FURTHER ENQUIRIES REGARDING THE ALLEGED HEMP DRUG CASES OF 1892. 121
The man has remained sane since his discharge in May 1893: probably a case of toxic
insanity, the poisons being opium and Indian hemp.
LAHORE;
W. COATES, M.D.,
31st January 1894.
Superintendent, Lunatic Asylum.
Narain Das, a resident of Khem Karan, states that Tehl Shah, a resident of Phagwara,
Jullunder district, came to Khem Karan some time ago, and used to drink bhang and smoke
charas profusely. He became subject to a boil on leg and was admitted in the hospital at
Kasur, where he became insane and was sent to the Lunatic Asylum; that ever since his
return from Lahore he is all right in every respect.
Tehl Shah himself admits that he used to drink bhang, smoke charas, and take opium
profusely, and one and a half years ago he became insane, as an effect of these, and that
ever since his return from the Asylum he is in perfect senses. None of his parents had
ever had an attack of insanity.
F. S. JAMALDIN,
18th December 1893.
Magistrate, 1st class, Lahore District.
8.—Mussamat Mooran, aged 40.
Said to be a prostitute and addicted to bhang; was admitted to the Lunatic Asylum in
September 1892 and discharged cured in May 1893. There are other possible causes for
her insanity, viz., grief and a hard life, but on the whole the evidence seems to point to
the use of hemp as the real cause of the insanity.
LAHORE;
W. COATES, M.D.,
31st January 1894.
Superintendent, Lunatic Asylum.
Dated Shujabad, the 26th November 1893.
From—TIKRAN LAL, Extra Assistant Commissioner, Magistrate, 1st class,
TO—A. MEREDITH, Esq., Deputy Commissioner, Mooltan.
IN accordance with your order of the 17th instant, I went to Shujabad on the 25th
instant, and made a local enquiry into the case of a lunatic called Mussamat Mooran.
2. From the statements of several persons who appeared before me and gave evi-
dence, I find that Mussamat Mooran is originally a resident of village Giddarwala, Tahsil
Allahabad, in the Bhawalpur State, and came and settled in Shujabad about 22 years ago.
She was then in her sound health; she lived at Shujabad as a prostitute for about five or
six years and was addicted to drinking bhang and sometimes liquor. She gave birth to a
male child during her residence at Shujabad, which died when it was six months old. Six
months after the death of her child she left Shujabad, and nobody knows where she went,
but she was seen by Muhammad Hayat, witness, at Mooltan one year after her departure
from Shujabad. Muhammad Hayat says that even then she seemed to be of sound mind.
After two or three years' absence from Shujabad she returned there as a lunatic. Nobody
can precisely say from his personal knowledge that how and where she became insane.
However, it is clear from the evidence that she was subject to fits of irritation while under
the influence of bhang before her leaving Shujabad. I think that the evidence of Kadir
Baksh is most reliable, because he was on most intimate terms with Mussamat Mooran
and was with her for days and nights together, and consequently in a better position to
observe her state of mind very closely. He also says that while under the influence of
bhang she was sometimes very irritable and used to pick up quarrels for nothing and break
her household utensils, but when without bhang she was never irritable.
From the evidence it is clear that opium is not the drug to which she was addicted,
but the excessive use of bhang has, in my opinion, based upon the evidence before me, a
great deal to do with the present malady, unless of course something is found out to trace
this disease to some hereditary causes.
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