8
to moderate use, and when they are referring to excessive use. To say that
excessive use causes harm to the smoker of ganja, is merely to say that there
is a point, just as there is with the most harmless articles of consumption,
where consumption becomes harmful, and therefore excessive. The real ques-
tion is to what extent among the smokers of ganja the consumption of it is
pushed to the point where it causes harm. And even in this respect further
difficulties arise; for injurious effects, when they occur, often arise, not from the
smoking of ganja pure and simple, but from the habit of smoking it mixed
with other ingredients. As remarked by Raja Soshi Sikareshwar Ray in his
dissent—
" At present we have not sufficient means to ascertain how far the injury caused to
the consumers of the drug is due to the pure drug itself, and how far to the other poison-
ous substances that are occasionally mixed with it."
Of these the most injurious is dhatura, and the opinion that the consumers
of hemp drugs, and especially, though not exclusively, excessive consumers,
would take to dhatura if hemp drugs were denied them, is, as the Commission
point out, entitled to much weight. There is a medicinal use of hemp drugs,
and moderate consumers would feel a sense of deprivation if they were unable
to obtain what they regard as a beneficial stimulant. This deprivation would
be chiefly felt by the poorer classes, who are, as a rule, ad mittedly moderate
consumers; for those who, according to many witnesses, suffer harm from hemp
drugs are persons who lead sedentary or idle lives, or, in other words, the
richer classes.
26. Ganja is held by a proportion of seven to five of the witnesses
to be harmless if taken in moderation; but charas is a more potent form of
the product, and is generally considered to be more injurious. On the whole,
if moderation and excess in the use of drugs are distinguished, which is a thing
that the witnesses examined have, as just remarked, found it very hard to do,
the weight of evidence is that the moderate use of hemp drugs is not injurious.
This conclusion of the Commission the Governor General in Council feels bound
to accept. It is also found that the habit of using hemp drugs is easier to
break off than the habit of using alcohol or opium. It is a very striking fact
that of the small minority of witnesses who compare the effects of alcohol and
hemp drugs, a majority of nine to one declare alcohol to be more injurious than
hemp drugs. There is a significant remark made by Khan Bahadur Kadir Dad
Gul Khan, C.I.E., Sind Witness No. 4, on this point. He says-
" All classes of the people, from the most influential spiritual leader to the lowest
beggar, will say that the British Government, while not interfering or prohibiting the use
of alcohol in their own country, are stopping them here from the use of less intoxicating
drugs, which they have been using from time immemorial, and which is also religiously
respected."
Paragraphs 496, 497, and 498 of the Report are too long to be quoted in
extenso in this Resolution, but they will well repay perusal. They indicate, in a
general way, the manner in which the witnesses in many cases, and the public
generally, have formed opinions or impressions on matters relating to ganja
consumption, which, when brought to the test of examination, prove to go
beyond any of the ascertained facts. As a rule, the presumption based upon
the evidence is, as has been already said, that the moderate use of hemp drugs
does not cause injury, though exceptional cases do arise in which this rule does
not hold good.
27. As to the physical effects of the use of hemp drugs, the Commission
Effects of the use of hemp drugs—
consider that the moderate use of ganja
(a) Physical effects of the use of hemp drugs. and charas is not appreciably harmful.
28. The question of the mental effects produced by hemp drugs has been
examined by the Commission with great
(b) Mental effects produced by hemp drugs.
care. The popular impression that hemp
drugs are a fruitful source of insanity is very strong, but nothing can be more
remarkable than the complete break-down of the evidence on which it is based.
Popular prejudice has over and over again caused cases of insanity to be ascribed
to ganja which have had no connection whatever with it; and then statistics
based on this prejudice are quoted as confirming or establishing the prejudice