154
Cannabis causes mirthful delirium, causeless fits
of laughter, dilatation of the pupils and halluci-
nations, whereas alcohol leads to contraction of
the pupils, furious excitement and more marked
unsteadiness of gait.
By smoking ganja and charas, mental, diges-
tive, and consequently the physical, powers of
the body are impaired. In extreme cases it leads
to melancholy, impotence and dropsy.
Smoking is more injurious thin eating.
European doctors prescribe extract and tincture
of ganja in cases of diarrhœa, dysentery, asthma,
gleet, tetanus, etc. Native Vaidyas prescribe
ganja and its preparations in some of the above
maladies. Native physicians are known to use
ganja in cattle diseases.
Habitual moderate use of these drugs is, I think,
not beneficial to the digestive system, but it does
give some staying- power under severe exertion ;
it does not serve as a febrifuge or preventive of
malaria.
Habitual use of this drug, however moderate,
does in no way do good to the human system.
Moderate use of ghota, a preparation of bhang,
slightly aids digestion, but taken in excess it
produces injurious effects.
Moderate consumers are inoffensive to their
neighbours.
The immediate effect of moderate use is invigor-
ating and refreshing. It excites hunger.
Habitual use of ganja and charas impairs the
constitution and injures digestion, but I think it
does not cause dysentery, bronchitis or asthma.
It impairs the moral sense, and brings on laziness,
Ganja smoking weakens mental powers and causes
insanity in many cases, which is rarely permanent.
The habit is not inherited.
It is used as an aphrodisiac. It is used by
some prostitutes. It is said to produce impotence.
Moderate use of the drug does not lead a person
to commit crime.
Excessive use of the drug leads to temporary homicidal frenzy.
77. Evidence of KHAN BAHADUR DOSSABROY PESTONJEE, Parsi, Assistant
Surgeon, Parakh Dispensary, Surat, and Honorary Assistant Surgeon to
His Excellency the Viceroy.
1. I am medical officer in charge of the Pa-
rakh Dispensary at Surat, and besides I have had
extensive private practice amongst the inhabit-
ants and operatives of mills in this city.
2. In India, so in the district of Surat, there
are three narcotic articles that are naturally ob-
tained from hemp. The three articles are ( i )
siddhi bhang,' ( ii) ganja, and ( iii) charas. There
are three different names for siddhi, viz ., bhang,
sabzi or myapani, the word patti being quite un-
known in Guzerat.
Charas is a greenish-brown, moist, resinous
mass and consists of resin mixed sometimes with
fragments of the leaves. Bhang consists of
dried leaves in the form of coarse powder with
peculiar odour characteristic of its narcotic prin-
ciples. Ganja is the name given to the flowering
tops of the female plant. There are three varieties,
but only two are known in Guzerat ( i) the flat
ganja, and (ii) the broken ganja.
Yes, these definitions may be accepted for the
province of Guzerat. Each of these products is
locally known as ( i) bhang, charas, and (iii)
ganja.
19. Ganja and charas are for the most part used
for smoking, but some people use ganja leaves
for eating with the object of producing its effects
without taking the trouble of cleaning it and
smoking it in a pipe.
23. To my knowledge bhang is never used for
smoking to produce intoxication.
28. The average allowance and cost of each of
these drugs depend upon the habit of the consumer
of taking it once or twice a day, and the locality in
which the drugs are grown and easily obtainable.
(a) The dose is one tola or two drachms,
and the cost one pice.
(b) The dose is three tolas or 6 drachms,
and the cost from one to two annas.
29. With some inveterate smokers of ganja it
is the practice sometimes to mix dhatura and
opium for the purpose of smoking, the object being
to intensify the effects of intoxication at compara-
tively less cost.
Yes, there is a preparation which is ordinarily
called bhang massala, and which consists of the
following ingredients : —Pepper, almonds, poppy
seeds, sugar, and pistachio seeds. Another prepa-
ration called majum consists of sugar, butter, flour,
milk and bhang.
30. The consumption of each of these drugs is
generally practised in solitude except in the case
of charas, which is invariably smoked in shops and
in the company of habitual comrades. The con-
sumption of these articles is mainly confined to
the male sex, except in the case of bhang, which
is used in the form of drink by some low caste
females, and generally by prostitutes.
31. The habit is easily formed and very difficult
to break off. A confirmed consumer of ganja will
smoke it with the sale of all his belongings, and
it is particularly with this drug that there is a
peculiar tendency for the moderate habit to develop
into the excessive.
32. It is customary at weddings, amongst a
class of people called the Ghauchees and fishermen,
to partake of a little quantity of bhang before
commencing their meals for the purpose of pro
¬ d u c i n g e x c i t e m e n t a n d e x h i l a r a t i o n , a n d t h e u s e
in such cases is generally temperate, and there is
no reason to believe that such temporary use of
the drug leads to the formation of any confirmed
habit or desire. Bhang is offered at the shrine of
" Mahadeb," the votaries not partaking it.
36. I am of opinion that alcohol has gradually
superseded the use of any of these drugs, on
account of the greater facility in obtaining it, and
the surreptitious and secret manner in which it
could be obtained for ready use.
37. I have had no experience of the effects of
charas smoking, which is wholly practised in shops
at Bombay. The effects produced by the drinking
of bhang are of a mild exhilarant character, and
free from any tendency to commit violence or self-
destruction, Charas is not used in this district.