294
4 4 . I t i s r e f r e s h i n g . I t d o e s n o t a l l a y h u n g e r .
It creates an ordinary appetite. The effects last
until it is time to take the drugs again. Want of
the drugs produces many ill-effects, such as sleep-
lessness, yawning, loss of appetite, uneasiness, and
longing.
45. If taken for its benefits, it produces no
noxious results, physical, mental or moral. It does not
injure the digestion, does not cause dysentery, bron-
chitis or asthma. It does not impair the moral
sense, and induces no laziness, does not produce
habits of immorality or debauchery. It does not
deaden the intellect. It does not produce insanity.
46. It injures the digestion, produces bronchitis
and asthma (charas and ganja, but not bhang);
charas and ganja impair the moral sense, but not
bhang. The two, if excessively used, produce laziness
and habits of immorality and debauchery, but not
bhang. All the three deaden the intellect. They
do not produce insanity, but loss of consciousness
during the time the intoxication lasts. Persons do
drink bhang in order to obtain relief from mental
anxiety. It is not insanity; but it is loss of con-
sciousness that often tends to indulgence in the use
of hemp drugs.
47 and 48. It does not appear to be a hereditary
habit, nor does it affect the children.
49. Bhang is used as an aphrodisiac. It gives
prolonged pleasure during copulation; similarly
charas and ganja are used, but their effects are not
prolonged, and after a short time they impair manly
power. Prostitutes do use it. The use of bhang
does not tend to produce impotence.
50. Excessive use of bhang produces impotency,
and excessive use of these drugs prevents all
those benefits which ordinarily result from their
moderate use.
51. Some bad characters use these drugs moder-
ately, others use them excessively, some habi-
tually and others occasionally for their benefits.
The moderate use has no connection with crime in
general or with crime of any special character; but
the excessive use has some connection with crime,
in so far as intoxication deadens all moral sense
and incites to the commission of offences.
52. Answers to this question have been given in
question 5.
53. The excessive use of charas and ganja incites
to unpremeditated crime, sometimes violent and
sometimes otherwise. It cannot incite to murder.
Excessive consumers, when provoked while intoxi-
cated, are incited to commit violent crime. But
this is not applicable to bhang drinkers, for bhang
induces quietness of temper.
54. Some, very few, criminals do so.
55. Criminals do so, but their victims are not so
much stupefied as to give the criminals oppor-
tunities to commit offences; but if the drug is
given in excessive quantities the victims will be
stupefied. If the victims are habitual drinkers or
smokers, they cannot be stupefied without mixing
dhatura; but occasional consumers will be stupefied
by moderate as well as excessive quantities.
56. Bhang pounded and drunk, unmixed with
others, would produce dry and cold intoxication;
but if mixed with massalas, such as almonds,
kernels, cardamoms, aniseed, succory, sugarcandy,
and pepper, will produce wet and oily intoxication,
that is, it will not produce dryness in the mouth,
and, if mixed with ghee and milk, will strengthen
the constitution. If dhatura is mixed with it,
it would produce an unconscious state, in which one
would prattle foolishly. I speak this from expe-
rience.
57. It is not usual to eat or drink ganja or
charas in Sind. But in exceptional cases ganja is
eaten and drunk. Particulars regarding the above
have been given in questions 19 and 38. But
Aghorees, a sect of fakirs, eat ganja and charas,
dhatura and other poisonous drugs and tobacco with-
out any visible effects being produced on them.
58. I cannot reply to questions from 58 to 70.
Questions under this chapter can well be answered
by Government officers and other interested persons.
27. Evidence of the REV. A. E. BALL, Missionary, Church Missionary Society,
Karachi.
1. I have completed thirteen years of service in
Sind, but till within the past few weeks I have
not taken advantage of any opportunities I might
have had to inform myself regarding matters con-
nected with hemp drugs, and the information I
now give, such as it is, has been gathered by per-
sonal enquiry from natives, Christian, Muham-
madan and Hindu.
2. Bhang only is prepared in Sind. Ganja,
charas, bhang or bháng.
10. No, they are of the same classes as other
agricultural cultivators.
18. All three deteriorate by keeping. No. For
six months bhang keeps well, after which time it
begins to deteriorate. After a year it loses its
good appearance, and nearly but not all its effect.
If kept well corked in a bottle or jar, it will keep
good for a longer time.
19. For smoking only.
20. All religious mendicants, sanyasis, bawas,
bhagats, jogis, etc., smoke ganja and charas, and
many Brahmins, and all Muhammadan fakirs and
the lower classes of Muhammadans, such as coolies,
e t c . N e a r l y a l l P a t h a n s s m o k e c h a r a s .
21. Flat is preferred. Chur is also used, but
not the round ganja.
22. Foreign. From Yarkand.
23. No.
24. (a) During the holidays such as the Dewali,
Holi, etc., bhang is eaten in a sweetmeat called
majum, and it is also sometimes mixed with the
flour used in making a kind of food called
" p a k o r a . "
(b) Nearly all Hindu shopkeepers are moderate
consumers of bhang, and all Hindu mendicants use
it; many of them I fear, to excess. Nearly all
low classes, Muhammadans and fakirs also drink it.
As a rule, so far as I can learn, the higher classes
do not drink bhang except on special occasions.
25. So far as I can judge, from the information
I have gathered, I should say there is no increase
in the use of these drugs, except such as may result
from increase of population.
28. (a) Habitual moderate consumers
—
Bhang
.
.
.
.
1 paisa.
Charas .
.
.
.
2 „
Ganja
.
.
.
.
1 „