207
56. The effects of hemp used (a) in moderation
are modified by eating sour things, and (b) in ex-
cess, by either vomiting with warm water mixed
with cow's ghee or by taking strong sour drink.
I have seen a man (very strong) boiling his bhang
with capsules of dhatura to make the drug strong-
er in effect.
57. I have never come across a man eating
ganja or charas; but I have heard of a Hindu
mendicant doing so.
For the reasons I have given above, the effect
of eating these drugs must be very injurious to
constitution.
I agree as far as hemp
drugs are concerned.
H. C. W.
58. As far as my experience and opinion go,
the system of excise ad-
ministration in this dis-
trict, as also in other districts of the division
in respect to hemp drugs, is well worked. Cha-
ras is neither manufactured, imported, nor con-
sumed in the district. Ganja is sufficiently taxed.
Last year the quantity of all sorts of ganja con-
sumed in the district was 157 maunds 18 seers 2
chittacks with duty and license fee amounting
to R34,143, R16,545, against 159 maunds 35 seers
2 chittacks with R16,938 license fee and R33,989
duty in the previous year; the tax, therefore, on
the drug amounted to above R8 per seer.
Bhang, of which consumption as intoxication
is limited in this district, escapes taxation for
the reasons fully contained in this office letter
No. 531-E., dated 20th January 1893, an ex-
tract from which is given below for easy refer-
ence.
I.
Name of
district.
Total excise receipts of
district in 1890-91.
Total ganja revenue in
1890-91.
percentage of contri-
bution of ganja reve-
nue to district re-
ceipt.
R
R
R
Gaya
3,75,672
38,321
10·2
Patna
5,53,293
1,15,888
20·9
Muzaffarpur
1,83,076
41,748
22·8
Saran
2,90,260
70,955
24·8
Darbhanga
1,67,886
50,977
30·3
Shahabad
2,53,300
88,092
34·7
Champaran
1,86,813
70,187
37·5
"The Special Excise Deputy Collector, Roy
Brahma Dutt, who has had an experience of all
the districts in Behar, attributes the following
causes for there being no sale of bhang, and con-
sequently of no revenue derived therefrom in this
district:—
"(1) The plant grows spontaneously in abun-
dance, can be had everywhere, and
bears no marketable value.
"(2) In a damp country like Darbhanga, it
is observed by experience that the
consumption of the drug is not so
large as in a dry district.
"(3) It is further observed by experience
that in damp places ganja, which is
smoked, replaces to a certain extent
the consumption of bhang, of which
leaves are ground into a paste, and
then dissolved in some liquid and
drunk. It is for this reason that ganja
in Darbhanga, Champaran, Saran, and
Muzaffarpur con-
tributes to the
district
excise
receipts a larger
proportion
of
revenue than in
any other district
in the division,
except Shahabad,
which
has a
special reason to
account for its
large proportion
of contribution,
viz.,
that the
high classes of
the people there
(who abstain from drinking spirit and
tari) are mostly addicted to the use of
ganja, bhang, or both. See the state-
ment No. I on the margin.
"(4) A reference to the marginal statement No.
II will show that
it is a combined
effect
of the
causes mentioned
above that in
Muzaffarpur,
which is a sister
district of Dar-
bhanga, as also
in Champaran,
which resembles
both these dis-
tricts in points
of dampness and
indigenous
growth of bhang,
the sale of the
drug has been
insignificant.
"(5) Darbhanga
has an additional
reason to account
for
no taxed
consumption of
the drug in it,
viz., that during
the last ten years
there has been
no
successful
prosecution for
illicit possession
of wild bhang in
the district, be-
cause the High
Court in 1892
declared in cer-
tain cases that
prosecution for
possession of wild
bhang
was il-
legal, and Mr.
Boxwel, the then
Magistrate of the district, recorded an
order that the plant, called bhang in
Darbhanga, was not an exciseable arti-
cle, and that the police should give up
interfering."
59. The duty levied upon different kinds of
ganja has been enhanced this year which, it is
expected, will further increase the revenue, and
may proportionately decrease the consumption of
the drug. I do not, therefore, think it advisable
to adopt any policy indicating the enhancement
of tax on the drug so soon.
60. Ganja is not produced in this district,
though wild hemp plant (or phul bhanga, as it is
locally called) abundantly grows here.
61. Charas also is not produced in this district.
62. Bhang plant grows wild so extensively in
this and other north Gangetic districts in this
division that it would be impossible, with the
present strength and type of the executive es-
tablishment, to bring the production of bhang
under the excise control by direct management.
It would therefore be advisable to let the bhang
mahal into farm; but the prospect of profit from
the farm being little and the trouble of its
management great, no farmer is expected to come
forward for it. Under the circumstances,
what
suggests me as most suited to the occasion is
II.
1886-87. 1887-88. 1888-89. 1889-90.
1890-91.
Name.
Number
Quantity
Number
Quantity
Number
Quantity
Number
Quantity
Number
Quantity
of
of bhang
of
of bhang
of of bhang
of
of bhang
of
of bhang
licenses.
sold.
licenses.
sold.
licenses.
sold.
licenses.
sold.
licenses.
sold.
M. S. C.
M. S. C.
M. S. C.
M. S. C.
M. S. C.
Patna
36
121 29
7 34
114 8
3 36
110 0 10 25 91 10 10 21 71 39 9
Gaya
17
177 21
6 17
191
0
3 17 186 10 13 17 177 23 11 17
165 11 8
Shahabad
57 103 12
8
58
87 35 15 61 90 15 9 48
100 2 5 35 62 28 0
Saran
6 10 33
5
3 11 32 4
4
13 20 6
4
12 38 3 4
7
28
6
Champaran
2
2 13
5
2
1 24 0
2
1 20 7
2
1 22 0
2
1 18 4
Muzaffarpur
1
.
1
0 28 0
1
0 29 0
Darbhanga