BENGAL MEMORANDUM.
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16. Again there is no Government monopoly in ganja as there is in opium, and Govern-
ment is not concerned with either the wholesale or the retail trade beyond seeing that the
drug pays duty before passing into consumption. The difficulty of having a public warehouse is
that the ganja stored in it would consist of numerous small parcels, all belonging to different
individuals, and this would lead to much confusion. Again, the drug has to be frequently
aired, turned, and handled in order to keep it in good condition, and it is next to impossible to
secure this periodical examination when the ganja is stored in public golas situated at a distance
from the houses of the cultivators. It is mainly owing to these difficulties that cultivators
have so long been allowed to keep the ganja in their own houses, but the so-called private
golas are often mere open sheds, and are not the secure warehouses that the rules contemplate.
A properly built gola would be beyond the means of the average cultivator. But even with
suitable buildings there would be no security unless one key remained with a Government offi-
cial, whose presence would then be necessary every time the gola had to be opened.
17. The present system of storage is admittedly defective, and it cannot be denied that
some ganja is smuggled or otherwise illicitly disposed of. But owing to the comparatively
bulky nature of the drug there is reason to think that the extent of smuggling is not large.
The small number of cases detected also point to the same conclusion. The privilege of grow-
ing ganja is valued, and the cultivators, who are generally well-to-do men, are averse to doing
anything that may cause forfeiture of their licenses, not to speak of other penalties; and it is
the general opinion of those who have any experience of the ganja tract that the cultivators as
a class honestly and faithfully carry out the engagements.
18. Garhjat ganja, as its name implies, comes from the Garhjat or Tributary States of
Orissa, and is in use only in the three districts of the Orissa Division. Its cultivation and
manufacture is apparently under no control. Small quantities of Garhjat ganja are imported
into Puri under excise rules, but more is smuggled there as well as in the other two districts,
the extended frontier and the jungly nature of the country affording great facilities for such
illicit dealings and rendering detection extremely difficult.
19. The resin from which charas is manufactured is not produced in abundance in the
plant in Bengal, and charas is not made here. It is obtained from Amritsar and Mirzapur,
where again it is imported from Yarkand and other places in Central Asia. Charas used at
one time to be imported from Nepal also, but the trade has apparently died out.
20. The importers of ganja and other hemp drugs are the wholesale dealers of those
drugs. They are licensed.
Excise Manual, clause 27, section XX.
Clause 28, section XX.
Clause 29, section XX.
As regards ganja the following procedure is observed:—
A licensed wholesale merchant or retailer of another district who wishes to purchase ganja
from the cultivators has in the first place to apply for a pass
to the Collector of his own district, which is granted on pay-
ment of a fee of Rs. 2. The pass having been granted, a duplicate of it is sent by the officer
granting it by the same day's post to the Collector of Rajshahi, who on receipt of it prepares
a license to purchase, and transmits it to the supervisor of the ganja cultivation at Naogaon for
delivery to the purchaser. The license is granted subject to the condition that the purchaser
shall, when he has made his purchases, collect the whole of the ganja in a place to be approved
by the supervisor until it is ready for export. The importer on reaching the place of purchase
has to give up to the supervisor the original pass granted to
him by the Collector of his own district, and receives the
license authorizing him to purchase. He then makes purchases and stores the ganja in the
place approved by the supervisor. The ganja purchased for export is weighed, first without
straw or covering, and then with the covering, and both the
aggregate and net weights of each package are entered on the
back of the license or permit and on the importer's original pass. The ganja is packed and
sealed in bales or bags in the presence of the supervisor or one of his assistants.
Clause 30, section XX.
Clause 31, section XX.
Clause 32, section XX.
Choor ganja from which all the woody fibre has been removed is packed in bags only
which are sealed on each seam and at the mouth. No small
or detached twigs of ganja are inserted in the bundles of flat
ganja, but any such twigs as may be detached in the process of preparation are made up into
separate bales or bags and charged with the duty leviable on round ganja. When the drug
purchased has thus been weighed, packed, and sealed and made
ready for despatch, the supervisor returns to the exporting
merchant the original pass after having endorsed on it all the particulars as regards the
weight and number of bales, the name of the purchaser and of the charandar or person in
whose charge and custody it is conveyed, the mode of conveyance by which the ganja
is to be transported, the places, warehouses, or shops to which the transport is made
and the period for which the pass is current. The supervisor at the same time sends the
license or permit with the necessary entries endorsed on the back to the Collector of
Rajshahi for entry of the weights on the duplicate pass, which is then forwarded to the
Collector of the importing district. A report of these parti-
culars is at the same time made by the supervisor to the
Collector of Rajshahi, a duplicate of this report being forwarded by him by post to the
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