136 REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94. [CH. VIII.
part of the drug consumed in the North-Western Provinces may well induce a
liberal use, and this result may approximate to the truth.
Individual consumption of ganja.
356. Mr. Stoker does not accept Babu Hem Chunder Kerr's estimate of
average consumption per head at the high figure of
11/2 sérs. At 6 annas a tola this means Rs. 45 a year,
and this is obviously quite beyond the means of the consumers of average means.
The individual consumption in Bengal has been estimated at half a sér, or Rs. 10
per annum. Mr. Stoker, dealing with a drug or mixed drug that costs less than
baluchar, calculates the individual consumption at one sér, and the whole supply
of 4,500 maunds as sufficient for 180,000 smokers. By the Bengal standard
3,500 maunds would supply 280,000 persons. It seems proper to make allowance
for the cheapness of the drug and adopt the mean of the above calculations, or
230,000. This represents something less than 1/2 per cent. of the population.
In the cities, baluchar sells at 6 annas a tola. It is cheaper in the villages
probably because it is adulterated with pathar, which is anything from one-
twelfth to one-sixth of the price of the other. If the average annual allowance
of something less than one sér be regarded as being composed of 1/4 baluchar and
3/4 pathar, the cost comes to a reasonable figure.
Extent of use of charas.
357. With regard to charas, Mr. Stoker estimates the individual consump-
tion at half a sér per annum. For Calcutta it was
put as high as one sér, because it was regarded as a
luxury of the comparatively wealthy. But it does not hold that position in the
North-Western Provinces. The evidence shows that it is used by the poor more
than by the rich. In many places it is actually cheaper than baluchar ganja, and
being stronger less of it is used at a time. It is probable that Mr. Stoker's
estimate approximates to the truth, and that the 1,150 maunds imported are
consumed by about 92,000 persons. The use is most common in the Meerut,
Rohilkhand, and Kumaon Divisions, and decreases towards the east of the
province; but it is found in all districts, except those bordering on Bundelkhand,
where the consumption is trifling. The consumers are at the above figure
about one-fifth per cent. of the population, and this covers an addition for the
small indigenous production of Kumaon.
Extent of use of bhang.
358. Bhang is not used regularly like charas and ganja. There is reason to
think that a large number of the better class of
Hindus take it in extremely hot weather, and that it
is a regular refreshment with a very large proportion of them in the summer.
There are no statistics of consumption; the drug can often be had for almost
nothing from the abundant wild growth, and is always very cheap. The price of
bhang seems to range from 4 annas to as much as one rupee a sér in towns, tatia
bhang from Farakhabad being more expensive than commoner kinds, while
baluchar ganja is Rs. 20 to Rs. 30, charas Rs. 71/2 to Rs. 25, Nepal ganja going
as high as Rs. 35 and Rs. 40 a sér, and pathar ganja Rs. 21/2 to Rs. 5.
Increase and decrease.
359. In the last twenty years, from 1873 to 1892, the hemp drug revenue of
the North-Western Provinces and Oudh has grown
from 4 to 7 lakhs. The increase in Oudh has been 193
per cent., and in the North-Western Provinces 50 per cent. It is from the
figures of revenue, in the absence of statistics of retail sale, that deductions have
to be made as to the rise or fall of the consumption of the drugs.