472
tual excessive use of these drugs. I have no objec-
tion to people's occasional moderate use of them.
47. I cannot say whether the habitual moder-
ate use of any of these drugs is a hereditary habit
or not. But this I can say for certain that it
affects the children of the moderate consumer
used in this way. It sets a bad example to child-
ren who gradually learn to think that even a
moderate use of these drugs is not so bad a thing
after all. They are thus in danger of contracting
a habit which may either be moderate or excessive.
In this sense the habit may be called hereditary.
48. After what I have said about the habitual
moderate use of these drugs, I think I need not
discuss the question in regard to their habitual
excessive use.
49. The moderate use of ganja is practised as
an aphrodisiac. I am not aware of any instance
in which the moderate use of hemp has produced
impotency.
50. Excessive use of hemp produces impotency.
53. The excessive indulgence in ganja and sid-
dhi incites to unpremeditated crime, violent or
otherwise. On the slightest provocation, an ex-
cessive ganja-smoker becomes infuriated and does
all sorts of mischief. Violence is used to members
of the family for little or no fault. I know of no
case in which excessive indulgence has led to tem-
porary homicidal frenzy.
54. When wine is not available, these drugs
are resorted to by criminals to fortify themselves
to commit a premeditated act of violence or other
crime.
55. Yes. Complete stupefaction can be induced
by ganja and siddhi without admixture, when the
victim is not in the habit of using them.
56. When people want to be well intoxicated,
they mix dhatura with siddhi.
Oral evidence.
I have been pleader for two years. I am 27
years of age. My experience is confined to the
district of Bankura, and indeed really to the town
of Bankura. The Indian Association sent me the
questions to answer. The Indian Association is a
political association in Bow Bazar, of which Babu
Surendranath Banerji is Secretary. Several other
pleaders in Bankura and I were selected, and the
questions sent to us individually "with the com-
pliments of the Indian Association."
Question 20.—It
is only among the higher
classes that it is the debased only who use the
drug. I know of the use by the lower classes.
In our district, however (vide answer 27), the
lower classes usually take liquor: it is the higher
classes, whose caste prevents their using liquor,
who use the drugs chiefly. The sanyasis are a
class by themselves. They are respected, but not
householders.
In answer 27 I am speaking of
the general population.
Question 27.—In my last sentence here I had
in mind the higher classes only. Among them,
however, the occasional or moderate use does not
make a man degenerate or disreputable. It is the
excessive habitual use. There are some among
these classes who smoke ganja moderately. These
are not disreputable. The moderate consumers
are more common than the excessive. The exces-
sive use is exceptional even among the respectable
classes. My sentence is quite wrongly expressed.
I should have had the word excessive inserted.
That was my meaning. The same remarks apply
exactly to the third sentence of my answer 20.
This was what I meant at the time I wrote.
My
mistake is due to the loose employment of lan-
guage in employing the words "ganja or charas-
smoker" for the excessive consumer of these drugs.
Question 33.—These remarks entirely refer to
the excessive consumption of ganja. But some-
times the moderate use develops into the exces-
sive. Therefore people are generally afraid of
their friends and relatives contracting the habit.
The remarks regarding effects, however, I desire
distinctly to confine to the excessive use.
Question 44.—The Bengali word for "intoxi-
cation" is "unmattata." The Bengali word for
"excitement"
is "samanya
nisha."
"Sama-
nya" means a little.
Another single word would
be "uttejana", which means stimulating effect.
I know only a little Hindustani. I understand
"unmattata" to be a stronger word than the
word "nasha." The word "nisha" is a common
Bengali word. This is a wide word which goes
from the smallest stage of excitement to the worst
stage of intoxication according to the word you
compound with it. Thus
"samanya
nisha"
means excitement merely, and
"ghor
nisha"
is intoxication. "Ghor" means much.
Question 45.—It is not the habitual moderate,
but the habitual immoderate use that produces
the effects mentioned in the first five sentences
of this answer. The next sentence is right. The
seventh and two following sentences refer to the
excessive or immoderate use. The kind of exces-
sive use to which I refer in answer 46 is the same
as the excessive use I now speak of.
There is great difficulty in distinguishing be-
tween moderate and excessive use. What
is
moderate to one person is excessive to another.
I
have seen a man to whom a very small dose,
which would have been very moderate to another,
was very excessive. This was the origin of this
confusion.
In other words, I was thinking of a
certain amount, and I remembered that that might
be excessive to some people, though moderate to
others. It was not that the only effects I had
seen were cases of excess; and that it was these
cases I had in my mind. Neither was it that I
was only thinking of ganja generally and merely
copied in the words "habitual moderate use" from
the question. I was thinking of a special amount,
viz., four chillums every day; and I gave it this
name "habitual moderate use." But I now mean
to say that, though that might be "habitual
moderate use" to some, it would be too much for
others; and it is only these others, to whom it
would thus be too much, who would suffer the ill
effects described in this answer. I was thinking of
ganja-smoking as meaning four chillums a day.
Question 46.—When
I said I should like to do
away with both habitual moderate and habitual
excessive use, I was animated by the impossibility
of distinguishing definitely what is excessive from
what is moderate. And I was not thinking of
the habitual moderate use of the drug by agri-
culturists and other labouring classes outside the
town of Bankura. It is not my opinion that ganja
should be prohibited.
Question 53.—I have seen actual cases of irri-
tability on the part of ganja-smokers and violence
by them to members of their family. I know of
no such case as having come into court. I have
known cases among respectable people of beating
wife and children and using abusive language to
neighbours. I have seen such cases. The man
was under the influence of ganja, and was known
to be an excessive consumer. I have seen two such
cases, and heard of others. The rest of my answer
is impression based on hearsay.