211

(b)   Mixed with milk, sugar, fruits and spices
into a sweetmeat or majum of green
colour.

(c)   Made into an infusion or pounded with
spices and then drunk as a heverage or
sherbet,

(d)   It is also used as medicine for cattle.

16. Yes, but I cannot say if ganja or charas
can be prepared from the wild bhang. They are
generally male plants.

17.   By the agricultural classes.

18.   Yes, they do deteriorate if kept carelessly
or exposed to damp or moisture. With ordinary
care it keeps good for a year. If kept in air-
tight receptacles and dry places they don't dete-
riorate and keep well for a year.

19.   Yes; only for smoking.

20.   Almost all classes, especially ascetics,
fakirs, mahants, and bairagies and religious
mendicants. I am sorry I cannot give the pro-
portion, but very few smoke charas.

21.   All three kinds of ganja are used for
smoking; generally flat ganja is preferred.

22. No native charas is used, but charas im-
ported from Nepal or the North-Western Prov-
inces.

23. Yes, by the lower and poorer classes and
persons addicted to ganja when they cannot get it
in time, but not to any marked extent.

24. Brahmins, Babhans, Rajputs, ascetics,
fakirs, mahants, bairagies, and the agricultural
class of Hindus and some Musalmans drink bhang.
Other classes and well-to-do people sometimes eat
majum or bhang sweetmeats. I cannot give the
proportion, but the number of consumers who eat
bhang is not much.

25. I have no statistics, but, so far as one can
see or hear, the use of ganja seems to be on the
increase.

26.   Cannot give the proportion.

27. Ascetics, fakirs, mahants, bairagies are
generally habitual excessive consumers of ganja
and bhang from their wandering habits. It also
enables them to devote much of their time in un-
disturbed contemplation of their gods.

Brahmins, Rajputs, Babhans, agricultural
classes, who abstain from drinking alcohol or to
whom alcohol is prohibited by religious and social
rules, are moderate consumers.

28.   (a) One to two pice (ganja).
(b). Two to four annas (ganja).

Bhang is cheap and does not cost much. A
moderate consumer can use a pice worth of bhang
for two or three days. I should think that some
wild bhang is collected by the agricultural
classes.

29.   With ganja is mixed dry tobacco. Dhatura
is sometimes used with bhang by confirmed
drinkers when their object is to render themselves
perfectly reckless or delirious.

Bhang massala is also used. It consists of the
following, viz.:—

Sonf (aniseed), lowng (cloves), ilaichi (car-
damom), gol mirich (black pepper), dalchini
(cinnamon), chini (sugar), seeds of cucum-
ber and melon, kashni, rose leaves.

30.   Ganja to a great extent in company.
Bhang is used more in solitude. Charas is not
consumed very much. Confined mainly to the
male sex and the youths. Children scarcely use
them.

31. Yes, and difficult to break it off. It has a
tendency to develop into an excessive habit.

32.   Lower classes, ascetics and fakirs generally
offer ganja and bhang to their gods and deities
whom they worship.

There is a custom amongst Bengalis to drink
bhang and offer to friends and visitors on the Bijaya
Dasami, day after the Durga Puja, but it is very
temperately used. It does not lead to the forma-
tion of the habit, nor is it injurious.

33. The educated and respectable class condemn
the consumption of these drugs and hold the con-
sumers in disrepute, because of their narcotic
effects and because it leads to a habit which is
difficult to break off, and because its excessive use
is injurious. I am not aware of any custom of
worshipping the hemp plant.

34.   It would be a serious privation to habitual
consumers of ganja to forego its use. If they do
so, it would make them ill.

35.   I do not see how the use of these drugs
can be prohibited unless people themselves give
up the habit. The hemp plant grows wild and
spontaneous. It can only be prohibited by de-
claring its use as an offence and punishable under
the law. Prohibition of the use of these drugs
would certainly cause discontent among the con-
sumers, but such discontent would not amount to
any political danger. Habitual consumers would
have recourse to other stimulants or drugs.

36. I do not think so.

37.   Charas is very little used in these parts,
so I cannot make a comparison.

38.   Flat ganja is said to be milder than the
round and chur ganja.

39.   Ganja and charas are not eaten or drunk
here, but ganja smoking is, however, more injuri-
ous than eating or drinking bhang.

40.   Native physicians sometimes prescribe
bhang as medicine in certain diseases. It is also
used in the treatment of cattle. It is also given
to cattle to shake off fatigue.

41.   (a), (b) and (c). Yes.

The agricultural and labouring classes mostly.
I refer to the moderate habitual use.

42.   Vide answer to question 41.

43.   Yes.

44.   It is refreshing. It produces some intoxi-
cation to the moderate habitual consumers: it
removes fatigue, creates appetite. The effect
lasts for three or four hours after each dose.
Moderate use of bhang does not produce any
longing or uneasiness, but the use of ganja does
produce longing.

45.   Not to any marked extent.

46.   Habitual excessive use of these drugs pro-
duces noxious effects. It leads to longing; it im-
pairs the constitution, injures digestion, causes
dysentery or asthma, impairs the moral sense, in-
duces habits of immorality and debauchery; it
deadens the intellect, and produces insanity. I
am sorry I cannot quote particular instances, but
what I have stated above is the result of my
general observations.

47 and 48. No.

49 and 50. Yes, also by prostitutes of the lower
order. Excessive use of ganja, if continued for
any length of time, produces impotence.

51. Yes, there are some bad characters among

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