319
heat or moisture ; to prevent deterioration they
should be kept in underground cells.
19. Ganja alone is used for smoking. Charas is
not available in the district, and therefore not used.
Smoking ganja is prevalent everywhere, although
on a very small scale.
20. The smoking of ganja is not restricted to
particular classes of people. It is smoked by any
class. The proportion of the smoking class is very
difficult to ascertain. In every place and in every
class, people are found to have been addicted to
smoking. The number of persons smoking ganja
may, however, be ascertained from the quantity of
ganja sold in the district.
The quantity of ganja sold during the past nine
years, as ascertained from figures obtained from the
Deputy Commissioner's office, will be seen from the
following figures:—
Year.
M a u n s s .
1884-85
50
1885-86
65
1886-87
92
1887 -88
80
1888-89
87
1889-90
78
1890-91
...
.
83
1891-92
67
1892-93
69
Total for nine years is 673, average being 75
maunds.
This average of 75 maunds, at the rate of
1/2 tola of ganja per consumer per day, will sufiice for
1,315 persons for one year. The total population
of the district is 481,021. The proportion of the
consumers of ganja will therefore be 3 per cent,
of population, which appears to be very trifling.
21. The flat ganja alone is available, and there-
fore it is alone used in the district for smoking
purposes.
22. No charas is available in the district,
whether native or foreign.
23. Bhang is never used for smoking.
24. The use of bhang is not restricted to any
particular classes of people. It is generally used for
eating purposes, especially by Pardeshis or persons
from Upper India, who have come to Berar to gain
their livelihood, the proportion of whom cannot be
ascertained. The drinker of bhang will be found
more or less in almost all the classes of people and
places.
25. The use of ganja and bhang appears to be,
of late, on the decrease. From the figures given
in the reply to question No. 20 the total consump-
tion of the drug during the past two years is far
below the average consumption of the past nine
years. The habit of smoking ganja or drinking
bhang is considered by the better classes of people
to be very degrading, and therefore less addicted to,
27. The principal classes of people from which
the habitual or occasional moderate or excessive
consumers of the hemp drug are taken, are the Par-
deshis, the bairagis and the gosavis.
The Pardeshis are generally the immigrants
from Upper India, who have come to Berar for
their livelihood. Their principal object is to earn
money to be enjoyed by them after their return to
their homes. They often try to live within as
small an amount as possible, eating their meals
once in twenty-four hours, In order to avoid the
feeling of such privations they resort to the habit
of bhang eating.
Bairagis and gosavis, who as such are said to
enounce all the worldly cares, often addict them-
elves to the use of smoking ganja that they may
not feel the absence of worldy blessings which they
are, by their profession, compelled to renounce.
This they can effect by being always under the in-
fluence of narcotic hemp drug.
28. The average allowance of ganja per day to a
habitual moderate consumer is said to be half a tola,
while that of bhang to be one quarter tola. The
average allowance of ganja to a habitual excessive
consumer is said to be three tolas per day, while
that of bhang to be one tola.
29. The question is partly answered in reply
to question No. 15. Dhatura (stramonium seed),
bachnag (aconite), koochala (nux vomica) are also
mixed with the hemp drug to increase intoxication.
The preparation called bhang massala is not sold
as such. The ingredients thereof are partly given
in reply to question No. 15.
30. The two drugs, viz., ganja and bhang, are
generally consumed in solitude. Very few in-
stances will be noticed in which the drug is con-
sumed in company. The drug is mainly used by
the male sex, although some few prostitutes may
sometimes be found using the drug. The drug is
never used by children.
31. The habit of consuming the hemp drug,
especially ganja, can be very easily formed ; and
when once formed it is very difficult to get rid of
it. It is said that there is a general tendency in
the ease of ganja smoking alone for the moderate
habit to develop into the excessive, which is not
the case with bhang eating or drinking.
32. Of the three forms of the great Trinity,
Shiva, the destroyer, was considered to be addicted
to ganja and bhang intoxications. His worship-
pers on each Shivaratri day, which is assigned to
the deity, indulge themselves in drinking bhang.
This custom is regarded by the devotees of Shiva
to be essential.
During the Shimga holidays people drink bhang
ghota as a cooling draught.
The above customs have, of late, been much
neglected, but they were never found to lead to the
formation of any habit.
33. The consumption of the two drugs is socially
or even religiously regarded as degrading. I am
not aware of any public opinion in regard to the
practice, but I do consider the use of any form of
the narcotic to be in disrepute on the ground that
the use of it, though moderate at first, leads after
a time to a habit. The habit leads to an ex-
cess, and thus the consumer ultimately becomes
unable to give it up.
The moderate use of bhang alone may conduce
to good health, but for the above reason the use of
the drug is in itself to be condemned.
I am not aware of the custom of worshipping
the hemp plant.
34. It would be a serious privation, I think, to
the consumer to forego the consumption of the
drug. The habit of consuming the drug itself is
such as cannot be left at once, and if so left, the
consumer is sure to feel much for it and to be for a
time madlike and dispirited.
As explained in answer to question No. 20, the
consumers are estimated to be 1,315 ; of these I
estimate three -fourths to be consumers of bhang and
one-fourth those of ganja.
35. It would be feasible to prohibit the use of the
two drugs, ganja and bhang, but it should be done
gradually in order to avoid discontent and priva-
tion, which would otherwise be the result. But if
the prohibition of the use of the drug be enforced
at once, we naturally must expect the illicit con-