148 REPORT OF THE INDIAN HEMP DRUGS COMMISSION, 1893-94. [CH. VIII.
Collector of Dharwar, has
endeavoured to ascertain the causes of this in-
crease, and whether it is connected with the decline in the
consumption
of liquor and toddy. He reports that he can trace no connection
between
the two phenomena; that there has been a large increase in the
consump-
tion of ganja, which is to be attributed to the introduction of the
railway bring-
ing with it scores of ganja smokers and eaters; that there is no
reason to suppose
that the people of the district have generally taken to the use of
the drug, though
a number of individuals may have contracted the habit from
foreigners; and that
there is no export of the drug. He attaches a statement showing
that the retail
sales of 1892-93 amounted to 1,345 maunds, an increase of more than
200 maunds
over the figures of 1891-92. It is impossible to suppose that this
huge amount
can have been consumed in the district. It is larger than the whole
consumption
of the Central Provinces with its Feudatory States and zamindaris.
The only
reasonable explanation is that the greater part of it leaves the
district, and enters
the surrounding foreign territory, Hyderabad, Mysore, and Goa. The
Kanara
district also may possibly get its supply from the Dharwar shops.
The Dharwari
ganja is not unknown, as the Commission found, in Mysore. This
exaggeration
in the Dharwar figures furnishes one more reason for distrusting
those of other
districts as an index of the local consumption.
Increase and decrease of
con-
sumption.
394. On the point of
general increase or decrease in the use of ganja, the re-
sponsible official witnesses, excepting the Collector
of Bijapur, take the view that there is no perceptible
change. On the other hand, there are witnesses of other classes who
observe
increase, and attribute it to the same economic and social causes
as have been
noticed in other provinces. But it may be noted that the high price
of liquor does
not take a prominent place among them, and many statements will be
found to the
effect that the hemp drugs are giving way to liquor. It cannot be
said that there
is a preponderance of the evidence either way or that there is any
satisfactory basis
for forming an opinion. The only causes of increase which can be
assumed to
have operated in the direction of increase are the increase of
population and de-
velopment of railways. The social causes would seem to tell both
ways, education,
however, being rather favourable to decrease of the habit than the
reverse. The
fact that the lower orders are addicted to liquor in the Bombay
Presidency, and
that their earnings are comparatively high and enable them to
indulge this pre-
dilection, is a factor operating against increase of the hemp
habit. Regarding
bhang and charas, the tendency of the evidence is to show that the
former is
giving way to liquor; the use of the latter, practically confined
to the City of
Bombay and insignificant in extent, shows no sign of
increase.
Bombay States.
395. The extent of use
described in the Presidency may be accepted as
applicable to the Native
States under the supervision
of the Bombay Government. There are no materials
to enable a more exact estimate to be formed. In the Deccan and
Southern
Maratha Country ganja must be the favourite form of the drug, and
in the Gujarat
States, Kathiawar, and Cutch it is to a great extent superseded by
bhang.
Aden.
396. The statistics show
that about 40 maunds of ganja and 4 of bhang are
consumed in Aden, of which
the population is 42,734.
This gives the high rate of
ganja consumption of one
maund to 1,000 of the
population. The maximum price at which the contractor