173
I don't think any particular class has any pre-
ferential liking as to any particular mode of using
it. Some smoke some use it as a beverage, and
others eat it in the shape of sweetmeat, such as
majum, yakuti, etc., etc., just to suit their indi-
vidual taste and convenience.
Bhang is not smoked.
The use of these narcotics does not seem to be
on the increase in this district.
Vicious habits of life, bad associations, imita-
tions, urban life, indolence, want of other accus-
tomed stimuli, etc., lead to the use of the drug.
Minimum cost is a pice or two per diem for the
habitual moderate consumer, and from 2 to 6
annas is the maximum cost for an habitual exces-
sive consumer.
I don't believe dhatura is ever mixed with it to
enhance its effects.
The male sex generally use the drug. A few
females also use it. It is not given to children,
especially in this part of the country.
The habit is easily formed and when once
formed, it is very difficult to leave it off.
I don't think it feasible to prohibit the use of
the drug. Moral instructions may have a prohi-
bitive effect.
Ganja smoker is generally quiet, while a drunk-
ard is very boisterous, mischievous and smells of
the liquor.
Both are injurious to the health in like degree.
I believe both the smoking and eating of the
drug are injurious.
The drug is used medicinally both by native
and European practitioners. It is used also in
cattle diseases.
The moderate use of the drug when used medi-
cinally does have a beneficial effect, but as a habit
it is not beneficial.
(a) Ganja increases appetite, and aids diges-
tion to a certain extent when used medicinally.
(b) It does have some staying-power under severe
exertion. It may have prohibitive effect against
exposure.
(c) I don't think it is a prophylactic against
malaria.
(d) It is only good as a medicine.
I consider even its moderate use is harmful, as
it affects the brain and by degrees leads to its ex
-
cessive use.
The moderate consumers are generally inoffen-
sive to their neighbours.
The immediate effect of its moderate use is
intoxicating, exhilarating and refreshing. It ex-
cites hunger. Its after-effects are laziness, erratic
habits, mental aberration and cough.
It does produce dry cough eventuating in
bronchitis, asthma, but it does not seem to produce
dysentery so far as my experience goes. Its long
continued use diminishes the quantity of blood in
the system, that it produces anæmia. It does im-
pair moral sense, induce laziness, and leads to
habits of debauchery. It does produce insanity of a
permanent character to an appreciable extent.
I have no data to say that the habit is inherited.
It is used as an aphrodisiac. It does not seem
to produce impotency, but a long continued and
excessive use is likely to bring on impotence.
Some prostitutes use it.
Bad livers do use the drug, but its moderate
use is not likely to lead to crime.
To my knowledge the use of the drug has not
produced, in any case, homicidal frenzy.
91. Evidence of GANESH KRISHNA GARDE, * Brahmin, Medical Practitioner,
Poona City.
1. A medical practice extended over a period
of fifteen years and a special study of the subject
from botanical, pharmaceutical, physiological and
sanitary points of view have afforded me many
opportunities of obtaining the necessary informa-
tion.
2. Yes, the same names are applied to these
products in this province.
3. In many districts of this presidency the
hemp plant is occasionally found growing spon-
taneously, but not abundantly.
4. The female plant (called erroneously nar or
male by people) is known as ganja, and the male
plant (very rarely found wild and never cultivated
in this province, and erroneously termed madi or
female) is called bhange-che-jhad. These names
always refer to the same plant.
5. Wild hemp is known to grow in all tem-
perate and tropical regions with a moderate rainfall
and from the level of the sea up to an elevation of
10,000 feet.
6. Scattered in this province.
7. It is cultivated chiefly in Khandesh, Ahmed-
nagar and Sholapur districts of this presidency,
and to a very small extent in Poona, Satara,
Surat, Broach and Nasik districts for the produc-
tion of ganja only.
8. Recently there has, been a considerable de-
crease in the area under hemp cultivation on
account of great restrictions placed on the cultiva-
tion, preparation, and sale of the drug by Govern-
ment.
9. The soil selected for the purpose is a light
sandy loam or rich black soil free from the shade
of large trees. It is ploughed eight or ten times in
April, and after thus freeing it from all weeds it is
manured with cowdung. After setting in of the
rains the ploughing is again repeated and the soil
thrown into ridges a foot high, the furrows being
a foot in breadth. The seedlings, which are reared
for the purpose in a nursery, are transplanted on
the ridges prepared for their reception six or eight
inches apart from each other. The preparation of
the nursery generally commences at the end of
May after the first shower of rain, and by
the end of September the seedlings are six or
twelve inches high and are then ready for trans-
plantation. About four or five seers of seed are
necessary for every bigha of land to be cultivated
with hemp. The plants are trimmed in November.
This operation consists in lopping off the lower
* Was deputed as a delegate by the Poona Sarvajanik Sabha.