587
5. The wild hemp is seen to grow abundantly
in damp and submerged places.
6. It grows densely in such places where cow-
dung are thrown.
7. No.
8 to 18. Do not refer to my district.
19. Ganja and charas are used only for smoking;
the green leaves of the wild hemp are used ex-
ternally in some cases in rheumatic pains, etc.
20. The up-country men.
21. Flat and round ganja is preferred for
smoking.
22. Foreign charas is used and imported from
those districts in India where it is manufactured.
23. Yes, by people of Upper India.
24. Hindus of Upper India are greatly addicted
to drinking bhang.
25. The use seems to be on the increase in my
district. The present excise system, under which
easy accessibility to the drug is available, is attri-
butable to the increase.
26. Cent. per cent. of adult male Hindus who
come from Upper India are excessive consumers of
bhang. Among Assamese the percentage of con-
sumers is inappreciable, may be five per cent.; but
considering the easy accessibility to the drug,
there is every likelihood of this percentage being
on the increase.
27. From lower classes and religious mendicants.
Their habits of life are indolence and quarrelling
propensity, and the consumers say that the use of
bhang helps the engagement of the mind upon
any subject, and in some instances the bhang is
used for immoral purposes.
28. (a) One-and-a-half anna.
(b) Six annas.
29. Ordinary curry spices, but principally nut-
meg, cloves, and musk are mixed by well-to-do
luxurious consumers. Heard of dhatura being
used. The object of these mixtures is only to
show luxury. No, I do not know bhang mas-
sala.
30. Ganja is practised in solitude by young
beginners. There is nothing to prevent children to
consume bhang when in bad company.
31. Easily formed. Difficult for young men
to break off. There is a very marked tendency for
the moderate consumers to develop into the exces-
sive.
32. Amongst Assamese the custom is consi-
dered religious in the case of Sivaratri or the an-
nual puja of the god Siva. The use then is re-
garded essential. The use is generally temperate,
but it is likely to lead to the formation of the
habit.
33. In Assam, the use of not only hemp, but
all other intoxicating drugs, is religiously prohi-
bited. In the sastras or the convents of the prin-
cipal gosains or spiritual guides in Assam the rule
against the use of any intoxicating thing is strict-
ly enforced.
34. The prohibition of the drug may be a seri-
ous privation to the religious mendicants as well as
to other habitual consumers. The percentage of
the former will be one per cent. and that of the
latter nearly three per cent.
35. Of course the prohibition of the drugs is
strongly recommended, and it would no doubt be
feasible. If the police use proper vigilance, and
the reward system to the informants is continued,
illicit consumption will be totally impracticable.
The number of consumers is so insignificant that
not the slightest political danger or discontent can
be anticipated. The consumers being up-country
Hindus and ascetics and low-class people who are
so conservative in point of religious observances
that they will not use any alcoholic stimulants if
the prohibition of the hemp drugs is enforced.
36. No.
37 and 38. Do not know.
39. Both smoking and eating are injurious.
40. No native doctor to my knowledge ever pre-
scribes these drugs for medicinal purposes, neither
they are seen to be used in the treatment of cattle-
disease in my district.
41. (a) Said to be beneficial by the consumers.
(b) No.
(c) Never.
(d) Application of the green leaves of the
hemp plant in pains, etc., is said to be beneficial.
Dyspeptic invalids use the drug as a food
accessory, and their number is quite inappreciable.
I refer to the moderate occasional use of the drug.
42. I do not consider the moderate use of any
intoxicating drug to be harmless, because no man,
however strong-minded he is, can ever be expect-
ed to be always moderate. In case of illiterate
persons who form the majority of the consumers
of the drug, the terms moderate and excessive may
be said to be synonymous.
43. Believed to be so.
44. To the moderate habitual consumers the
drug is said to be refreshing; it does not produce
intoxication, nor allays hunger; on the contrary it
creates appetite. The effect lasts for nearly a
couple of hours, and it produces longing for subse-
quent gratification and uneasiness if it cannot
be had.
45. All the bad effects of the use of the hemp
drug enumerated in this question are visible even
to habitual moderate consumers of tender age.
One of my cousins, who took to the habit of
smoking ganja when a school-boy of some twelve
years of age, became a permanent insane of the
worst type and died ten years afterwards, and I
know many other similar cases.
46. Above answer proves that discussion of
this question is not necessary.
47. Does not appear to be a hereditary habit.
48. Discussion unnecessary.
49. Said to be so practised, as well as used by
the prostitutes. The use for this purpose is said
to produce barrenness in case of women and impo-
tence in case of men.
50. Discussion not necessary.
51. Yes. Old moderate consumers are not seen
to be associated with any crime.
42. Excessive use of the drug even by habitual
consumers is no doubt apt to lead to crime in gene-
ral.
53. Yes. Yes.
54. Yes.
55. Yes. Yes; more completely in case of non-
consumers.
56 and 57. Do not know.
58. Working well, but capable of improvement.
59. In my district the ganja golas are in charge
of traders who are not above scruples. In my
opinion the principal medical officer of the district