55
18. Ganja deteriorates if kept over a year and
loses its strength. The same rule applies to cha-
ras and siddhi.
19. I believe they are used only for smoking.
20. The lower labouring classes, especially fisher-
men and boatmen, use ganja. When a man of a
better class uses ganja, it is generally because he
can't afford spirits. Occasionally well-to-do
people smoke charas mixed with tobacco.
21. Chur seems the favourite.
22. Charas imported from Amritsar is generally
used here.
23. Bhang is never smoked, but always mixed
with water and sugar or milk. Up-country people
are the main consumers. It is also made into a
sweetmeat and this is consumed both by Bengalis
and up-country people. The name of this sweet-
meat is majun.
25. Among the middle classes, charas is pre-
ferred to ganja because any one smoking ganja
is supposed to be very poor. A well-to-do man
who smokes ganja is liable to be jeered at.
26. They are mostly moderate consumers. The
only class among whom I often met excessive
consumers was among the coolies on the Cachar
tea gardens, and there I did meet several cases of
insanity produced by excessive ganja smoking. I
have very rarely heard of excessive smokers in this
district, and I have not found a single ganja or
charas smoker in this district who has gone mad.
There may be one or two in the Lunatic Asylum,
but the Superintendent can best answer about
them.
27. Poverty seems the main reason for people
using ganja.
28. Moderate consumer—
One two-anna weight of ganja costing three
pice.
One two-anna weight of charas costing two
pice.
One twelve-anna weight of bhang costing three
pice.
Excessive consumers double the quantity.
29. (a) Dried tobacco to get more of a smoke.
(b) Dhatura seeds to make it more intoxicating
and lasting.
Bhang massala is compound of bhang, black
pepper, aniseed, cucumber seeds, milk, sugar, dried
rose leaves. Bhang drinkers generally use it.
30. Consumed more in solitude than in company.
Mainly confined to the male sex. Children rarely
take it.
31. It takes some time to form the habit, but
once formed, it is difficult to break it off.
32. A drink of bhang is offered to guests on last
day of Durga puja, and ganja and bhang are
offered on night of Sivratri to the God Mahadev
and the priests and devotees consume it. It is
essential as a religious act. It is not likely to lead
to formation of a habit, being only offered once a
year and therefore can't be said to be injurious.
33. The use of these drugs is supposed to be
rather low because it is mainly confined to the
poorer classes.
I know of no custom of worshipping the hemp
plant.
34. A very serious privation to the labouring
classes, especially fishermen and boatmen, as ganja
is their only stimulant. A rough guess would put
the labouring men who use ganja at over two
thousand in this district.
35. It would be a physical impossibility to pro-
hibit the use of the drug. There would be no poli-
tical danger actually incurred by the prohibition in
this district as the very poor only use ganja, but
there would be very keen discontent and probably
strikes and riots. Of course the prohibition would
lead to concealed cultivation of hemp and the use of
any other drugs that could be obtained.
36. Alcohol can't be substituted for these drugs
unless it is made very cheap indeed. The present
tendency is to make it dearer.
37. Ganja takes effect instantaneously while
charas is slow in its effect. Ganja seems to affect
the mental faculties mainly, and charas the physi-
cal.
38. All the same effect.
39. Smoking is certainly the least injurious way
of taking any preparation of the hemp plant.
40. Bhang is prescribed for indigestion and heat
apoplexy among cattle.
41. (a) Yes.
(b) Yes.
(c) Yes.
As a preventive from sunstroke in a hot day.
Well-to-do people use it as an accessory to food.
Boatmen and fishermen and palki-bearers use it for
its staying-power. Many use it occasionally as a
febrifuge.
42. I consider the moderate use harmless, as out
of the great number of ganja smokers I have
known, I suppose in all my life I have only seen
some twenty men injured by it, a much lower
number than those I have seen injured by alcohol.
43. Yes.
44. Habitual moderate consumers. It is re-
freshing. It does not intoxicate. It allays hun-
ger. It does not create hunger. The effects last
for about two hours. No after-effects. Want of
subsequent gratification produces uneasiness.
Moderate smokers in old age are liable to indiges-
tion.
45. It causes indigestion and the consumer is
especially liable to dysentery.
After the effect of a smoke has worn off,
lethargy is apt to ensue.
Moderate use of the drug seems to have no
other effects.
Among the Cachar tea garden coolies I believe
insanity is produced by the immoderate use of
ganja, but these men also use other stimulants.
46. Immoderate use affects the digestion and
appetite, causes great lethargy and weakens the
frame generally. But it is to be noted that the
fakirs and religious persons who are the principal
excessive consumers here habitually use dhatura as
an adjunct to ganja, and I am not prepared to dis-
criminate between the effects of the two drugs.
47. No.
48. I am unable to answer this question precise-
ly.
49. I know nothing of this.
51. Bad characters generally prefer alcohol, and
I am unaware of any connection between ganja
and crime when the drug is used in moderation.
52. It is only when excessive smoking causes
insanity that the consumer is dangerous.