402
(d) I do not know in any other way. I
am informed that 20 per cent. higher
class of people use bhang for the above
purposes and 90 per cent. of lower class
of people smoke ganja in unhealthy
places. I refer to moderate occasional
use in regard to bhang and to moderate
habitual use in regard to ganja.
42. Nil.
43. As far as I am aware, moderate consumers
of ganja, bhang and charas are inoffensive to
their neighbours.
44. The effect of the moderate use of bhang,
charas and ganja, I am told, is refreshing. It
produces a little intoxication. Smoking of ganja
allays hunger. Drinking of bhang moderately
creates hunger. The effects of ganja last for
about three or four hours, and that of bhang
about 12 hours. I am not aware if the want of
subsequent gratification produces any longing or
uneasiness.
45. In my humble opinion habitual moderate
use of these drugs does not produce any noxious
effects, physical, mental, or moral. But when it
goes to excess, the effect is quite the reverse.
This answer refers to question 46 also.
179. Evidence of BABU JAGAT KISHOR ACHARJEA CHAUDHURI, Brahmin,
Zamindar, Muktagacha, District
Mymensingh.
1. Being a zamindar in Mymensingh District
and having occasion of touring almost all over
it, I had direct intercourse with every class of
people and had opportunity of acquiring person-
al experience about their habit of life and
matters connected with the hemp drugs, in
regard to which my answers are framed.
2. These definitions may be accepted for the
district. Except flat ganja no other sort is
known here. By the term bhang it is understood
by this district people to be the dried leaves of
a different kind of plant called bhang that grows
up spontaneously all over the district, specially
in hill quarters. It is not clear, as defined,
whether these bhang plants are same as male
ganja plants. Charas is only known here by
name, but seldom used.
3. I do not know of any district where hemp
(ganja) grows spontaneously.
4. I do not know of any other name by which
ganja is called by the district people, though it
has so many names in Sanskrit Lexicon.
5. I have no knowledge of what sort of climate,
soil, rainfall, elevation that favour the growth
of wild hemp.
6. I have no information about the matter.
7. Hemp (ganja) is said to be cultivated in
certain parts of the Mymensingh District border-
ing the river Jamuna.
8. I have not much information about the
matters in question.
9. I do not know much of the matters as
asked in this question.
10. I have, not much knowledge about the mat-
ters in question.
11. Ganja plants can be propagated from
the seeds that are found in flat ganja.
12. I have no knowledge about the matters,
as referred in this question.
13. I have no information about ganja be-
yond the district I live in.
14. (a) Ganja is not prepared in this district
in a big scale.
(b) Chara is not at all prepared in Mymen-
singh.
(c) Bhang, as stated in my answer No. 2,
is used by a very small majority, but it is not
prepared as understood by the term. Some use
the broken fragments of ganja which are sold by
licensed ganja vendors. It is called patti or chur.
15. Ganja is generally smoked. Majum and
other confectionery preparations of it are eaten,
Both bhang and patti are drunk in shape of
sherbet.
16. People generally prepare bhang in their own
houses. It can also be prepared from leaves of
ganja plants. I don't know any other plant
from which ganja or charas can be prepared.
17. There are no particular classes that make
preparations of hemp drugs.
18. Bhang and ganja, when grown old, lose
their intoxicating power, and they grow useless
after a year or so. It is said that damp and
exposure deteriorate the intoxicating essence of
bhang and ganja. Charas does not deteriorate
so rapidly. It remains effective for years if not
exposed to damp. Charas is also medicinally
used.
19. I do not know whether ganja and charas
are used other ways in general, besides smoking,
though sometimes majum and other intoxicating
confections are prepared by ganja. It is said that
dhatura is sometimes mixed with ganja and put
into it to make it more strongly intoxicating.
20. It is generally believed that more than half
of the labouring section of the community and
artizans mostly smoke ganja as a refreshment,
either to stimulate them to the hard work they
undergo in sun and rain or to drown their wearied
limbs to repose. And now-a-days ganja-smoking
has become almost general among those classes of
people without any distinction of locality.
21. Flat ganja is sold in this district, and the
people have no idea of other kinds besides it.
22. Charas is not much known in this district,
and it is seldom used by this district people.
23. Bhang, as understood by this district people,
is never smoked, but only used by a few in form
of sherbet.
24. Especially the up-country people that reside
in this district are addicted to the use of bhang as
a drink, and there is no particular locality where
bhang is drunk.
25. The use of ganja is, I believe, on the in-
crease among the labouring classes, who find it a
cheap refreshment or luxury to indulge upon.
26. (a) It is difficult to state exactly the pro-
portion, but I believe that almost seven-sixteenths
of the labouring population are habitual moderate
consumers of ganja, and among other classes the
proportion of ganja consumers will not exceed
three-thirty-second part of those classes of people.