341

using these drugs are very thin, their blood, as it
were, burnt up.

   50. Please see my answer to questions 45, 46,
and 49.

   56. Effects of hemp in moderation is modified by
the admixture of tobacco and occasionally by betel-
nut. These admixtures produce a kind of soothing
effect in nerves and on the organs of respiration,
which by the use of hemp alone are usually affected
by a feeling of dryness in the throat and causing
irritability of the nerve centre. Admixture of
dhatura, opium and cantharides are added (by
those who use personally ) to increase the state of
intoxication, especially to prolong the time and
frequency of sexual desire, and by some to allay
their sickness, such as asthma, bronchitis, etc.
When it is given to others, it is for the purpose of
robbing.

   57. I do not know if charas is ever eaten; but
ganja is occasionally taken instead of bhang when
it is not at hand.

   In conclusion, all the preparations of hemp are
injurious, taken in any form and in any quan-
tity; and I am of opinion that the cultivation of
this drug, if stopped (excepting for medicinal
purposes), will prevent many people's ruin, crimes
will be lessened, and the population of lunatic
asylums will be very soon diminished.

25. Evidence of DR. S. G. STEINHOFF, Medical Officer in charge, Charitable Dis-
pensary, Khamgaon.

   1. Twenty-three years' medical practice among
the people of this town and a knowledge of native
habits and customs.

   2. Bhang here is the leaves of only the female
plant, the male plant is plucked out when young
and thrown away. Charas here is not collected,
nor imported, nor sold in the bazar. The flowering
tops when separated from the rest of the plant is
the ganja. The flower tops and leaves are cut off
in one common stock and are arranged in flat
sheaves about a foot-and-a-half in length and nine
inches in breadth; and in this form reach the
contractor's shop where the flower tops are sepa-
rated from the leaves, and each sold separately.
The stocks are used in the ganja shop for lighting.
fires. These definitions may be accepted. Charas,
ganja, bhang.

   19. Charas is not used here. Ganja is chiefly
smoked, sometimes eaten like betel and drunk
like bhang.

   23. Bhang is usually drunk and not smoked,
but it is sometimes smoked, (when the dearer
ganja is not available to the poorer classes) to a
small extent.

   28. (a) Habitual moderate consumers. (Charas
is not used, not being available.)

   (b) Habitual excessive consumers—

   29. Charas is not in use.

   (a) Ordinarily ganja is mixed with tobacco half
and half and smoked by all classes addicted to its
use. (b) Exceptionally by few sadhus and fakirs,
dhatura, opium, nux-vomica and aconite are mixed
in order to enhance intoxication. I have never
heard of cantharides and betel-nut being used.
Without the tobacco no smoke will be produced.
Tobacco therefore is indispensable in ganja smoking.

   Bhang is ordinarily mixed with black pepper
and cold water and drunk for its intoxicating
effects. It is also mixed with bhang massala and
taken as a cooling stimulating drink rather than as
an intoxicant. But large draughts of this
mixture are intoxicating.

   Bhang massala, consisting of kasni, kulpha,
kus-kus, sof, manooka, badam, kakdi-ka bij, dhannia,
gulab-ka kali, mulati, kali-mirchi, wala, is sold in
the bazar and used with the addition of bhang,
kesar, kasturi, jaifal, jaipatri, pishta, elachi and
sugar and water as a cooling drink in the hot
weather by Marwaris, chiefly of the well-to-do
classes.

   30. Charas is not used at all.
   Ganja smokers about 1 per cent.
   Bhang drinkers     „    2    „

   Mainly Hindus, Muhammadans.scarcely who
prefer opium and its preparations. It is mainly
confined to male adults. Women and children do
not usually consume these drugs, but women occa-
sionally sip the bhang sherbet described above
when prepared by the male members of their
family, and these are exclusively Marwaris.

   31. The habit is easily formed and not so diffi-
cult to break off as that of opium and alcohol.
There is a tendency for the moderate habit to
develop into the excessive.

   32. At the festivals of the Holi, Sarawan,
Devali, Akateez and Shivaratri, it is customary
among the Marwaris to partake more freely of
the bhang sherbet, but it is not essential. It is
generally temperate and is not likely to lead to the
formation of the habit nor prove injurious. At
marriage feasts and on the occasions of the birth
of sons bhang sherbet is dispensed to guests by the
Marwaris as a class.

   36. Alcohol is not being substituted for hemp
drugs; it is dearer, and besides the Hindu, who is
almost the exclusive consumer of hemp drugs, has
an aversion to alcohol, and a preference for hemp,
which is tolerated by his religion.

   37. I have no experience of charas; but as it is
the active principle of the hemp plant, it is more
powerful than ganja and bhang. The effects of
ganja smoking are more immediate and less pro–
longed than those of bhang drinking; intoxi-
cation is the result of both.

   39. They are all equally injurious to the general
health of the consumers, and the habitual exces-
sive use of any of them has a tendency to produce
insanity. The body becomes emaciated, strength
reduced, appearance prematurely aged. The mind
dull and inactive, a loss of energy and disinclina-
tion for usual duties.

   40. Ganja is prescribed for dysentery by both
Hindu and Muhammadan native doctors in com-
bination with opium and jagri. Ganja is some-
times prescribed for painful internal affections of
cattle. Bhang is often given to bullocks for the