CH. X.] REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94. 197
A native who takes to liquor is lost. As regards the excessive use, I would
still place alcohol first. I regard it as most deleterious." The only other
medical man who need be quoted is Dr. H. M, Clark, a well-known Medical
Missionary in the Punjab (witness No. 46), who says: "As regards charas, I
think there can be no such thing as moderate use, if we mean such use as will
not leave any permanent bad effect on the system. In whatever quantity it is
used, it is bound to be deleterious. I should say that in this country alcohol does
more harm than charas." These views are supported by distinguished native
medical men like Rai Bahadur Kanny Lall Dey, C.I.E. (Bengal witness No. 117),
and others.
It is not within the province of the Commission to come to any definite find-
ing on this evidence as to the comparative effects of alcohol and hemp
drugs. The effects of alcohol were not within the scope of the inquiry. As
has already been stated, it is only a minority of the witnesses who make the com-
parison. It was not asked for in the Commission's questions, and has only been
incidentally made by certain witnesses. The Commission have not felt called
on to test the correctness of the views of the witnesses on this point, as this
could only have been done by a full inquiry into the effects of liquor.
But it is important to observe the existence of these views. In this con-
nection it is interesting to notice the existence in certain parts of the
country of a belief among ignorant persons that "the attack on hemp drugs
was due to a desire to foster European liquor" (see the evidence of Mr.
William Almon, Assistant Collector, Abkari Department in the town of Bombay,
witness No. 38); or, as another witness puts it, "the agitation is attributed to
them who are anxious to encourage the spread of alcohol, i.e., the persons who
import and manufacture liquor" (V. K. Joglekar, Bombay witness No. 110).
The existence of such misapprehensions can only be explained by the difficulty
felt in accounting for an agitation against these drugs alone. The Rev. Mr.
Laflamme (Madras witness No. 153) says: "Many are surprised to hear that the
Government is concerned about a practice which is confined to so small a
portion of the people as is ganja and bhang, and is not concerned about the
widespread, rapidly increasing, and much more injurious habit of alcoholic drink,
from which much greater harm results. I have been six years in the country,
and engaged in village work during four years. Before entering on these in-
quiries I did not know the hemp drugs were in use among the people, and had
only met with them in the temples." One witness of much experience (Khan
Bahadur Kadir Dad Khan, C.I.E., Sind witness No. 4) says: "All classes of
the people, from the most influential spiritual leader to the lowest beggar, will
say that the British Government, while not interfering or prohibiting the use of
alcohol in their own country, are stopping them here from the use of less intoxicat-
ing drugs, which they have been using from time immemorial, and which is also
religiously respected."
Injurious effects of hemp drugs
(history).
491. Among the ancient physicians the evil effects of the drug are thus
referred to by the author of the Makhzan-el-Adwiya:
"Afterwards the sedative effects begin to preside, the
spirits sink, the vision darkens and weakens, and madness, melancholy, fearful-
ness, dropsy, and such like distempers are the sequel, while the seminal
secretions dry up." Alluding to its popular use, the author dwells on the eventual
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