Medicine - Drugs > Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1894-1895 > Volume I
(292) Page 259
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CH. XIII.] REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94. 259
states that "running
amok is always the result of excessive indulgence" in
hemp
drugs; but under cross-examination he says: "I have never had
experience of
such a case. I only state what I have heard." These witnesses also
are typi-
cal of a considerable class, who refer to hearsay, to rumour, and
to newspapers
as the basis of their opinion.
Many others, like Mr.
Cooke, Commissioner of Orissa (Bengal witness No.
8), base their opinion on what they have heard of the history of
criminal lunatics
in asylums, and really speak only of acts of violence due to mania.
One witness
exposes this fallacy very simply: "I have never seen any instance
of unpreme-
ditated crime committed by a consumer, except that mad men
sometimes grow
violent." Such cases are clearly irrelevant to the question
immediately under
discussion. But there are a good number of witnesses who thus
confound cases
of violence occurring in the course of established insanity with
unpremeditated
crime incited by drugs. Instances are thus given of acts of
violence committed
in the asylum where the lunatic is confined. Some witnesses are
even content
to quote the fact of mania characterized by violence without any
particular
offence being committed as establishing this alleged connection
between hemp
drugs and violent crime.
Some witnesses again base
their opinion on a purely casual connection
between the use of the drugs and the commission of crime. Thus Mr.
Hugh
Fraser (North-Western Provinces witness No. 8) spoke in his written
paper of
many crimes "committed under the influence of ganja." In his oral
examination
he asked that the word "while" should be inserted; and added: "I do
not attri-
bute the crime to the consumption of the drug. I cannot recall the
details
of any of these cases." This is certainly very different from the
impression
which his written answer conveyed. A Bengal witness goes even
further in this
direction. He says: "I know of two cases in which two ganja smokers
com-
mitted murders, one for gain, and the other in heat of
provocation."
There is another class of
witnesses who do not profess at all to require any
basis of fact for their opinion. They speculate on the
probabilities. They are
content to reply that hemp drugs "weaken the brain and may lead to
crime," or
"I can imagine their doing so in the same way as excess of alcohol
in an indivi-
dual of a naturally violent temperament, but not in a peaceful
subject."
Cases referred to.
548. All this tends
greatly to lessen the weight of the evidence in support
of
the affirmative answer to
this question, and to streng-
then the impression that it is but rarely that exces-
sive indulgence in hemp drugs can be credited with inciting to
crime or leading
to homicidal frenzy. All witnesses have been asked whether they
know of cases
of homicidal frenzy. The cases quoted are, however, very few. They
have all
been carefully considered by the Commission. As already stated, a
few witness-
es have mentioned cases which are admittedly mere outbreaks of
established
insanity. These cases are excluded. Two Punjab cases mentioned by
Colonel
Tucker (witness No. 28) and Mr. C. Brown (witness No. 29), in which
Ghazis
and Kukas are stated merely to have fortified themselves by bhang
for a fanati-
cal attack on their enemies, have also been excluded. Finally, four
cases which
occurred beyond British territory in feudatory states have also
been excluded.
With these exceptions, all the cases mentioned by witnesses
answering question
53 have been abstracted and compiled in a tabular form in Vol. III
Appendices.
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Description | Chapter XIII, cont. |
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