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40. Bhang is prescribed by kabirajes and quacks
for its medicinal qualities. It forms one of the
ingredients in many kinds of medicines prepared
on Ayurvedic system.
No mention is made,
I hear, of ganja in that ancient work,
"Ayurved";
the drug mentioned is siddhi. Probably siddbi
was not then developed into ganja by cultivation.
Bhang is used in the treatment of cattle dis¬
eases.
41. I am not aware of any instance in which
charas or ganja is ever used—
(a) as a food accessory or digestive;
(b) to give staying-power under severe exer¬
sion or exposure, or to alleviate fatigue;
(c) as a febrifuge or preventive of disease
in malarious or unhealthy tracts; or
(d) in any other way.
But bhang is said to be used for digestive
purposes; and in villages where medical aid is not
easily available or ready at hand, it is administer¬
ed in cases of cholera after the first or second loose
motion. I speak of moderate habitual use of
bhang as digestive.
42. To my knowledge and in my experience,
the use of these three drugs is neither beneficial
nor harmless.
43. Yes, except so far as the smokers of ganja
are apt to be irritated, when the neighbours take
good care not to come in contact with them.
44. In the case of bhang, as soon as it is
drunk it produces a cooling sensation in the
stomach. The drinker would feel inclined to smoke
tobacco if he is accustomed to it, and as he smokes
on the intoxication would increase. It is refresh¬
ing, produces intoxication, increases hunger and
creates appetite. Its effect lasts about six hours,
and produces dullness and lethargy as after-effect,
but no longing for it.
In the case of ganja, as soon as it is smoked the
whole frame becomes warm and a shock is felt
on the brain; it is all sudden and quick. It is
refreshing, produces intoxication, and increases
hunger to some extent, creates appetite, lasts about
two hours, produces no dullness or lethargy, but
produces longing for it.
45. In answering this I confine myself to ganja
alone.
I believe that even the habitual moderate use of
ganja produces noxious effects, physical, mental,
and moral. It makes a man look emaciated,
causes periodical purging of blood, which may or
may not be dysentery, and produces symptoms of
chronic bronchitis. It produces indifference.
Habits of immorality and debauchery are often
seen associated with ganja-smoking; but I am not
sure whether such habits are the cause or effect of
ganja-smoking.
It is seen in most cases to deaden the intellect,
and in some to produce insanity.
The four instances I know of insanity produced
by ganja-smoking were of a permanent nature.
The insanes would talk to themselves in incoherent
questions and replies, and laugh, while thus talk¬
ing, regardless of what others speak or think of
them. They used no violence to others if left
undisturbed.
In three instances in which I had the opportu¬
nity of being personally acquainted with such
insanes while sane, there was no known mental
anxiety or brain symptom that can be supposed to
have produced or accelerated the insanity. The
persons belonged to higher classes of society, in
two cases living in affluence, and in the third with
limited means. Apparently they were not of
weak intellect, and their parents and brothers did
not prove to be of weak intellect.
In the fourth instance I met a lunatic of higher
class in the Dacca Lunatic Asylum, who talked of
the loss of his property alone to himself. One of
his neighbours with me told me that ganja made
him so.
In these cases I am not sure whether it was the
habitual moderate or habitual excessive use of
ganja; but in the first three cases I am certain
that the use was habitual.
46. Vide latter part of 45.
47. I do not think that the use of any of these
three drugs, either moderate or excessive, can have
any hereditary effect or that the habit can be ac¬
quired by the natural law of inheritance.
48. Vide No. 47.
51. Bad characters, such as habitual thieves,
robbers, and dacoits, are not necessarily habitual
smokers of any of these drugs. But I have heard
from bad characters themselves, e.g., confirmed
thieves of small local gang, dacoits and way-layers
that it is customary for them either to drink
liquor, or to smoke ganja in one pipe, irrespective
of class and creed, before going out on excursion,
and that it facilitates the perpetration of the crime
that need be perpetrated by desperate characters.
Such occasional use is never excessive.
52. Vide above.
53. Nil.
54. Vide No. 51.
55. I have not heard of any such instance.
Ganja alone, and neither bhang nor charas can
produce complete stupefaction without admixture.
62. It is impracticable to exercise any control
effectually in respect of the production of bhang,
as the plants cannot be eradicated. Any pressure
brought to bear on the possessor of the soil spon¬
taneously growing bhang plants would prove to be
an oppression and harassment.
63. It would be well if the three classes of
ganja could be reduced to one while in course of
preparation in Naogaon.
My reasons for this are as follows:—
(a) Since 1885 I believe there have been too
many fluctuations in the rate of duty on
each class of ganja with a view to ad¬
justing the real actual smokeable quan¬
tity of the drug in a seer of each of the
three kinds. But I believe the propor¬
tion is still defective, and it will ever
remain so, because some of the wholesale
dealers or brokers purchase the standing
crop, and cause a preparation of the kind
more or less just as the rate of duty
would suggest to be lucrative. Hence
we find that in some year one kind of
ganja is more imported than the other,
and next year contrary is the case.
(b) This change in duty (always towards
enhancement) has been introduced in the
middle of the year, which serve to dis¬
turb the men in the trade who were thus
forced to grapple with a difficulty of
which they had no notice when taking
the license.