232
does not even smoke tobacco. He has passed his
matriculation examination and now assists me in
my office as Assistant Managing Clerk. He is
physically a fine young man and a good cricket
player.
49. I have heard that some people smoke ganja
as an aphrodisiac. It is said when the drug is
used for this purpose it must be used in conjunc-
tion with good food. I do not know that prosti-
tutes use hemp drugs as an aphrodisiac. In
moderation and with good food the use of a hemp
drug does not tend to produce impotence.
51. No large proportion of bad characters are
habitual moderate consumers of hemp drugs.
There is, so far as I know, no connection between
the moderate use of a hemp drug and crime.
52. There is no large proportion of bad charac-
ters habitual excessive consumers of hemp drugs.
I do not know that there is any connection be-
tween the excessive use of hemp drugs and crime.
53. Excessive indulgence in hemp drugs does
not, so far as I know, incite to unpremeditated
crime of any kind. On the contrary, the bhang
drinker is rather timid under the influence of the
drug, and the same may be said of the ganja
smoker to a lesser degree.
I know of no instance in which the excessive
indulgence in hemp drugs has led to temporary
homicidal frenzy.
54. I know of no instance in which criminals
have fortified themselves by using hemp drugs to
commit a premeditated act of violence or crime.
55. I know of no instance in which criminals
to further their designs have induced their victims
to partake of a hemp drug with the object of stupe-
fying them. I do not think complete stupefac-
tion could be induced by the use of a hemp drug
alone.
56. Tobacco is mixed with ganja so that it can be
smoked easily. Spices are mixed with bhang to
make it cool and pleasant in taste.
I know of no case in which dhatura has been
mixed with hemp drug for personal consumption
or for administration to others.
57. Ganja when eaten or drunk is much more
powerful in its intoxicating effects than bhan
g . I t i s , I t h i n k , i n j u r i o u s t o u s e i t i n t h e s e f o r m s
Ganja is very seldom eaten or drunk.
or rendered insensible. But it is necessary to take
food soon after smoking to allay the irritation of
the throat, and the food should consist of such
thing as milk or butter. Unless food of this
kind is taken, the eyes and throat become heated,
and in time the eyesight would be impaired. I
am not aware of any other bad consequences. I
have seen bad effects in other people.
Question 21 .—I know three kinds of ganja
— f l a t g a n j a o f t h e D e c c a n ; b a l u c h a r g a n j a o f
Benares, which is also flat and more powerful
than Deccan ganja and dearer, but cannot be
bought in the market ; and the fresh ganja, which
sometimes comes from Kathiawad. The last is
slightly more powerful than the Deccan ganja,
but less so than baluchar. The ganja which is
most powerful is also most heating and most dry,
and its effects are most lasting. Headache some-
times follows the intoxication of ganja, If ganja
is stale or has not been properly washed it will
give headache. I prefer Deccan ganja.
Question 44 .—The moderate use of the drug,
even without the accompaniment of good food,
will not produce insanity. I know of two or
three cases in which insanity has resulted from
the excessive use of the drug, when a sufficiency
of good food has not been taken. A bania,
Hargoran, who lives near me in Bhuleshwar, is one
of the cases, and the best of them. About fifteen or
sixteen years ago he became insane, and he is still
insane. He has never been confined in an asylum.
He is harmless. He neglects his dress and talks
nonsense. He has lost his wife and two children.
That was two or three years before he became
insane. He did not appear to be very deeply
grieved by the loss of his wife and children, but
not long after that event he suffered losses in his
business, and that affected him a great deal. I
did not know his father or mother or their parents.
I never heard of any insanity among them. He
has no brothers. He had no bad habit except
smoking excessively. Being a bania, he could not
take liquor. He used to smoke alone at all hours,
day and night. I have no means of knowing
whether he had vicious habits. He did not mix
any thing but tobacco with his ganja. I don't
know his habits now, as he wanders about, but he
may still smoke, Insanity came upon him
gradually, but there was no amendment after it
began. It took nearly three or four years to
render him insane. All that while he continued
smoking ganja even more than before. It was
the ganja and the grief at loss of business
which together drove him mad. I think he
would not have become so if his affairs had re-
mained in a satisfactory state. I have never
heard him allude to the loss of his business since
he became mad. This is the most prominent case
in my mind. It is not so clear in other cases
that the insanity was due to the ganja. I had
known him for seven or eight years before he
became mad, and he was not different from other
people. He was about 50 when he went mad.
He had been, as far as I know, a smoker from
the age of 30 or 35. I made his acquain-
tance twenty-three or twenty-five years ago. He
was living in my street. I am a Kshatri
and he is a bania. He used to smoke many
times a day when I first knew him. I seldom
smoked with him ; but when I happened to
sit with him, I heard him and his friends say
that he smoked frequently. It was seven or nine
years before his character showed any symptom
of change. He kept a grocer's shop, and made
up turbans. His wife died four or five years after
I made his acquaintance. He had two children,
Oral evidence.
Question 1.—The drug I have been in the habit
of consuming for the last thirty years is ganja. I
smoke it every evening, and my ordinary allow-
ance is half a tola of the uncleaned ganja, which
means about half a tola of cleaned ganja. I now
smoke alone, for the friends who used to smoke
with me are dead. The ganja is mixed with
tobacco for smoking. The quantity of tobacco
used is something less than half the quan-
tity of ganja, if the tobacco is strong. Ganja
cannot be smoked without tobacco, unless it is
fresh ganja. That is my information. I have
never seen ganja used without tobacco. By fresh
ganja I mean ganja which has just been manu-
factured from the plant. In smoking a chillum
of ganja I take about 12 draughts. But it is
injurious to take a very long pull. It causes
cough and obstruction of the breathing. I have
never suffered from asthma or bronchitis, and I
am forty-nine years of age. I am not conscious of
having suffered any harm from the drug. When I
began smoking the effects were more marked than
they are now. I was never incapacitated for work