31
yakuti, etc., are rarely prepared and sold. Charas
is not used in this district.
20.All classes of people resort to ganja smok
-
ing. But bairagis, sadhus, gosains, hakims and
men of the mendicant class and ascetics use ganja
for smoking throughout the district. Smoking
is not confined to any locality.
21.Generally flat ganja is used for smoking.
"Chur," which in this part of the country is call
-
ed bhang, is also used for smoking by the poorer
classes.
22.Charas is not used in this district.
23.Bhang is used also, as stated above, for the
purpose of smoking. Such use is not confined to
any locality. It is used by the poorer people as
being cheaper than ganja.
24. In answering this question I must state
that, unlike Upper India, where real bhang is
available, ganja is used for making confections,
such as majum, yakuti, etc., and the so-called
bhang is used here for drinking. The proportion
of the people using the eatables to those who
drink bhang is about the same.
25.Statistics available do not show that the
use of ganja and bhang is increasing. The figures
supplied by the farmers of the drug, and those
obtained from official records, do not show a ten
-
dency towards any noticeable increase in consump
- tion.
26.Statistics are not available, as under the
present system of keeping accounts at shops for
sale of intoxicating drugs, no record is kept of the
number of persons purchasing ganja and its pre
-
parations. Taking, however, the average allowance
of ganja which an habitual moderate consumer
requires daily, as also the quantity of ganja sold
in the year, it appears that in the Poona district
there are 2,630 habitual moderate consumers of
ganja and about 130 habitual excessive consumers
of it. It is not possible to give the number for
either occasional moderate or occasional exces
-
sive consumers of ganja. It is very rare that
ganja is smoked occasionally. The relative pro
-
portion of consumers of the sweetened drugs and
the consumers of the drink preparations is so
small that it would be difficult to fix the number
of consumers of the various preparations of ganja
and bhang. The average proportions are noted in
my reply to question 34.
27.I am unable to give the proportions of
classes of persons using the drugs. All classes
use them, but gosains, fakirs, bairagis and other
people of the mendicant classes use the drugs as
habitual moderate or excessive consumers. Their
habits of life and their pilgrimages lead to the
habitual use of the drugs, especially that of ganja
smoking and gota-drinking, in order to enable
them to bear climatic changes and to endure
fatigue.
28.The average allowance and cost per diem of
ganja to habitual moderate consumers and to habi
-
t u a l e x c e s s i v e c o n s u m e r s i s o n e a n d t w o t o l a s
weight and one and two annas respectively per
head. The average daily allowance and cost of
bhang per head is (3 and 6 mashas) 45 and 90
grains, valued at 3 and 6 pice respectively.
29.Tobacco is ordinarily mixed with ganja
when the latter is used for smoking; and sugar,
milk, cardamoms and mace are used for making
up the beverage called ghota from bhang. The
narcotic preparations from ganja have been de
-
scribed above. The object of this admixture is to
give a flavour to the preparations, and also to lessen
to some extent the narcotic properties of the pre
-
parations. Dhatura is not so used in this part of
the country as far as my information goes. The
bhang "massala" consists of a conserve of black
pepper, aniseed, almonds, cardamoms, mace, rose
buds, sugar, etc. This massala is used for making
up yakuti and shrikhand.
30.The extent cannot be precisely stated, but
I learn that ganja and bhang are consumed more
in company than in solitude except in the case of
gosains and ascetics practising religious austerities,
who habitually smoke ganja. The consumption is
mostly confined to the male sex. The habit is
said to be usually contracted in adult age.
Women and children are not found to use the
drugs. Prostitutes are said, however, to use them
occasionally.
31.The habit of consuming these drugs is easily
formed, and once formed, it is difficult to break
off. There is, I learn, no tendency in the case of
any of these drugs for the moderate habit to de
- velop into the excessive. There are, however,
cases of moderate consumers having developed
into excessive consumers. There is, however,
nothing inherent in the drug to lead to such
results. An ordinary smoker is satisfied with two
smokes of ganja a day, while the excessive has
several.
32.On fast days it is usual to use the drugs
more than otherwise. During the Maha Shivara
-
tra festivities which occur in the month of (Magh)
February, bhang is much more used. The beve
-
rage called gota is drunk by all classes of men.
The use of this drug in connection with this
period of festivity is not regarded as essential;
but as Maha Shivaratra is kept as the greatest fast
day in the year, men resort to the beverage to
counteract the effects of fasting, and to stimulate
personal activity and merry-making. The beve
-
rage is, however, used moderately, and is not un
-
wholesome or injurious. It does not lead to the
formation of the habit, as large numbers of people
use the beverage only once in the year, and do not
think of using it again until the following year.
33.The consumption of each of these drugs is
regarded differently. While ganja smoking is
looked upon as a disreputable habit, bhang drinking
is not so regarded. The reason appears to be that
the former habit is generally confined to the lower
classes, idlers and labourers, while the latter is
tolerated or countenanced by the better classes in
which the well-to-do indulge not infrequently in
drinking gota. As far as I can learn, the hemp
plant is not worshipped in this part of the country.
The use of majum, yakuti, is not held in much
disrepute.
34.It would be a serious privation to habitual
consumers to forego the consumption of ganja
and bhang. When the habit is formed, it is
difficult to break off. The consumer will always
long for the narcotic and he will not readily bear
the privation. The smoker must have his ganja
and the drinking man his bhang. I have not
been able to get any reliable information regarding
the number of men who use the different pre
-
parations of the hemp plant; but from the sales
of such of the preparations as are recorded by the
various vendors in the city and the cantonment
of Poona, it would appear that in every hundred
consumers of the hemp plant narcotics, there are
about 90.4 ganja smokers, 2.4 majum eaters, l.9
yakuti eaters and as many shrikhand and gulkand
eaters, and about 1.5 bhang drinking men. The
total number of persons using ganja and its