5
Answer No. 8.
20. (a) Combatants—
Bhils
31
Minas
203
Mhairs
132
Sikhs
122
Muhammadans
108
Rajputs
97
Grassias
13
Miscellaneous
149
TOTAL
855
(b) Non-combatants—
Muhammadans
2
(c) Authorised camp followers—
Muhammadans
10
Rajputs
6
Brahman
1
Sweepers
2
Kolis
2
TOTAL
21
Ganja — Minas
4 (habitual users)
Ahir
1
Bhil
1
Minas
4
1
(occasional
users)
Rajput
4
1
(occasional
users)
Charas never used.
24. Brahmans and Baniyas drink bhang, and it
is occasionally taken at festivals, etc., or when invited
to the Brahmans' houses by other men in the
regiment, but they cannot be called consumers.
25. The use of ganja and bhang is decreasing, and
very rare now, as the men who used these drugs
have mostly gone on pension.
Charas is never used and scarcely known in these
parts.
28. One pice worth is a usual daily allowance.
32. Holi, Dewali festivals. Bhang is taken in
the same way and for same reasons as wine at
merry meetings amongst Europeans.
33. Opinion in the native army is decidedly
against these practices, as they render men unfit for
duty; but in this corps alcohol is taken much more
than hemp drugs. Charas and ganja are in
disrepute. The condition to which the charas and
ganja-smoker is reduced, intoxication, madness
and senility are sufficient to bring the drug into
disrepute.
No.
39. Ganja and charas are only smoked. Bhang
is drunk and also is used in preparation of a
sweetmeat, majum.
The former, viz., smoking ganja and charas, are
very distinctly more injurious than the eating (ma-
jum) or drinking of bhang. Ganja and charas
(flowering tops and resin, respectively, of the hemp
plant) contain far more of the active narcotic prin-
ciples than bhang, which is an infusion of the dried
leaves, and lead to, and are acknowledged to lead to,
dirt, crime, mental and physical ruin. Of the two,
charas is the more powerful in its effects and results.
The drinking of bhang is much like the drinking
of spirits in its effects. A period of excitement
followed by one of stupor, but the after-results
and the craving arising from charas and ganja-
smoking are not experienced.
41. I am not aware of any beneficial results
arising from even moderate use of ganja or charas.
The moderate use of bhang may be useful as a
stimulant in certain cases, just as alcohol is. The
most that can be said for it is that used ordinarily
in moderate doses it appears to be productive of no
harm, and, unlike ganja and charas, does not tend to
establish a habit or create a craving.
42. Moderate use of bhang innocuous. Moderate
use of ganja and charas is almost impossible. The
tendency is almost inevitably to excess, and excess
spells ruin, physical, mental and moral.
43. Moderate consumers appear, as a rule, to be
inoffensive to their neighbours.
44. Moderate use of bhang—refreshing, does not
produce intoxication, increases appetite. About two
hours. No after-effects. No.
Charas and ganja—stimulant, not intoxicant;
allays hunger. No. Three and four hours. Yes, if
the dose is not renewed, a condition of utter help-
lessness and stupidity. There is the most intense
craving for a repetition of the dose.
45. The moderate use (habitual) of bhang ap-
pears to be innocuous.
The moderate use of charas and ganja is apt to
develop into the immoderate. Some who are able
to keep to the pipe a day do not appear to be any
the worse, but ordinarily it may be stated that the
charas and ganja-smoker, and especially the former,
becomes weak physically, mentally and morally.
Yes, by its primary stimulant and excitant
effects and secondary narcotic effects on the nervous
system, the whole system becomes impaired.
Yes, takes away the appetite and impairs the
digestion, lessens the strength and powers of re-
sistance to disease. I am not aware that it causes
dysentery: but ganja and charas-smoking cause
bronchitis and asthma. It does impair the moral
sense; theft will be committed in order that the
craving may be indulged. The smoker does become
lazy and dirty in his habits; it does not appear to
induce habits of immorality or debauchery.
The tendency is in this direction, viz., the deaden-
ing of intellect and production of insanity: for the
tendency is for the moderate consumer to become
an excessive smoker. Those who are, and are able
to remain really moderate, do not appear to suffer
in intellect.
No cases of insanity are known to me; but I
have no reason to doubt that, as in the case of alco-
hol, hemp may stand in relation to insanity, either as
exciting or predisposing cause. The insanity pro-
duced is usually of a maniacal type, temporary
or permanent; if temporary, the symptoms may cer-
tainly be reinduced by the use of the drug. Hal-
lucinations, sexual or otherwise, laughing, singing,
furiously delirious, tingling, numbness, followed by
a stage of narcotism, dilated pupils, etc. During the
stage of excitement, the patient is apt to avenge
fancied or real wrongs.
Personally such cases are not known to me,
but I think that there is evidence to show that people
of weak intellect or defective self-control are the very
people who would indulge to excess in the drug,
and that thus the predisposition to insanity already
existing would be excited.
No information on medical history sheets of
regiment.
46. I have met with no habitual excessive con-
sumers and can only refer to the answers to
question 45.
Questions 45 and 46 [answered by Medical
Officer.]