376
20. Palki bearers, diggers of earth, night
watchmen, fishermen, sanyasis, and other people
following occupations involving hard manual
labour or exposure to inclemencies of the weather,
are more given to smoking ganja than people in
other occupations of life. Better classes of people
sometimes contract the habit of smoking ganja,
but their number is less than one in a thousand
of low class smokers. Among well-to-do men the
habit is less prevalent in Lower Bengal than in
Behar.
Charas is rarely smoked by low class men. It
is too expensive for them. Even among the better
classes the use of charas is diminishing.
21. The round variety of ganja is the one usual-
ly used.
23. I am not aware of bhang being ever used
for smoking.
24. Bhang is mostly eaten and drunk by up-
country people. In Lower Bengal the largest
proportion of consumers consist of sanyasis, up-
country traders, and darwans. Among the people
themselves in Lower Bengal the proportion does
not exceed one in five thousand.
25. The use of charas is certainly on the
decrease. It is difficult to say whether the use
of ganja and bhang is decreasing. Those who
have suffered by the use of spirituous liquors, or
are unable to pay for it, find in ganja and bhang
a cheap and less harmful substitute.
28. The quantity of bhang used by moderate
consumers does not exceed two tolas per day.
On an average half a tola is the ordinary allow-
ance. An excessive consumer would eat so much
as four tolas a day. A moderate allowance of
ganja is a quarter tola a day. The outside limit
for hard smokers is one tola a day.
30. In Lower Bengal ganja and charas are
rarely smoked by women or children. Women
suffering from chronic bowel complaints have re-
course to the use of bhang or opium when other
remedies prove ineffectual.
31. The habit of consuming either ganja or charas
is not easily formed. The use of either is always
repulsive in the beginning, but after the habit
has been formed it is difficult to break off; not,
however, so much as to break off a habit of drink-
ing liquors. The habit of eating bhang is com-
paratively more easily formed, but it is one which
can be given up much more easily than either
ganja or charas. There is no tendency in the
case of any of these drugs for a moderate habit
running into excess.
32. The only custom which affects the use of
these drugs is the one for the use of bhang on the
Bejoya day after the Durga Thakur has been
thrown down into the water. The custom is
qutie harmless. It is generally believed to be
essential, but bhang is never used in excess on
the occasion, and it never leads to the formation of
a habit.
33. The habitual use of any of the drugs has
been always looked upon with disfavour. The con-
sumers are generally regarded as men liable to be
easily irritated, and therefore men to be cautious-
ly dealt with and not to be lightly offended.
34. It would be a serious privation to several
classes of consumers if they were forced to forego
the use of the drugs. Persons suffering from
chronic bowel complaints or want of appetite, for
instance, would be deprived of a valuable remedy
if they were prevented from taking their daily al-
lowance of bhang; persons who have to work in
the sun, keep up nights, or undergo hard manual
labour would be deprived not only of a valuable
refreshment, but what must be regarded a neces-
sity of life to men of their occupation, if they
were prevented from smoking their usual dose of
ganja.
85. A compulsory prohibition of the use of the
drugs would cause great misery to the consumers
and make them seriously discontented.
The
number of consumers is not large enough to
justify any apprehension of political danger; but
it would be wrong to create such discontent and to
deprive a large number of peaceful men and useful
members of society of their short spells of enjoy-
ment amid the labours, cares, and anxieties of
life. It would be a tyranny of the majority over
the minority. The use of the drugs is so great a
necessity to them that it would be practically
impossible to prohibit their use. There would be
illicit consumption to a large extent, and the very
prohibition would perhaps stimulate persons who
would have otherwise kept aloof to take to the use
of the drugs. Hemp is used by a large number
of men who shun alcohol on religious and social
grounds, and who would never use it as a substitute
for hemp.
36. Far from alcohol being used as a substi-
tute for hemp, people readily use hemp as a
substitute for alcohol. It is cheaper, and is
believed to be not so injurious to health and ruin-
ous to the individuals.
89. Smoking ganja and charas is generally
believed to be more injurious than eating and
drinking bhang. Smoking has a stronger effect,
and is more liable to lead to excess than eating
bhang.
40. Both bhang and ganja are prescribed on
account of their medicinal qualities. They form
ingredients of several well-known and standard
medicines in Hindu pharmacy. Bhang is also
used in the treatment of cattle disease.
41. Both bhang and ganja possess valuable pro-
perties. Both of them are appetisers; bhang is
beneficial in cases of chronic diarrhœa; both
afford refreshment under severe exertion, ex-
posure, and fatigue; and all the three drugs are
used as valuable aphrodisiacs. The classes of
men who usually use ganja and bhang for getting
staying-power are mentioned in answer 20. For
medicinal purposes bhang and ganja are used by
men of all classes of the community.
42. The moderate use of ganja and bhang is
not only harmless, but positively beneficial to the
classes of men mentioned in answer 20.
43. Excepting that consumers of bhang and
ganja are liable to be more easily offended than
others, they are, generally speaking, inoffensive
to their neighbours.
44. The immediate effect of the moderate use
of bhang and ganja is that it produces refresh-
ment and exhilaration. To habitual consumers
it does not produce intoxication.
It does not
allay hunger; on the other hand, it creates appe-
tite. The effect does not last longer than a few
hours and there are no after-effects.
45. The habitual moderate use of ganja and
bhang does not impair the constitution or injure
the digestion or the chest, or the moral sense of
the intellect. Ganja has been known to produce
insanity, but it is only when taken for some time in
excess, or by boys or young men not sufficiently
strong to withstand its effects.
47. There are no grounds for believing that
there is a hereditary longing for the use of any
of these drugs.