28
53. Unpremeditated crimes, violent or otherwise,
are in my opinion incapable of being committed
by persons given up to excessive indulgence in
these drugs. I have never known an instance of
a murder committed by a person whose temper
was excited by the use of ganja or bhang. For
the hemp does not deprive a man totally of his
senses, and so much of sensibility is left in him as
to make him distinguish between a good and a
bad act. During my service as Assistant Col
- l e c t o r i n t h e d i s t r i c t s o f t h e D e c c a n a n d G u j a r a t ,
and latterly in Konkan, I never came across a
single instance of murder committed under its
influence. If murders are at all committed by a
person after smoking ganja, I cannot believe it
may be considered to be in any way influenced by
its use.
54. N o . I h a v e g i v e n r e a s o n s i n d e t a i l t o s h o w
how the hemp does not fortify a man to do any
active deed. It is merely a passive agent for
keeping up spirits and confining a man's energies
to any work in a limited groove to which one is
accustomed. For when one is habituated to the
use of ganja or bhang, the ordinary routine
business of even the ordinarily employed is at a
stop without it. Criminality is certainly beyond
the pale of ordinary routine, however habitual an
offence may become, and the tact and astuteness
that are required to be exercised by the criminal
cannot be mustered by the use of these drugs.
55. Ganja and bhang in their pure state are
not generally employed by criminals in inducing
their victims to partake of them to further their
criminal designs. Ganja is sometimes used where
the victims happen to be tobacco-smokers, a little
strong powder being adulterated with tobacco
while being placed in the pipe. To those who do
not smoke the criminals administer bhang in the
shape of preparations called "majum," a sweet-
meat preparation, pleasant enough to eat. But
neither of these drugs is sufficient to deprive the
victims completely of their senses, but only to an
extent sufficient to make them powerless to resist.
It is only in extreme cases that I have heard of
instances of some of the spurious bairagis using
bhang admixtured in dhatura for inducing com
-
plete unconsciousness with the object latterly of
committing serious crimes, as murder, etc. The
victims happen to belong generally to illiterate
classes or women and children. The higher classes
are not generally induced to partake of such pr
e-parations, and the instances are few or none in
which any intelligent person suffered himself to
become a victim of such persons. Complete stupe
-faction by the use of these drugs unadulterated
with dhatura or opium is impossible.
19. Evidence of MR. A. H. PLUNKETT, City Magistrate, Poona.
1. My service extends over a period of 41 years,
during which time I have served in Bombay,
Sind, Dharwar, Thana, Nasik and Poona. The
nature of my work has brought me in contact
with men of many races and castes. My informa
- t i o n r e g a r d i n g h e m p d r u g s , t h e m a n u f a c t u r e o f
narcotics therefrom, and their uses has been chiefly
derived from persons from many classes selected
and examined by me and from such general know-
ledge of the subject as I have acquired while in
Sind, the Southern Mahratta country and the
Deccan. 1 have taken care to verify the informa
-tion I have collected by reference to official records
and by careful examination of many men, such
as bairagis, gosains, fakirs and others whose state
- m e n t s I h a v e t a k e n d o w n i n w r i t i n g .
2. The definitions given by Dr. Prain in his
report of the two narcotic drugs (charas and
ganja) may be accepted. Bhang as defined by
him is not available in the district, and what is
described as "chur" is called bhang. The differ
- e n t n a m e s o f b h a n g m e n t i o n e d b y h i m a r e w e l l
understood in this part of the Deccan, but those
that are commonly used are bhang and patti.
The names subji and siddhi are rarely used. Of
the three varieties of ganja only two are known—the
"flat ganja" and the "chur" of flat ganja. Round
ganja is not known in this district. I have not
found what round ganja is like, or how it is pre
-pared. Ganja is thus known as flat ganja and
"chur" or broken ganja also called bhang. Bhang
retains its name, and is also known by the name
patti." Charas retains its name and has no other
name.
3, 4, 5 and 6. 1 am not aware that in any part
of the Deccan the hemp plant grows spontaneous
-ly; at any rate in no tract in this part of the
Deccan, as far as I can learn, is wild hemp growth
known. From enquiries made 1 do not find that
wild hemp is at all known, at any rate in this
district. I have thus no data on which I can
base replies to questions 3 to 6. The mamlatdar
of Newasa in the Ahmednagar Collectorate, how
-ever, reports that the plant seldom grows spon
- t a n e o u s l y i n h i s t a l u k a .
7. In parts of the Poona, Thana, Dharwar and
Nasik districts the hemp plant is cultivated more
or less. In parts of the Ahmednagar, Khandesh
and Sholapur districts it is stated the plant is
grown largely, especially in Ahmednagar. The
purposes for which it is cultivated are as under—
For the production of ganja.
For the production of bhang.
For charas, cultivation of hemp is not found
to be resorted to, although while cutting the
flowered tops and leaves a resinous exudation
attaches to the hands, which is scraped off and col
-
lected in pills. This is called the charas. There
is no cultivation for the purposes of extracting
charas in any part of this country. As far as
I c a n a s c e r t a i n , c h a r a s , i s i m p o r t e d i n t o B o m b a y
from Upper India and Afghanistan. Hemp is
cultivated from seeds only. In one village
(Kamargaon) of the Ahmednagar taluka, it is said
the plant is cultivated for seed only. It is not,
as far as can be ascertained, a fibre-yielding plant.
There is no separate cultivation of the plant
for each of the products ganja and bhang. One
single cultivation yields both ganja and bhang
and charas also to a very small extent. Strictly
speaking, there is no cultivation, so to say, of the
plant for the purpose of bhang. Bhang proper is
not produced in this country. The plant which
yields, it is said, is not the female plant as cultivat
-ed in this part of the country, but the male
plant called bhangara, which is largely cultivated
in Northern India and which yields the genuine
bhang. The bhang which is sold is the "patti"
and "chur" detached from ganja flowers and
leaves. The female plant yields ganja, which con
-sists of dried flowering tops, and also bhang, which
consists of dried " patti" and other detached por
-tions from the flowering tops and leaves. Bhang