CHAPTER V.
METHODS OF CULTIVATION AND MATTERS CONNECTED THEREWITH.
Definition of the narcotic products
of the hemp plant.
151. Before describing the cultivation of the hemp plant, it will be proper
to mention the products which are got from it. It
has been shown that the plant which yields the true
hemp fibre is the same as that which produces the narcotics. The seed is the
familiar hemp seed which is given to cage birds. It is also occasionally eaten by
the natives of India, especially in the Himalayas, and an useful oil is expressed
from it. The fibre and seeds only come incidentally within the scope of the pre-
sent inquiry. The narcotic products of the plant are ganja, charas, and bhang.
Dr. Prain has described very fully the physiological processes by which the narcotic
principle is secreted in the various parts of the plant. For the purposes of the
Commission it is sufficient to state plainly and briefly what the three articles
are in the simple forms in which they first enter the market. The definitions
with which the Commission's list of questions is introduced are as follows.
They are borrowed from Dr. Prain:—
"Ganja consists of the dried flowering tops of cultivated female hemp plants which
have become coated with resin in consequence of having been unable to set seeds freely."
"Charas is the name applied to the resinous matter which forms the active princi-
ple when collected separately."
"Siddhi, bhang, subzi, or patti are different names applied to the dry leaves of
the hemp plant, whether male or female, and whether cultivated or uncultivated."
These definitions have been generally accepted by the witnesses, but the
result of the inquiries is to show that they require some explanation. First, with
regard to ganja.
Ganja may be got from the wild
as well as the cultivated plant.
152. Over nearly the whole of India distinction is recognised between the
ganja and the bhang plant. Though the natives may
mistake the sexes, it is clear that the female plant is
the one which is called ganja and the male plant bhang. The plants are distin-
guishable even in the wild state, the loose flowering panicle of the male from the
comparatively stiff and apparently blossomless spike of the female. The hill
ganja of Assam, and the wild ganja that seems to be occasionally found and
used throughout Eastern Bengal and the Sub-Himalayan region, and even
in Kashmir, must be the female flower spike which has often been quite innocent
of any tending. In examining the evidence, therefore, the definition of ganja
given above must often be read as with the word cultivated omitted.
The drug bhang often consists of
ganja.
153. Then as regards bhang, the witnesses often use the word to include
the female flower head as well as the leaves of the
plant, and the green leaves as well as the dry. The
male flower head must also enter into it in consequence of the rude method
of preparing the drug, viz., by drying the plants and beating out the leaves.
But the male flowers are not more narcotic than the leaves; the point to be
noted is the inclusion of the female flower head in bhang. The confusion arises
from the name of the product bhang being used also for the liquid form in which
the hemp drugs are consumed. Ganja pounded up and made into drink becomes
bhang. This is the way in which Garhjat ganja is used at Puri. In the west and
south of India the distinction between the products bhang and ganja is frequently