355
keeping. With ordinary care it keeps good for
about three years. To prevent deterioration water
should never be allowed to leak in.
19. Ganja is used not only for smoking, but it is
sometimes eaten also.
20. Bairagis, gosavis, fakirs, and others who
lead the life of pilgrims generally smoke ganja.
Some Rajputs and few Brahmins also smoke it.
In short, about 2 per cent. of the population smoke
ganja. The practice of smoking ganja is prevalent
throughout the province.
21. Flat ganja is generally in use, but chur is
also rarely used when flat ganja is not available.
23. Bhang is used for smoking when ganja is
not available. It is generally the pilgrims that
make use of bhang for smoking to a slight extent.
24. Those who drink bhang eat it also. The
practice of eating and drinking bhang is prevalent
throughout the province. Those classes of people
that smoke ganja eat and drink bhang also.
25. The use of ganja and bhang may be said to
be on the increase. Had it been otherwise, a large
quantity of hemp might have been lying idle year
after year. But this is not the case. All the
hemp that is produced in the province falls short of
yearly requirements, and to meet them a large
quantity of it is imported also. Again the import
trade of hemp is on the increase, and the excise
farmers bid higher at the auction every year. This
shows that the number of ganja or bhang consum-
ers cannot hut be on the increase.
26. The proportion of habitual moderate con-
sumers of ganja to the habitual excessive occasion-
al moderate and occasional excessive consumers of
it is as 5, 2, 3, and 1, and in case of bhang it is as
4, 2, 3, and 1.
27. Gosavis, bairagis, and fakirs are habitual
moderate and excessive consumers; while Brahmins
and Rajputs are occasional moderate and excessive
consumers. The lazy and careless use these drugs.
28. The average cost of ganja or bhang per
diem to the habitual moderate consumers is one
anna, to the excessive consumers four annas.
29. Tobacco is ordinarily mixed with ganja when
it is used for smoking, and dhatura exceptionally.
The other ingredients are given in my answer to
the question No. 15.
30. The consumption of ganja or bhang is prac-
tised in company to a slight extent, but in soli-
tude to a considerable extent. It is mainly con-
fined to adult males. It is not usual for children
to consume ganja or bhang.
31. As vice has more false charms than virtue,
the human nature, being frail, easily falls under the
clutches of the former ; and as ganja or bhang is a
vice, the habit of consuming it is easily formed.
There is also a tendency in the case of ganja and
bhang for the moderate habit to develop into the
excessive.
32. On the Maha Shivaratri day a few people of
the higher classes drink bhang. This custom has
a religious aspect, but it is not regarded as essential.
Though it is temperate at the beginning, it is likely
to lead in the long run to the formation of habit.
33. The consumption of ganja and bhang is
regarded as a vice, because it blunts the mental fa-
culties, and therefore it is generally in disrepute.
34. To forego the consumption of ganja or
bhang is not a serious privation to any class of con-
sumers. It is a luxury to take to its use, and has
no beneficial effects on the constitution.
35. It is feasible to prohibit the use of ganja
vol. vii
and bhang. These drugs will never be used illicitly.
The cultivation of hemp should be at once stopped,
as the poppy cultivation is stopped. The prohibition
will not cause any serious discontent among the
consumers, and will not therefore amount to a poli-
tical danger. The prohibition will be followed by
a recourse to tobacco, but not to alcoholic stimu-
lants.
36. There is no reason to suppose that alcohol
is now being substituted for ganja or bhang.
38. Flat ganja is little more strong than "chur"
ganja.
39. The smoking of ganja is more injurious than
eating or drinking it (ganja is sometimes used as
bhang) ; for to smoke is to inhale the gas that is
produced, which seriously affects the breast and
produces cough. It affects the brains also, and
makes the consumer senseless.
40. In nervous diseases the use of ganja is pre-
scribed by some native doctors. It is also used
in cattle diseases.
41. The moderate habitual use of ganja and
bhang is beneficial in its effects so far as it gives
staying-power under severe exertion or exposure, or
alleviates fatigue and acts like a prevention of dis-
ease in malarious and unhealthy tracts. In no
other way it can be said beneficial.
42. The moderate habitual use of ganja and
bhang is not harmless. It impairs the constitution
and makes the man lazy and careless. It causes
asthma in the long run .
43. Moderate consumers are generally inoffen-
sive to their neighbours.
44. To the habitual consumers the moderate use
of ganja and bhang is little refreshing and does not
produce intoxication. It neither allays hunger nor
creates appetite. These effects last only for a
couple of hours. The want of subsequent gratifi-
cation produces longing and uneasiness, but not so
much as in case of other narcotic drugs or alcoholic
stimulants.
45. The habitual moderate use of ganja and
bhang produces noxious effects (physical, mental
and moral). It impairs the constitution ; injures
the digestion, causes loss of appetite, causes asthma,
deadens the intellect, and produces slight insanity,
which is of a temporary character. The symptoms
of insanity may be re-induced by the use of these
drugs after liberation from restraint.
46. In case of excessive habitual consumers the
effects referred. to in my answer to question No.
45, take place earlier, while in case of habitual
moderate consumers they take a longer time.
47. As children generally follow in the footsteps
of their parents when they become of age, so the
children of the moderate consumer are affected to
an imperceptible degree at least.
48. The above remarks hold good in the case of
habitual excessive use also.
49. The moderate use of ganja and bhang is
practised as an aphrodisiac. The use for this pur-
pose is more injurious than their use as an ordinary
narcotic, because in the long run it tends to produce
impotency.
50. In case of excessive use the effects are more
serious.
53. The excessive indulgence in ganja and bhang
incites a man to commit acts of violence.
54. To fortify themselves to commit a premedi-
tated act of violence criminals do not use these
drugs.
3 B 2