32
REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94.
[APP.
necessary to arrange otherwise. Regard is paid to the solvency and respectability of the rival
bidders. The Collector has always the prices of previous years to guide him, and is obliged
to explain any substantial fluctuations. These depend on the competition, on the character of
the season, and on the variations in the cost price of drugs. The number of capitalists engag-
ed in the trade is not very large, and nothing is commoner among them than combinations to
keep down the price. I have noticed this point in my annual report for 1891-92. Latterly,
I think, the value of these contracts has become better known and the contractors' profits
shorn to more reasonable dimensions. Measures have also been taken to defeat combinations,
and with good results. Still it is a defect in the system that it leaves the whole of the reve-
nue collected here to be determined by the competition of the auctions. The advantages of
the system are that a large revenue is very easily and cheaply collected and that smuggling
and other evasive or illegal acts are minimized. The contractor has no reason to commit them
himself, and it is his interest to detect any one attempting them. This is no small advantage
from an administrative point of view. Retail prices are under the existing system kept at the
highest possible point.
35. The rules which govern the import of all forms of hemp-drugs will be found in the
Excise Manual, Chapter X. All import, export, and transport is under passes signed or
countersigned by the local authority. In the case of ganja and bhang the only importers are
our own contractors. Charas is also brought in by Panjabi traders, who sell to those of our
contractors who do not care to procure their supplies direct from the Panjab. These traders
frequent a few centres to which they convey their stock. Their sales are all reported and duly
registered on their passes. They take out no licenses as they sell only to contractors, for
whose convenience they are permitted to trade in the manner described. The legality of this
arrangement is questionable and will be considered when the rules come under revision. Some
of these traders themselves hold district contracts, and in such cases of course their proceedings
are open to no objection. Sometimes contractors, instead of importing from foreign provinces,
obtain their supplies from contractors of other districts. This happens in the case of drugs
in small demand or in the event of sudden emergencies. Such consignments are conveyed
under pass. In these ways a good deal of transport of drugs takes place from one part of the
provinces to another.
The amount of smuggling from outside the provinces is, I believe, quite inconsiderable:
the reason is given above. A little ganja and charas finds its way over the frontier, no
doubt at many points in the possession of travellers, fakirs, and the like, who chiefly bring
* Ganja and charas, 5 tolas. Bhang, it for their own consumption. Within the legal limits of
quarter seer.
possession* this cannot be prevented. I have no reason to
believe that any illicit traffic or sale occurs which is worth taking into consideration. Occa-
sionally drugs brought from one district are illicitly sold in another to the injury of the con-
tractors. This can rarely be done without the connivance of some licensee of the district
from which the drugs are brought, and is usually the result of hostility between rival con-
tractors. The authority of the police and revenue staff is always exerted to suppress such
practices.
But there is undoubtedly a considerable consumption of bhang and a certain, though
small, consumption of ganja locally produced which pays no tax direct or indirect. How this
happens will be sufficiently understood from what I have said in the earlier part of this memo-
randum. It would be difficult to check and impossible to wholly suppress this consumption.
Illicit import would easily and rapidly increase if stringent measures were adopted to repress
trade in, and consumption of, drugs.
CONSUMPTION.
36. In the tabular statement which accompanies this memorandum, the columns
showing the quantities sold retail, are necessarily blank. Any record of the sort would have
to be kept by the retail vendors, and, if it could be maintained at all, would be utterly un-
trustworthy. It follows, therefore, that statistics showing the amount of drugs actually
consumed or retailed are nowhere available. This is inevitable. Where a commodity is issued
as required, like opium or country spirits, from a Government depôt on payment of a fixed
duty, such a record can be kept, and it may fairly be assumed that the whole amount issued
is consumed within the year. But this is not the case with hemp-drugs. The amount con-
sumed can only be inferred from the amount of imports and exports. This might not be
correct for any one year, because the imports of one year are often consumed or exported in
the next. But over a series of years the net imports of charas and ganja will afford a very
fair indication of the consumption if allowance is made for waste and deterioration. In the
case of hemp-drugs this is not inconsiderable, for they deteriorate rather rapidly. Even an
accurate return of the import and transport of bhang would fail to show the true consump-
tion, as there is a large amount locally grown of which no trustworthy return could be
secured.
The statistics of import and export are, I regret to say, very defective. In the absence
of any fixed duty and with a revenue determined solely by the license-fees no provincial record
of the traffic has been kept up. An enquiry commenced a year and a half ago showed that