344
respectable Marwari
families, among whom I have
a large practice. I am not sure of the fact; if the
statistics do not support it, my impression is pro-
bably mistaken. I have attended one hundred
cases of the kind I have described. They are
cases of poisoning by bhang and ganja, and are
common only during the Holi festival. Of late
a practice has grown up of taking a mixture of
bhang and ganja and other drugs, of which I am
pretty sure from certain symptoms that dhatura
is one. One patient only has told me that he had
used dhatura, but I have observed dhatura symp-
toms in many of the cases. I cannot be positive
that in any single one of the cases the symptoms
were solely referable to the toxic effects of ganja
or bhang. None of the cases formed the subject
of any police enquiry. The drugs I understood
to have been taken voluntarily for intoxication,
and in no case were the effects fatal. None
of these cases was a case of insanity. Some
were cases of intoxication, and the longest dura-
tion of any case of intoxication was thirty-six
hours.
Question 46.—My
answer to this question is
embodied in my answer to Question 45. I have
no experience of the effects of excess except what
is stated in this place. My experience is not to
any large extent what I have gathered in my
practice, but rather what I have learnt from
smokers.
Question 51.—I
mean that in quarters e and g
of Bara Bazar,
assaults and petty offences of vio-
lence are extremely common, and that I have failed
altogether to discover that the hemp drugs had
any connection with them. The "badmashes of
Mirzapur" are people who have come down from
the North-Western Provinces
and taken up their
quarters in this part of the city of Calcutta.
Question 52.—It is
not an exaggerated state-
ment that living examples can be seen of men
taking Rs. 2 worth of ganja daily. They are
sadhus and sanyasis, and people take pleasure in
treating them liberally when they come down to
Calcutta. I know several of these men who have
consumed as much as Rs. 2 a day. Last year I
made enquiries of a sadhu in connection with a
case of alleged insanity that had occurred in a man
who was said to have learnt the habit from him.
The sadhu told me that he had been taking ganja
for the last forty or fifty years, ever since he was a
child, and that he could take as much as Rs. 2 or
Rs. 3 worth a day. I know four cases among re-
spectable people, Marwari gentlemen, one of whom
told me that each of them spent Rs. 2 a day on
hemp. I cannot say that they used this amount
themselves, but the information was given to me
by one of the members who has supplied me with
a good deal of the information contained in my
paper.
Question 68.—The
houses I refer to are private
places where the young men meet every day.
Each frequenter has to contribute to the expenses
of the house. They are in fact clubs for ganja-
smoking. I know one shop on the side of the
Chitpur Road where the keeper invites juveniles
to come and smoke without charging them any-
thing, so as to teach them the habit. The shop
almost faces Bartala Street. This is a licensed
shop. There may be other shops in the Chitpur
Road, but the above description will identify
the one of which I am speaking. My informa-
ation is based on the statements of respectable
persons whom I entirely believe.
136. Evidence of
MOHIM CHUNDER, ROY, BRAHMIN, Medical
Practitioner,
Nator, Rajshahi.
1. My long residence
in Rajshahi, the best hemp-
drugs-producing district in Bengal, and the oppor-
tunities I have had, as a medical practitioner, to
mix with the various sections of the community.
2. Round
ganja is unknown in this district.
The other preparations are locally known as ganja
(flat and chur), charas and bhang.
19. So far as I know,
ganja and charas are
used only for smoking.
23. Bhang, as a rule, is never used for smoking.
28. (a) From 2 to 4 pice per diem.
(b) From 2 to 4 annas per diem.
29. Ganja and charas are
ordinarily prepared
with tobacco for smoking. Bhang is usually
prepared with black pepper for either eating or
drinking purposes. Coriander, cinnamon, cloves
and rose petals are also sometimes used in the
preparation of bhang. Occasionally the prepara-
tion is sweetened with milk and sugar. I have
not heard of opium or dhatura, etc., being ever
mixed with either of these drugs. Bhang massala
is sold in the North-West, not in Bengal.
30. With rare exceptions bhang is
generally
consumed in solitude, but the contrary is often
the case with ganja and charas. Excepting
prostitutes, females rarely make use of any of
these drugs, and such also is the case with children.
I do not know of their use being confined to any
particular time of life.
31. It is my belief that the habit of
consuming
ganja and charas is easily formed, and that it is
difficult to break off. Both
in case of ganja and
charas the moderate often develops into the
excessive habit.
32. Many people use bhang during some
of the
festive occasions, such as Dasara, Holi, etc.;
but this is entirely a social custom and has no
connection whatever with any religion. The
use of the drug ((bhang) in connection with such
custom is not essential, nor does it lead to the
formation of the habit. Ganja and charas, so far
as I know, are never so used. Some section of
religious ascetics consider the use of ganja to be
an essential part of their religion.
36. I do not know, nor have ever
heard of
alcohol being used as a substitute for any of
these drugs.
37. Charas is far stronger than
ganja, and its
effect is comparatively far more deleterious.
Bhang is milder; and its use, though habitually
indulged in, does less injury than either of the two
others.
39. Bhang, as previously stated, is
used for eat-
ing or drinking alone. But ganja and charas are
never so used. Should any of these two be used
for eating or drinking, the effect would be more
lasting and therefore more injurious. Ganja and
charas are both strong excitants of the brain; and
their habitual use, keeping, as it would, that organ
in a permanent state of irritation, not unfrequently
leads to insanity. I have not seen any case of
insanity resulting from the use of bhang.