536
23. Bhang is occasionally smoked when people
cannot get ganja, but it is said to be very deficient
in intoxicating qualities.
24. All ganja-smokers consume bhang when
they cannot get the true ganja. But this rarely
happens.
25. Table B and the appended district tables
will show that the diminution in the number of
shops, the competition for these shops, the increased
rate of duty, and the resulting increase in retail
prices have greatly reduced the consumption of
excise ganja. That these causes have also led to
an increase of smuggling is very probable. On
this point I would call the attention of the Com-
mission to column 8 of the district tables appended
to Table B.
26. I have no means of answering this question.
All consumers probably take ganja to excess on
special occasions, such as, among Hindus, the
Sivaratri Puja, the Bijoya Dasami day, etc. Again,
habitual consumers on the eve of, or after, violent
exertion take an extra dose of the drug. But I
cannot say now what proportion of the total num-
ber of consumers may be regarded as moderate or
immoderate consumers. This is a point on which
only vendors could give us information, and even
their replies would be subject to obvious limit-
ations.
27. Coolies from Behar and the North-Western
Provinces and servants from those districts,
Nepalese in the Assam Regiment, traders, cow-
herds, etc., the indigenous (Bengali) population
of the districts of Sylhet, Cachar, and Goalpara
all consume ganja. The use of the drug is chiefly
restricted to the lower and labouring classes, and
when gentlemen do, as they occasionally do, use
ganja, they do so secretly, there being some
stigma of disrepute attached to the practice.
28. A moderate consumer will take, say, two
chillums a day, say, ¼ tola, which would cost from
three pice to two annas in different districts. An
excessive consumer would get through at least
twice as much.
29. Only tobacco is mixed with ganja.
30. The drug is usually consumed in company.
It is much more usually consumed by men than
women. I have never heard of children using it.
31. A friend of mine (a former Deputy Com-
missioner in this province) tried the effect of one
pipe of ganja. He said that he had an extremely
disagreeable sense of giddiness and oppression
followed by violent headache. I believe this is
the usual effect, but that it disappears at the second
and third smoking. I do not think that the
craving for ganja is so strong as, for instance, the
opium habit. The possession of ganja is a much
less rare jail offence in this province than the illi-
cit possession of opium. Opium, on the other
hand, is more portable.
32. In Sylhet the Vishnuvites use ganja at all
their religious ceremonies. At the Bijoya Dasami
and the Sivaratri its use is imperative. On other
occasions it is optional, but the practice is com-
mon. A common mode of holding a ganja
carousal is for a number of men to meet for a
"Trinather Seba" (the worship of Mahadev).
This involves chanting of hymns, beating of
drums, and consumption of ganja during the live-
long night. There is also an obscene puja called
"Kishori Bhojan," in which both sexes take part.
In this I believe ganja is used. But this rite is
practised only by initiates, and with the utmost
secrecy. It is said to be extremely indecent.
On the Sivaratri and Bijoya Dasami days
many people who never touch ganja, bhang or
charas at any other time take a little bhang or
charas. In this case the rare indulgence does not
seem to start a habit, but the great body of ganja-
consumers are habitual consumers.
33. The hemp plant is not worshipped in
Assam, so far as I know. The habitual (and
open) use of ganja is restricted to the lower
classes, and is so far disreputable.
34. It would be a very serious privation to all
habitual consumers to deny them the use of the
drug. But our experience in jails and lunatic
asylums shows that the habit can be broken
within walls. A man who has no sufficient
strength of mind to abandon ganja is apt to
have relapses. I have known cases of this kind.
35. To prohibit the importation of ganja from
Rajshahi would be easy. The result would be
the increased use of the wild ganja, which is said
on doubtful authority to be less intoxicating.
There would be enormous discontent. But in
this matter Assam may be regarded as part of
Bengal. If it is possible to prohibit the use of
ganja in Eastern Bengal, then it is equally pos-
sible to do so in the precisely similar districts of
Sylhet, Cachar, and Goalpara. If the immigrant
population of Assam proper were to be deprived
of their supply, the result undoubtedly would be
an increased recourse to country spirits and opium.
There are, of course, many other drugs available,
such as dhatura.
36. I do not think that alcohol is taking the
place of hemp. Hemp is still a much cheaper
mode of getting intoxicated.
37 to 50. I would rather not answer these
questions. I have my views as to the effect of
ganja, but they are based on hearsay information,
and the Commission will no doubt have full and
complete details from medical men on these
points.
51. The only habitual criminals in the province
are the Musalman river dacoits of Sylhet, and
foreigners of bad character in other districts. All,
or nearly all, of these consume ganja habitually
and to excess.
52. See above.
53. I have known of cases in which the im-
moderate use of ganja among tea garden coolies
has brought about insane and unreasonable jealousy,
resulting in crimes of violence.
54. I cannot quote specific instances.
55. I know no instances.
56. I do not know.
57. Ganja and charas are rarely, if ever, eaten
or drunk in this province. But see above.
58. Our excise administration of ganja follows
that of Bengal. When our neighbour raises her
duty, we raise ours. The only branch of adminis-
tration as to which we have any doubt or difficulty
is that which relates to the number of licensed
shops. We have largely reduced the number of
shops of late years, as will be seen from the accom-
panying tables. The one drawback to doing this
is that we make the use of the wild hemp more
difficult to detect. The more vendors, the more
spies, on the illicit use of ganja. Of late the police
have bestirred themselves in investigating cases of
the illicit use of the wild plant. But even to this
day I have heard officers in charge of districts in
which the plant runs riot declare that it is un-
known to them. I cannot suggest any improve-