72
There being strict regimental orders pro-
hibiting the use of these drugs, I know of none.
24. The greater number are reported to eat the
drug. Men from Hindustan generally drink it.
The exact numbers of each caste or class it is
impossible to obtain.
25. The use of bhang is reported to be decreas-
ing. Ganja and charas seldom heard of.
28. From what I can gather, habitual moderate
consumers even do not exist in the regiment.
32. None known of a religious nature. It is a
social custom to take bhang at the Holi festival.
33. The use of ganja and charas is generally dis-
approved of on account of their demoralising ten-
dencies. I can learn of no custom of hemp wor-
ship.
39. Smoking is considered the more injurious.
41. No.
42. The moderate use of these drugs is con-
sidered injurious generally to health; always a
liability to increase the amount taken or smoked.
43. Generally inoffensive.
44. It produces intoxication. Creates no appetite.
Effect does not last more than three hours. The
after-effect, languor, and the want of the drug does
create longing and uneasiness.
45. Presuming that this question refers to cases
which may have come under my notice in the
regiment, my reply is that no habitual moderate
consumers of the drug have come under my notice,
nor have any immoderate consumers.
46. Vide answer to question 45.
49. Not known.
51. Habitual consumers are bad characters.
From my own experience I can name one case
only—that of a very smart Havildar, a Hindus-
tani in another regiment, going utterly to the bad
in twelve months, entirely from the use of bhang.
53. Yes.
I do not know of any such case.
54 and 55. Yes.
Answer No. 104.
20. (a) Combatants—
Sikhs
904
Punjabi Hindus
3
Mussalmans
5
(b) Non-combatants—
Sikh
1
Mussalmans
2
Hindu
1
(c) Authorised camp followers—
Mussalmans
4
Hindus
43
Nil.
24. No regular consumers.
About 80 sepoys (Sikhs) and 5 camp followers
(Hindus) are believed occasionally during the hot
weather to drink a concoction made from bhang,
seeds of melon, cucumber and gourd, almonds, etc.
A few (number impossible to state) occasionally
eat bhang when they have no means or opportunity
of preparing the concoction.
25. The consumption of bhang by men belonging
to the regiment is on the decrease, because the use
is strictly forbidden in the regiment; but when the
regiment was raised in 1887 some of the men trans-
ferred from other regiments were more or less con-
firmed consumers. These have mostly now left
the regiment. As far as is known, no ganja
or charas is used by any men belonging to the
regiment.
28. As there are no habitual consumers in the
regiment, no daily rate can be given.
32. No custom of any sort in regard to the
consumption of these drugs is practised by natives
of the Punjab.
33. A bhang-consumer is looked down upon as a
worthless character, though the opinion in the
Native Army is not sufficiently strong to make a
consumer an outcast.
The disrepute is due to the fact that the effects
of bhang are intoxicating and stupefying.
No sect worships the hemp plant, as far as is
known in the regiment.
39. As smoking is considered unlawful for Sikhs
and is not practised by any one belonging to the
regiment, there is no evidence on this point.
41. The concoction, of which bhang is one ingre-
dient, before-mentioned, is said by consumers to
have a cooling effect, but the general opinion is
that bhang, whether eaten or drunk, is merely taken
for its intoxicating effect, and has no beneficial
effects whatever, except that, like other stimulants,
it may sometimes overcome a disinclination for
food.
42. As far as my own experience goes, I have
never known a consumer of bhang who was not a
bad or at least indifferent character, and therefore
I am inclined to believe that its use must be harm-
ful.
43. My experience is that they are mostly quar-
relsome.
44. Bhang produces intoxication in a degree
corresponding to the amount taken: when eaten it
is much more intoxicating than when it forms only
one ingredient of a sherbet. It does not allay
hunger. Like all stimulants it will sometimes
enable a man to eat his food when previously dis-
inclined to do so.
The after-effects subsequent to intoxication said
to be similar to that of other intoxicants (headache,
etc). The use creates a craving for stimulant, the
use is said not to become a necessity as, it is said,
the use of opium becomes.
45. No physical or moral noxious effects have
been observed. Mental effects have been produced
by the long-continued habitual moderate use, as
described in answer to paragraph 6.
No.
No, if anything, it aids digestion.
No, it probably has some effect in relieving
bronchitis and asthma.
No, not in moderate quantities.
The prolonged moderate use of bhang produces
insanity, and when it does so, is usually the excit-
ing cause of it.
It produces acute mania and also mania with
delusions. The insanity is often permanent. When
temporary, the symptoms may be reinduced by a
return to the use of the drug.
Insanes who have become so from the use of the
drug confess to having used it.