CH. X.] REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94. 183
favourite drug. It is, no doubt, true that there is a tendency to find excuse for an
unnecessary indulgence. But the medicinal uses of these drugs lend at least
some measure of support to the popular belief among consumers that some
beneficial effects do follow from the moderate use. There are one or two
witnesses who assert that the use of these drugs, far from being a protection
against malaria, makes the consumer more liable to its influence. This may be
true of the excessive use, which may injure the constitution and predispose to
noxious influences. There is, however, no sufficient ground for believing that it is
true of the moderate use. Other witnesses assert that the effect in alleviating
fatigue is merely temporary, and results in the end in greater exhaustion. So
far as the moderate use is concerned, this view would appear to be mainly theoreti-
cal; for, as has been already pointed out, there are very few witnesses who even
profess to have any experience of evil effects resulting from moderate consumption.
There are also a number of witnesses who attribute these good effects to bhang
only, while some limit them to the occasional use of the drugs. These statements
may perhaps be taken for practical purposes together. The occasional use of
ganja or charas must be rare compared with the occasional use of bhang; for
the smoking habit is more difficult to acquire, and there are therefore few who
can with comfort indulge in it only occasionally.
The truth seems to be that while, no doubt, these drugs are more commonly
consumed merely as stimulants than from any clearly defined idea of their bene-
ficial results, yet they are popularly believed to have (if moderately used) some
such beneficial results as have been above described. Moderate consumers
believe this, and would feel a sense of deprivation if they were unable to obtain
what they regard as a beneficial stimulant. This deprivation would be more
felt among the poorer classes than among the wealthier, whose tastes lead them
to more expensive luxuries. It is the poorer people and the labouring classes
who as a rule use these drugs for the purposes indicated. They are admittedly
as a rule moderate consumers. They do not seem to exceed in the use of hemp
so frequently as in the use of liquor. Those who seem, according to the state-
ments of many witnesses, really to derive no benefit but only harm from the use
of these drugs are those who, leading sedentary or idle lives, take the drugs
from a merely vicious desire of nervous excitement, and have a strong tendency to
excess.
Is moderate use harmless ?
474. The fact that certain beneficial effects result from the moderate use un-
der certain circumstances is not, however, necessarily
inconsistent with the view that even the moderate
use is on the whole injurious. Witnesses were therefore invited to consider
separately the question if the moderate use of these drugs is on the whole
harmless. About eight hundred and fifty witnesses (i.e., considerably more
than two-thirds of the whole) record their opinion. Of these, over sixty
declare that the moderate use cannot be regarded as harmless simply on
the ground that it is apt to develop into excess. The remainder (about eight
hundred) answer the question clearly in the affirmative or negative for each of
the forms of the drugs with which they are acquainted. Nearly three hundred
witnesses deal with charas, and their opinion is as four to three against that
drug. It is in the Punjab, Sind, and the North-
-estern Provinces that opinion is strongest in this
direction. It is in these provinces that charas is best known, and elsewhere
Charas.