148 REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94. [CH. VIII.
Collector of Dharwar, has endeavoured to ascertain the causes of this in-
crease, and whether it is connected with the decline in the consumption
of liquor and toddy. He reports that he can trace no connection between
the two phenomena; that there has been a large increase in the consump-
tion of ganja, which is to be attributed to the introduction of the railway bring-
ing with it scores of ganja smokers and eaters; that there is no reason to suppose
that the people of the district have generally taken to the use of the drug, though
a number of individuals may have contracted the habit from foreigners; and that
there is no export of the drug. He attaches a statement showing that the retail
sales of 1892-93 amounted to 1,345 maunds, an increase of more than 200 maunds
over the figures of 1891-92. It is impossible to suppose that this huge amount
can have been consumed in the district. It is larger than the whole consumption
of the Central Provinces with its Feudatory States and zamindaris. The only
reasonable explanation is that the greater part of it leaves the district, and enters
the surrounding foreign territory, Hyderabad, Mysore, and Goa.
The Kanara
district also may possibly get its supply from the Dharwar shops. The Dharwari
ganja is not unknown, as the Commission found, in Mysore. This exaggeration
in the Dharwar figures furnishes one more reason for distrusting those of other
districts as an index of the local consumption.
Increase and decrease of con-
sumption.
394. On the point of general increase or decrease in the use of ganja, the re-
sponsible official witnesses, excepting the Collector
of Bijapur, take the view that there is no perceptible
change. On the other hand, there are witnesses of other classes who observe
increase, and attribute it to the same economic and social causes as have been
noticed in other provinces. But it may be noted that the high price of liquor does
not take a prominent place among them, and many statements will be found to the
effect that the hemp drugs are giving way to liquor. It cannot be said that there
is a preponderance of the evidence either way or that there is any satisfactory basis
for forming an opinion. The only causes of increase which can be assumed to
have operated in the direction of increase are the increase of population and de-
velopment of railways. The social causes would seem to tell both ways, education,
however, being rather favourable to decrease of the habit than the reverse. The
fact that the lower orders are addicted to liquor in the Bombay Presidency, and
that their earnings are comparatively high and enable them to indulge this pre-
dilection, is a factor operating against increase of the hemp habit. Regarding
bhang and charas, the tendency of the evidence is to show that the former is
giving way to liquor; the use of the latter, practically confined to the City of
Bombay and insignificant in extent, shows no sign of increase.
Bombay States.
395. The extent of use described in the Presidency may be accepted as
applicable to the Native States under the supervision
of the Bombay Government. There are no materials
to enable a more exact estimate to be formed. In the Deccan and Southern
Maratha Country ganja must be the favourite form of the drug, and in the Gujarat
States, Kathiawar, and Cutch it is to a great extent superseded by bhang.
Aden.
396. The statistics show that about 40 maunds of ganja and 4 of bhang are
consumed in Aden, of which the population is 42,734.
This gives the high rate of ganja consumption of one
maund to 1,000 of the population. The maximum price at which the contractor