95
pilgrimage from place to place, as the use of the
drug is said to help them to take long journey and
to deaden the pain of suffering and starvation in
their tours. The use of bhang and of the sweet
confections from the ganja is not very extensive,
as would appear from the following proportions
which have been arrived at from an inspection of
the accounts of the vendors of the drugs. In every
hundred consumers of the drugs there are about
90.4 ganja smokers, 2.4 majum eaters, 1.9
yakooti eaters, and the same proportion for shri
- k h a n d a n d g u i k a n d e a t e r s , a n d a b o u t 1 . 5 d r i n k
bhang (ghota). The number of men using the
drugs cannot be precisely given, as no reliable sta-
tistics are available, but regard being had to the
average daily allowance of ganja required by a
habitual moderate consumer, and the quantity of
ganja sold annually in the district, the figure
might be put down at 2,800 for the district. This
will give us about 2,520 men as ganja smokers,
about 56 yakuti eaters, and about 28 for each of
the other confections and bhang. In every
thousand of population of the district there are
not more than 2.6 men who use hemp narcotics.
This will show that the use of the eatables and
bhang is so limited, that it. is not possible to arrive
at any conclusion regarding them as causes of
crime and violence. The number of ganja smokers,
though comparatively very large, is entirely in
-significant when compared with the population of
the district.
28. The daily allowance of ganja per head is
one and two tolas, and that of bhang three and
six masas for habitual moderate and excessive c
o n - s u m e r s r e s p e c t i v e l y .
40. Effects.—The effects of the use of ganja
for medical purposes are stated to be good. Ganja
excites hunger and gives some tone to the nervous
system. But we are not so much concerned with
the medicinal effects as with the effects of the
habitual use of the drug.
44. The first effects are not always bad. The
first dose is refreshing. It produces exhilaration
of spirits, a merry mood and a pleasant sensation.
The man seems to enjoy the intoxication, and
no harm comes to him from such occasional
use. but the fact is otherwise with a habitual
consumer. At times he is wild, garrulous, and
incoherent, and the excitement over he is disposed
to sleep. There is the depression of spirit,
a broken-down constitution, loss of appetite,
derangement of the alimentary canal, and gene
-rally an anæmic appearance so characteristic of the
habitual consumer of ganja.
45. The occasional use of ganja in moderate quan
- t i t y i s s a i d t o b e c o n d u c i v e t o h e a l t h . I t a c t s as
stimulant and engenders activities and is generally
held to be beneficial to health, although when
taken in excess or continued as a habit it has a
very prejudicial effect on health and mental faculty.
I have consulted a few of my friends in the medical
profession, and they are all unanimous in condemn
- i n g t h e h a b i t u a l u s e o f g a n j a , a s b e i n g e s s e n t i a l l y
deleterious to the health.
46. In habitual excessive consumers all the
symptoms are greatly aggravated, and in addition
there is the deterioration of the mental faculties.
There is loss of memory, numbness and want of
power and control over the nervous system, and
helpless condition and complete depression and
inactivity. In such cases the abuse of ganja leads
undoubtedly to insanity of a serious character, but
much oftener to a harmless idiotcy.
51. Bad characters generally do indulge in some
kind of intoxication, but to a small extent in
hemp drugs intoxication. Those who use the
drugs are habitual moderate consumers, but very
seldom excessive consumers. The habitual moderate
consumers are not hardly turbulent. They are
mostly quiet, and are not given up to any tumul
- t u o u s a c t . A n o c c a s i o n a l e x c e s s i v e c o n s u m e r m a y ,
as I have noted above, be very violent, and do some
iniquitous acts, mostly aimless and unpremeditated.
I know of no case in which ganja has ever been
shown to he an incentive to crime.
52. The habitual excessive consumer is hardly
ever capable of committing violent acts. Exces
-sive smokers are ordinarily very quiet with a ten
- d e n c y t o i m b e c i l i t y . T h e e f f e c t o f a n e x c e s s i v e
habitual dose is to stupefy rather than to excite.
Intoxication has never been a national vice in
India, although within about a quarter of the
century it has been resorted to to some extent.
Drunkenness has been widely prevailing, but hemp
drug intoxication is very rare. It is within our
daily experience that much crime is committed
under the influence of drunkenness. The facilities
are so great that the men of lowclasses, especially
the Mahurs, Mangs and Kolis, all resort to the
liquor shop and drink unreservedly. As a rule
they are never satisfied with moderate drinking.
They will drink to excess, as they regard the
pronounced feeling of intoxication as au adequate
return for the money spent on the liquor. In
such a state of intoxication they commit crime or
other iniquitous acts which render them amenable
to the law. Drunkenness as the cause of crime
has been well recognized in the fact that a section
has been enacted in the Bombay Act IV of 1890,
making it penal for a man to be drunk and be dis-
-orderly in a public street. Moreover, all cases
under section 510 of the Indian Penal Code that
have come up for disposal were all with reference
to intoxication due to alcoholism, never to any
other kind of intoxicants.
53. Excessive indulgence, as I have said above,
at times leads to unpremeditated acts of violence
when reason is overpowered, and equilibrium of
mind is disturbed. I do not know of any case in
which it has led to homicidal frenzy.
I have served in five out of six districts of the
Central Division and exercised first class magis
- t e r i a l p o w e r s f o r o v e r t e n y e a r s . D u r i n g t h i s
period I have not come across a single case in which
crime was committed under intoxication by the
use of any of the narcotic drugs.
54. I think the drugs might be used occasional-
ly in moderate quantity by bad lives to fortify
themselves to commit an iniquitous act. Criminals
when they premeditate a crime may use ganja as
they do alcoholic drinks to a large extent to nerve
and prepare themselves for the occasion; but I
have not come across a single case in which intoxica
- t i o n o f g a n j a h a s b e e n p l e a d e d a s a n e x c u s e f o r
crime or other violent act.
55. I think they do so occasionally. I had a
case before me in which it was alleged by the co
m - p l a i n a n t t h a t s h e w a s r a v i s h e d w h i l e i n a s t a t e o f
intoxication brought on by administering to her
majum, a confection prepared from the hemp
plant, Ganja-smoking is hardly used for such
purposes. I do not think that a complete stupe-
- f a c t i o n m a y b e p r o d u c e d b y t h e u s e o f a n e x c e s s i v e
dose without admixture, but I understand dhatura
is more frequently resorted to for this purpose than
the hemp drug.
59. I do not think a case is made out for the
adoption of a legislative measure to restrict the
use of any of the hemp drugs; as in no case it
has been shown that use or abuse of the drugs
incites to crime either violent or premeditated.