362
23. Bhang is never smoked. Penniless beggars,
when they fail to procure charas and. ganja, do
sometimes use bhang for smoking, but the intoxi
-cation produced is very slight : still it affords a tem
-porary satisfaction. This is rarely done in places
where ganja cannot be had.
28. A moderate consumer can drink bhang from
3 mashas to 1 tola at a time. Ganja and
charas too can be smoked in similar quantities.
Government contractors supply a tola of bhang for
two pies. Where there is no contract, it can be
had gratis. Government Contractors charge an
anna per tola for ganja and three annas per tola
for charas. Where there is no contract, ganja can
be had at three pies per tola, and charas at six pies
per tola. Excessive consumers can drink a quarter
seer of bhang at a time, and can smoke five tolas
of ganja or charas during the whole day.
29. Moderate consumers mix sonf, kasni, rose
flowers, cucumber seeds, coriander, almonds, and
black pepper with bhang in summer, and in winter
nutmeg, mace, saffron, pepper, almonds, pista,
etc. Nobles sometimes add musk and amber
to the above. Excessive consumers mix dhatura
seeds. Charas and ganja smokers mix raw or
prepared tobacco with them. Opium is never
mixed with any of these drugs. By mixing the
bhang with butter and sugar they prepare majum
sometimes to render the intoxication excessive.
Dhatura seeds are also mixed, especially in Native
States. Nux-vomica, opium, kaneer, cantharides,
and betel-nut are never mixed. with these drugs in
this part of the country. If mixed, they render
the mixture better. Gulkand is prepared by mix
-ing bhang, butter, rose flowers and sugar-candy.
Yakuti is made by mixing mava (condensed boiled
milk), sugar, almonds, pista, raisins, and rose or
keora waters. To obtain bhang butter they have to
boil bhang leaves with milk ; then the milk is turned
into curd and churned. The butter thus obtained
is used in majum and other preparations.
30. These drugs are sometimes used in loneliness,
but generally in company. Nearly 80 per cent. of
the consumers use them in company. Males of all
ages use them. Such of the females as prostitutes
and those that keep drug shops do sometimes use
them in the company of male consumers. Other
women do sometimes, but rarely drink bhang and
eat yakuti or majum on Holi or marriage occa
-sions. But females, except the wives of sadhus
and sakins, never smoke ganja or charas. Boys of
ten or twelve years of age do sometimes drink bhang
on Holi. In dancing parties on Hob and marriage
occasions people sometimes distribute majum.
31. The habit of consuming these drugs can easily
be formed by using them in company for some time.
It can be easily broken off. Those who break off
have to suffer pain in the limbs and sometimes in
the whole body, and have to yawn constantly for
three days. Water flows from the eyes, appetite
diminishes, and the person suffers from constipa
-tion. After the expiration of the said period the
person feels no desire for these drugs. This can
be done in the case of both the ,moderate and ex
-cessive consumers. There is no tendency in any of
these drugs for the moderate habit to develop into
the excessive.
32. On the Holi and Shivaratri festivals the
drinking of bhang is looked upon as a religious
, a n d i n m a r r i a g e s a n d e n t e r t a i n m e n t s a s a s o c i a l
custom. It is generally temperate and does not
lead to form a habit.
36. No.
37. The effects of charas are felt inimediately
after smoking ; that of ganja some five minutes after.
Bhang brings on intoxication a quarter of an hour
after drinking, and it lasts for more than six hours.
The intoxication created by charas lasts an hour,
and that of ganja 30 or 40 minutes. Bhang
excites appetite ; charas and ganja diminish it.
Charas and. ganja smoking creates warmth. Ex
- c e s s i v e s m o k i n g s o m e t i m e s b r i n g s o n s e n s e l e s s n e s s .
Bhang is aphrodisiac.
39. Please see reply to question No. 23.
40. Vaids, hakims and native doctors do pre
- s c r i b e t h e u s e o f t h e s e d r u g s o n a c c o u n t o f t h e i r
medicinal properties for dysentery, diarrhoea, cholera,
want of sound sleep, hydrophobia, spermatorrhœa,
tetanus, neuralgia, delirium, and rheumatic affec
-tions. These drugs also remove fatigue. When
an elephant suffers from agunbai, the symptoms of
which are trembling of the body, hasty perspira
-tion, sores in throat and excessive warmth in the
body, native doctors prescribe bhang. If not
attended to immediately, the elephant dies within
three hours. The administration of bhang with
other medicines thrice cures the animal. When
the elephant becomes must and lustful and. does not
eat, bhang with other medicines proves very effec
-tive. A camel can be cured of tetanus by giving
him on three alternate days—bhang a quarter seer,
sugar one seer, oil one-and-half seer. Bhang is
sometimes given to a horse in the ease of stomach
-ache or for removing fatigue. It is never given to
buffaloes, cows, bullocks and goats. Ganja and
charas are never prescribed. on account of their
medicinal properties.
41. The moderate use of bhang is beneficial in
its effects (a) as a food. accessory ; (b) to alleviate
fatigue ; (c) it is aphrodisiac. Charas and. ganja
give temporary staying-power under severe exertion
or exposure and alleviate fatigue. They serve as
febrifuge or preventive of disease in malarious
tracts.
42. The moderate use of bhang may be harmless,
but not its excessive use.
44. The use of these drugs is not refreshing.
The other advantages and. disadvantages have
already been explained in the other answer. After
the intoxication is over the consumer feels dull and
lazy, his limbs ache, and he suffers from constipa
-tion and want of appetite. The want of subse
-quent gratification produces a longing and. un
-easiness.
45. The habitual moderate use of bhang does not
produce any noxious effects, physical, mental, or
moral, but that of ganja and charas does. Ganja
and charas smoking impair the constitution, injure
the digestion, and cause loss of appetite, but the
moderate use of bhang does not. Ganja and charas
smoking impairs the moral sense and induces lazi
-ness, but not habits of debauchery. But bhang
creates a habit of debauchery. The use of these
drugs deadens the intellect and produces insanity.
Their effects are exciting and. not predisposing cause
of insanity. They bring on melancholia and mo
-nomania. The insanity is temporary, and flue
symptoms may be re-induced by use of the drug.
Insanes do admit the use of the drug. The moder
-ate use of bhang does afford relief to mental
anxiety. A porter, named Karim Bux, of Ajmeie,
aged 30 years, ran mad by the excessive use of ganja
and charas. He returned. to the lunatic asylum no
less than fifteen or twenty times, and at last died
in the asylum. He admitted that, owing to weak
-ened intellect, after liberation from restraint, he
could not exercise self-control and keep himself
from the further use of the drugs.
46. Excessive consumers of these drugs get very
thin. Their lungs do not work well, and they soon