.
15. The following preparations are known:—
(a) From cultivated plant (A) for smoking.
Ganja is the preparation obtained from
the flowers of the ganja plant by cutting
them into small pieces and mixing
them with dried tobacco leaves. Bhang
is largely used as an intoxicating liquor
by washing the leaves and pounding
them into a fine paste with an admixture
of sugar, spices, etc., with water. (b)
From the wild plant no preparation is
made in Bengal.
A powerful sun is indispensably necessary
for the proper preparation of ganja both flat and
round. The chur is the result followed in the
preparation of the other two forms of the drug.
16. (a) Yes, to a very moderate extent.
(b) Yes.
(c) No.
17. By all classes. Charas, however, is not
prepared in this country.
18. Yes, they lose their narcotic properties in
two years time, but the medical properties of
siddhi are believed to increase. The causes of
deterioration are exposure to atmospheric mois-
ture, dampness, etc. The preventive measures
are constant cleansing, drying in the sun, and keep-
ing in stoppered bottle.
19. Yes, ganja is used as medicine in many
diseases. The action of the drug in the form of
a tincture or extract is to sharpen the appetite,
and it produces sleep in cases of delirium tre-
mens, where even morphia has failed as a hyp-
notic, and it has been used with success in cases
of tetanus and neuralgia. It is also used as a
prophylactic against diseases apt to be contract-
ed in malarious localities. The worshippers of
Siva use ganja as an offering to their god.
20. Ganja is chiefly smoked by those classes
whose vocations expose them to the inclemencies
of the weather, e.g., fishermen, sea-faring men
along the coast, artizans, syces, coachmen, dar-
wans, palki-bearers as well as mendicants, general-
ly with good effect. As a rule, it is not smoked
by the agricultural and the well-to-do classes in
Bengal. In the Behar districts more bhang than
ganja is in use. The consumers of ganja are
chiefly recruited from among the Hindustanis
of all classes. Charas, on the other hand, finds
favour among the well-to-do classes of Bengal.
21. Regular smokers give preference to flat
and round ganja.
22. Charas is obtained from Mirzapur, Amritsar,