6
sumers are classed as excessive. The yearly consumption of a moderate con-
sumer is 35 tolas (9/10 lb. avoirdupois), and the individual amount consumed by
each consumer is, distributing the amount taken by immoderate users over the
whole number of consumers, only 40 tolas. A maund of ganja on an average
suffices 15,000 persons of the total population of Bengal for a year. In
the North-Western Provinces one maund of ganja suffices for 10,000
persons only, if the population of the Meerut, Rohilkhand and Kumaon
Divisions, in which the drug is not used, be omitted from the calculation. In the
Central Provinces 1 in 160 of the population consume ganja, and the daily
ration is about ¼th of a tola. In Madras only 1 in 500 of the population
are ganja-smokers, and in Bombay 1 in 220. Ganja is used principally
for smoking, and so is charas. Bhang is used principally for drinking, and it is
not used regularly like ganja or charas; it forms a refreshing drink in the hot
weather; it is easily procurable, and it is difficult to furnish any statistics as to
the extent of its use. Ganja is usually mixed with tobacco and sometimes
with spices of various kinds, and occasionally, too, ganja is mixed with the seeds
of the dhatura, opium, nux vomica, kanher root, hemp seeds, the root of the
jowar plant (Sorghum), the root of rice, the juice of the madar, the skins and
poison of snakes, and lastly with cantharides. Bhang too is mixed with other
ingredients and sometimes with alcohol. Ganja and bhang are also eaten as
well as drunk, and there is a considerable consumption of sweetmeats made with
ganja, bhang and sometimes charas. Hemp is also sometimes compounded
into cakes.
18. Confining attention to the more important provinces, it appears that the
use of ganja is not on the increase in Bengal, notwithstanding that the popu-
lation increased by 7½ per cent. between 1881 and 1891, and that liquor is
much dearer than ganja in Bengal. In the North-Western Provinces the
hemp drug revenue has increased from 4 to 7 lakhs, and it may be assumed
that the use of the drug has increased. It must be remembered that the
population has increased in the North-Western Provinces by five millions in
the last twenty years, so that the increased consumption is in a measure
accounted for. There is, moreover, an intimate relation between hemp drugs
and alcohol; when alcohol is dear, the use of hemp drugs increases, and
when alcohol is cheap, the use of hemp drugs decreases. Now, during
recent years, hemp drugs have not grown dearer whilst the price of alcohol has
been raised.
In the Punjab the use of charas, which in this province takes the place of
ganja, is on the increase, though the figures are open to some doubt, as the
increase may be due partly to improved registration and to the increase of the
population. In the Central Provinces the evidence points to an increased
use of ganja. In Madras ganja is both cheap and inferior, and it is used
much less than in Bengal or Bombay; the use is no doubt increasing.
In Bombay little reliance can be placed on the figures of retail sale, and
there is no satisfactory basis on which an opinion can be formed. As regards
the minor provinces, the evidence is conflicting. It is found that there is
little evidence of excessive use of hemp drugs in the Army.
19. On a review of the whole evidence the Governor General in Council is
not convinced that there is anything to show that the use of hemp drugs is
increasing in a greater ratio than can be accounted for by the growth of the
population and by improved administration and means of information. As
to the use of bhang, the information is so imperfect that no opinion can be
formed whether it is increasing or not.
20. The use of hemp drugs by religious devotees and ascetics and its em-
Use of hemp drugs by religious devotees and
ascetics and its employment in religious
ceremonies.
ployment in religious ceremonies was
one of the subjects to which the special
attention of the Commission was directed.
Paragraph 450 of the Report, in which their conclusions are summed up, may
well be quoted at length—
" 450. In summing up their conclusions on this chapter, the Commission would first
to be in any way connected with religious observance. As regards Northern India, the
General conclusions.
remark that charas, which is a comparatively
new article of consumption, has not been shown