50
29. Dried tobacco is only mixed with ganja by
all smokers when smoking. Nothing else is mixed
with it. What is mixed with bhang is already
stated in the answer to question No. 15. Dhatura
is never used in any of the mixtures. The object
of using tobacco is to make the preparation easy
for smoking. In the different preparations of
bhang, the liquid is used for making the drug
drinkable or eatable. The other ingredients are
mixed only to give it good taste or flavour.
30. Bhang is generally prepared and drunk
privately, either singly, or in company of friends
and relations. Ganja smokers form a company in
several places. The use is mainly confined to the
male sex and to adults. The drugs are not used
by children.
31. The habit is easily formed. It is a little
difficult to break off the practice of smoking ganja.
The tendency for the moderate habit to develop
into the excessive is to be found amongst smokers
and not amongst eaters or drinkers.
32. There is no such custom, social or religious.
It is only on the night of the Maha Shivaratra
that some persons use the bhang drink ; but the
use is neither essential nor much prevalent.
33. The smokers of ganja are held in disrepute.
This may be said to be social public opinion.
Those who use bhang are not so regarded. Ganja
smokers are held in disrepute on account of their
mental derangement, which results from the use
of the drug. Hemp plant is not worshipped by
any sects of the people.
34. I do not think it would, except in a few
cases of ganja smokers. If any would be made to
forego, he would gratify his craving by means of
tobacco. There would be hardly any privation in
the case of other preparations.
35. I do not think the entire prohibition of the
drug in places adjacent to foreign territory is
feasible. The drug will be easily consumed
illicitly. The prohibition can be enforced by pro
- h i b i t i n g t h e c u l t i v a t i o n o f t h e d r u g . I t h i n k
that the prohibition would cause serious discontent
amongst excessive consumers only of ganja.
There will be no political danger. I do not think
that the prohibition will be followed by recourse
to alcoholic stimulants or other drugs to any ap
- p r e c i a b l e e x t e n t .
36. There is no reason to think so.
37. Charas is not used in these parts, and so
the difference in effect cannot be explained.
38. Flat ganja is generally used, and not round
ganja or chur in these parts. I think flat ganja
is more appreciated than round ganja, the effect
of intoxication being greater in the former than in
the latter.
39. Smoking seems to be more injurious than
drinking or eating. Smokers generally appear to
be pale and weakened in constitution. The
mental derangement amongst smokers appears to
be appreciable. These effects do not appear to
have been caused by drinking or eating the drug
in any form.
40. No. Bhang is sometim e s used in the case
of some cattle diseases as a tonic or cooling
draught.
41. Bhang may be to a certain extent as a
cooling draught, as the general impression is.
(a) Not as a food accessory but digestive.
(b)Bhang may alleviate fatigue without pr
o-ducing bad effects.
(c) No, so far as I know.
Marwaris use bhang as a cooling draught after
exhaustion in the hot season. Seventy-five per
cent. of them use the drug. Among consumers
of ganja, the same number may be said to use it
for one purpose or other mentioned in (b) .
42. I consider that the moderate use of the
drug, except smoking ganja, seems harmless. I
have not come across any instances in which the
use of the drug in any other form has caused any
appreciable injury, bodily or mental.
43. Yes, they are.
44. He feels a craving, and consequently the
gratification seems to refresh him. It produces
intoxication, during which the user may not feel
the keenness of hunger. Ganja does not seem to
create appetite as bhang or majum seems to do.
The effect of intoxication seems to last for two or
three hours. There seem to be no after-effects,
except those produced by gradual use. The want
of subsequent gratification produces longing and
consequent uneasiness.
45. Even moderate use of ganja for smoking
produces noxious effects, both physical and mental.
It does impair the constitution. It seems to injure
the digestion and cause asthma. It induces
laziness ; but does not seem to lead to habits of
immorality or debauchery. It seems to deaden
the intellect. I have not seen instances in which
the moderate use of the drug has produced in
- s a n i t y . L o n g u s e p r o d u c e s m e n t a l d e r a n g e m e n t ,
making the user unfit for any work requiring
proper exercise of the intellect.
46. The effects are in the same way more
noxious in proportion. The excessive use of ganja
by men of weak brains may produce insanity. I
know of only one instance of the kind.
47. No.
48. N o. In the case I have quoted in my answer
to question No. 46, I have seen that the children
of the consumer have not been affected in any way.
49. It is learnt that the moderate use of these
drugs is practised as an aphrodisiac by prostitutes,
and it is thus more injurious than its use as an
ordinary narcotic. The use of the hemp does not
seem to produce impotence as a direct effect.
50. There seems to be no difference, except in
the degree of its effects.
51 and 52. I have not learnt that there are. I
do not think that any such direct connection can
be traced.
53. No, neither.
54. I know of no instances.
55. Yes, there have been a few instances in
which bhang was mixed with food in some shape.
I do not think complete stupefaction can be thus
induced.
56. The admixture of ganja with tobacco makes
smoking easier, and that of milk or juice of
sugarcane makes bhang agreeable as a drink, and
the effect is sooner produced. Bhang is sometimes
mixed with fried substances, in which form also
it acts sooner.
57. I have never seen it eaten or drunk, nor
have I heard in my enquiries that they are.
58. I think it is working well, but seems to
require improvement in two respects.
59 and 60. The cultivation and harvesting of
ganja or bhang are not properly controlled. No
special inspection is made of its cultivation, nor is
the crop kept under proper supervision, so as to
prevent illicit export or sale. There is nothing to