CHAPTER X.
EFFECTS—GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.
Prevailing ignorance of the
effects.
451. There has been some difficulty in obtaining definite information regard-
ing the effects of hemp drugs. This difficulty has not
arisen from any unwillingness on the part of witnesses
to tell what they know. The Rev. Thomas Evans (North-Western Provinces
witness No. 229) has stated that "native officials (and even barristers and plead-
ers) are afraid to give evidence lest they should thereby give offence to the
Government." The Commission have had no experience of this kind, and a
perusal of the evidence will show that this alleged hesitation on the part of cer-
tain persons to give evidence must have been very exceptional. Witnesses are
found among all classes, not excluding even drug vendors themselves, who have
made strong statements against the drugs. The difficulty has arisen from the
general ignorance of the subject which has not hitherto attracted special atten-
tion. One result of the labours of the Commission has been to show how much
ignorance prevails regarding the consumption of these drugs and their effects.
This ignorance is not confined to Europeans. It extends to a large number of
native witnesses. It is not confined to those who live apart from the common
people. It extends to many whose duties are believed to bring them into close
and constant contact with the people. Not a few persons who were asked to
give evidence declined to do so, and others did so somewhat reluctantly, on
the ground that they had little or no experience of the consumption of the drugs.
To quote a non-official witness on this point, the Rev. George Pittendrigh
(Madras witness No. 160) says: "I have been in India for nine years. I had
hardly heard the name of ganja. I had heard it occasionally in connection with
handymen and coachmen, and so on, but I had (so far as I know) seen none of
its effects. I had heard that they were similar to opium—a narcotic or intoxicant.
That was all I knew. It was not till after I heard of the Commission that I made
any special enquiry into the matter. I enquired first of Europeans and respectable
natives, students and others, graduates and other men of some standing. No one
seemed to know anything about it. The ordinary caste native seemed only to
know in a general way that it was used by Muhammadans, bairagis, loafers, and
ruffians. Europeans seemed to know nothing of its use." The above is by no
means an exceptional statement. Much the same evidence is given by officials
as well as non-officials, and by natives as well as Europeans. It is
not confined to one province, but is given all over India. This state of things is
not difficult to explain. As a matter of fact, it is not usual for those who use the
drugs, especially those who smoke them, to do so in the presence of others.
It is usually only the dissipated who make a practice of publicly using intoxicants.
The moderate consumer is generally known only to those who have occasion to
join him at his meals or at the times when he takes his regular dose. In this
country there is this additional fact to be considered, that custom is distinctly
against smoking in the presence of any one who is in any sense superior or entitled
to respect. Thus it would be only rarely that a man would smoke in the presence
of a neighbour who had not specially come to join him. As to the casual smoker
on the street or elsewhere, the passer-by would probably not know that he was
consuming hemp drugs; for he smokes the drug as a rule in the same manner as he
would smoke tobacco, and also mixed with tobacco, which to a certain extent