397
39. Evidence of SURGEON-LIEUTENANT-COLONEL P. N. MOOKERJEE, Civil Surgeon,
Sagaing, Upper Burma.
1. My knowledge of the drug is chiefly obtained
from what I have seen of their use in India.
2. In Burma no one is allowed to cultivate,
manufacture, sell or possess either ganja, charas or
bhang. The Burmans in Upper Burma at least
do not use these drugs. It is only used by the
natives of India surreptitiously.
19. Ganja and charas are used only for smok-
ing.
23. I have never heard of bhang being used for
smoking.
28. Habitual moderate consumers take about
four grains of charas, fifteen grains of ganja and
about thirty grains of bhang leaves for a dose twice
daily. Habitual excessive smokers take five, six or
more times the above quantities.
29. Ganja and charas are smoked mixed with
tobacco only. Bhang is sometimes taken by itself,
but ordinarily mixed with the following :—black
pepper, rose petals, almond, poppy and melon seeds,
aniseed, and kasni, and sometimes sugar and milk ;
made into sherbet and taken as a drink. When
more intoxicating effect is desired, dhatura seeds
are mixed with bhang.
Bhang massala consists chiefly of the above-
mentioned ingredients and is used to make the
drink palatable and cooling or non-irritating to the
system.
30. Bhang is frequently taken in solitude, but
ganja and charas are generally smoked in company.
The use of these drugs is mainly confined to the
male sex. I have never seen them given to
children.
31. I believe the habit of taking bhang is easily
acquired, but ganja and charas depend a great deal
on the constitution of the individual ; some acquire
it easily, others suffer more or less. The habit thus
acquired is not easily broken off. With some, all these drugs from a moderate
use may devel op i nt o excessi ve habi t .
32. I have been told that during the Dassera
and Kali Puja festivals, a good deal of bhang, charas,
and ganja is used.
36. Half-educated natives, who would have
taken to ganja or charas, take to alcohol instead.
37. I do not know the difference in the effects
of ganja and charas smoking, but bhang is much
milder than either of the above.
39. I have no experience of either ganja or charas,
taken by the mouth, but drinking bhang in moder-
ation is much less injurious than smoking the above-
mentioned drugs.
40. Bhang is sometimes used in medicine by the
native doctors, and also for cattle disease, but for
what particular ailments I do not know. I do
not know if ganja or charas is used in medicine
for cattle disease.
41. The moderate use of bhang is said to be a
digestive, and people who take it consume large
quantities of food, but I do not know if it gives
staying-powers or is preventive of disease in mala-
rious or unhealthy tracts. Ganja and charas
destroy digestion, but give staying-powers under
severe exertion, and are also used under the im-
pression that they are preventive of malarious
diseases, which I do not think is the case.
42. The moderate use of bhang, as far as I know,
is harmless.
44. The immediate effect of the moderate use
to a habitual consumer of bhang, ganja or charas
is refreshing, produces slight intoxication, allays
hunger ; bhang only creates an appetite. The
effect lasts from four to six hours. The want of
subsequent gratification produces longing or un-
easiness.
45. I have seen several habitual moderate smokers
who did not suffer at all, either physically, mentally
or morally. Others have injured their constitutions
by the use of ganja and charas, and some have
become hopelessly insane by the above two drugs.
I have not come across any case of insanity from
the moderate use of bhang.
I have known several instances of young sepoys
who had become insane from the moderate use of
ganja, and one young man whom I met twenty
years after he was—then a harmless imbecile.
46. I have no doubt in my mind that the habitual
excessive use of the hemp drugs injures the con-
stitution and is often the exciting cause of insanity.
49. I do not know if the hemp drugs are used as
an aphrodisiac, but I have been told that they help
to produce impotence.
57. I have never heard of ganja or charas being-
eaten or drunk.
Oral evidence.
Question 1 .—I entered the service twenty-six
years ago. I have spent fourteen years in India
and twelve in Burma altogether. My Burma
service began in 1868, but since 1888 I have
been continuously in Burma. I have been in
civil employ for six years,—three in Madras, and
three in Burma since 1891. I have had no
special experience of insanity. I have never
held charge of an asylum. I have seen cases of
lunacy both in my civil and military practice. Re-
gardi ng ganj a I have had no experi ence i n Burma,
except a little among sepoys. My written answers
are based on knowledge acquired in India.
Question 45.—In some constitutions the habitual
moderate use may produce insanity. The case I
have in mind is that of a sepoy who came from
Madras in 1872. Believing that ganja was a pro-
tection against fever, he began at once to smoke it.
My enquiries led me to believe that he used to
smoke only once or twice a day. My experience
in regard to the idea that ganja is a protection
against malaria is confined to Madrasi sepoys.
The man referred to above became insane in 1872,
and
w a s s e n t t o t h e l u n a t i c a s y l u m . I s a w h i m a g a i n i n 1 8 9 0 , a n d h e w a s s t i l l i m b e c i l e . H i s c a s e
is that referred to in my written answer to ques-
tion 45. Regarding the man's hemp drug habit,
I made all the enquiries that were possible from
his comrades and native officers. I attributed the
insanity to ganja, because there was no other cause,
no insanity in the family, and the man was per-
fectly well when he came over from India.
I a r r i v e d a t t h e d i a g n o s i s b y e x c l u d i n g o t h e r c a u s e s .
I nqu ired the man's family history from friends
of his in the regiment. There were some who
knew him and his people. I looked upon ganja as
the exciting cause of insanity in this case. The
man had only smoked ganja for six months. The
man was excitable, talkative and noisy. He report-
ed me to the General as not having treated him
properly. He was then in the hospital under ob-