CH. X.] REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94. 169
Ganja and charas compared.
453. Before proceeding to discuss the evidence regarding the effects produced
by the drugs, it will be well to notice briefly one or
two preliminary questions. One of these is the
different effects of the different forms of hemp drugs. Witnesses were requested
to compare the effects of ganja and charas, and there is a considerable body of
evidence on this subject. Inasmuch as charas is theoretically the pure resin
extracted from the hemp plant, and the resin is the active principle in all
varieties of the drug, it might be expected that this would be everywhere the
strongest form in which the drug is found. But the evidence is not all to this
effect. Charas is but little known in Bombay, Madras, Assam, and Burma;
and ganja is but little known in the Punjab. In these five provinces, therefore,
but few witnesses institute any comparison; and though there are some who
have seen the effects of these drugs in different parts of India, yet the views of
the majority of witnesses from these provinces who do institute the com-
parison must of necessity have but little weight. In the North-Western
Provinces, the Central Provinces, and Sind, where both drugs are more or less
known, the great majority (six to one) of those who make any distinction in
strength between these two forms declare that charas is the stronger. In
Bengal, on the other hand, a majority (two to one) of those who discriminate
regard ganja as the stronger. Even in these provinces, however, the evidence
cannot be accepted with confidence, for it is not usual for ganja and charas to
be smoked by the same person. The evidence shows clearly enough that there
is no essential difference between charas and ganja, but that the former takes
in the Punjab and in parts of the North-Western Provinces the place among
intoxicants which is taken by ganja in other parts of India. The only difference
in regard to their effects apparent from the evidence is that some witnesses assert
one form to be stronger than the other. There are, however, differences of opi-
nion among the witnesses as to which is the stronger. The importance of these differ-
ences of opinion perhaps lies mainly in the necessity for explaining them. There are
two general reasons why some of the witnesses might erroneously regard charas as
weaker than ganja—viz., (a) that the effect of each smoke depends on the amount
of the drug used, and difference of experience as to this has admittedly led to
difference of view regarding the drugs; and (b) that the consumers of charas in
Bengal are of the higher class, and would naturally speak in favour of their own
drug. There are also two reasons why charas may actually compare less favour-
ably with ganja in Bengal than elsewhere—-viz., (a) that charas undoubtedly
deteriorates by keeping, and also appears to be largely adulterated for the market;
and (b) that the Bengal ganja, being more highly cultivated and more carefully
prepared, reaches the market a better article than the ganja of any other province.
There is no evidence of any other difference between these two forms of hemp
drugs except one of degree; and this difference of degree does not appear
to be at all a certainty everywhere. The experiments conducted by Dr. Evans
and Mr. Hooper are reported in Vol. III Appendices. They indicate that
charas from various sources may contain from 44.5 to 18.45 per cent. of resin
soluble in alcohol, while Bengal round ganja affords 21.6 per cent. The
physiological value of the alcoholic extracts is not, however, the same in all
samples of charas compared with that obtained from Bengal ganja. In only one
sample of charas were the effects produced comparable to those produced by a
similar dose of the alcoholic extract of the "standard" ganja. The resin
extracted from the other samples of charas was much weaker, doses varying
43