396
22. Charas imported from Dacca and the Punjab
is used in this province. Herat charas is, how-
ever, considered the best, and is also imported to
some extent.
23. I have never known bhang being used for
smoking. Probably it is never so used.
24. Bhang is generally used by the classes to
whom the use of spirituous liquors is prohibited
on religious grounds, such as Brahmins, Kshet-
riyas, and other higher castes. Ninety per cent.
of the pandas or spiritual guides attached to the
temples of Baidyanath, Deogurh, and Gaya in
Behar are as a class addicted to the use of bhang.
Bhang is also largely used by native Hindu
sepoys.
25. My observations lead me to believe that
there has been latterly a decrease in the consump-
tion of hemp drugs, especially bhang, of which the
use among the intelligent middle classes is being
supplanted by the illicit use of alcohol. In the
case of ganja and charas, increased duty as well
as facilities for obtaining cheap liquor, may account
for diminished consumption.
26 and 27. Generally speaking, I may state
that in this province the habitual excessive con-
sumers of ganja are the sadhus or peripatetic reli-
gious mendicants; the habitual excessive consumers
of bhang are the pandas or spiritual guides attached
to the temples at Baidyanath and Gaya and other
similar temples. It is impossible for me to as-
certain their proportion to the total body of the
consumers of these two drugs; but I believe upon
enquiry it would be found that the proportion of
all habitual excessive consumers to the total of
consumers is not a very high one. As a rule all
those who use these two drugs to overcome fatigue,
to avoid the evil effects of exposure, and as a
stimulant after a hard day's work are habitual
moderate consumers. From the fact that sadhus
and pandas, as above mentioned, are habitual ex-
cessive consumers, it may be inferred that idleness
and immunity from worldly cares as to the pro-
vision of the necessaries of life, combined with
the notion that the two drugs are helpful to the
concentration of mind for religious purposes, are
important factors which lead to habitual excessive
use. Another factor in the cases of others, though
not a numerous class, may be found in the desires
for a stimulant for their purposes of sexual
pleasure.
28.
NAMES Average allowance Class of consumers.
Costs.
OF
Average allowance Class of consumers.
Costs.
OF
per diem.
Class of consumers.
Costs.
DRUGS.
per diem.
Class of consumers.
Costs.
Bhang
Half a tola to five
tolas
Habitual moderate Half anna to two
"
One chittak to two
annas.
chittacks
Habitual excessive Two annas to four
annas.
Ganja
75 grains
Habitual moderate One anna and a half
"
600 grains
Habitual excessive About 12 annas.
29. The ingredients ordinarily mixed with
bhang are dried rose leaves, black pepper, rose
water, keora, aniseed, almond, cardamon, sugar,
and other spices to improve the taste. Dhatura
is sometimes mixed with it by those whom bhang
by itself fails to intoxicate. A small quantity of
dried tobacco leaves is probably the only ingre-
dient which is ordinarily mixed with ganja. A
preparation called bhang massala is sold in the
bazar.
30. The consumption of hemp drugs is practised
both in solitude and in company. Those who
are habitual moderate consumers would generally
prefer solitude. Occasional excessive consumers
almost generally indulge in company. There is
no particular time of life to which the use of the
drugs is confined; they are used from adoles-
cence to extreme old age. Women and children
generally and as a rule do not indulge in hemp
drugs. A few women of the town may be found
to indulge in bhang, but probably none in ganja
or charas.
31. Habit is not easily formed, but when
formed it is difficult to break off, and then depri-
vation of the drugs produces physical prostration.
The moderate habit does not necessarily develop
into the excessive.
32. The use of intoxicants, spirituous liquors,
and bhang particularly among hemp drugs is an
old institution during the Holi or the carnival of
the Hindus. Classes which do not use, or are pro-
hibited from using, spirituous liquors indulge
freely in bhang and sweet cakes made with bhang,
technically called majum. The custom is to offer
something intoxicating to every visitor to your
house on that day, and an important part of the
functions of the festival is to receive visits from
friends and to visit them in turn, so that by the
time night comes, a vast deal of intoxicants is
consumed by the revellers.
Bhang or ganja or charas, of course, is not
essential to the Holi from a religious point of
view, but what is of more importance it is custom-
ary, and custom has in
this country all the
force of religion.
The use of these drugs on this occasion is of
course excessive; it is injurious as all such excesses
are injurious on account of the temporary
physical prostration it brings about as a reaction-
ary effect, but it does not commonly lead to the
formation of habits.
33. There is a public opinion with regard to the
use of these drugs. For instance, the use of
bhang is not regarded as a social sin, while the
use of ganja and charas among the higher classes
is considered disreputable, although their votaries
are not punished by ostracism or in any other
way. Among the lower classes their use is not in
any way considered reprehensible.
I am not aware of the existence of any custom
of worshipping the hemp plants, but bhang and
ganja are sometimes placed as a native offering at
the shrine of Siva.
34. It would be a privation to the habitual
consumers to forego the use of the drugs. To the
sadhus it would be a serious privation, for the
drugs are said to exert a helpful action in the
practice of what is called "hatha yogya," or the
regulation of breath by systematic postures for
the purposes of the concentration of mind.
But
in all cases there would be privation more or less
after the habit is formed; for I consider that the
habit of indulgence in intoxicants, whether hemp
drugs or spirituous liquors, after it has been deci-
dedly formed, produces a peculiar state of the
nervous system, which becomes then almost natu-
ral to the man, and when the influence of the in-
toxicants is all at once withdrawn that system
collapses.
35. I think it is possible to prohibit the use of
charas, at least in this province. Charas is used
by comparatively speaking a very small number
of men; it is but rarely, if ever, imported into
villages, and those who do indulge in it are not a
very respectable class, or one from whose dis-
content any political danger can possibly arise.