Drug Abuse

11. Evidence of MR. F. H. B. SKRINE, Magistrate and Collector of Bhagalpur.

1. These replies have in part been suggested by the local Excise Deputy Collector, Babu Nobin Chandar Kar, who has two years' experience here. My own knowledge has also been freely drawn on.

2. Yes. They a re known as bhang, charas and ganja, but charas is not smoked in this district. Cianja is again classified as flat, round, and chur.

3. Bhang grows in profusion wild, and it is impossible to check its use without adopting inquisitorial methods and incurring large expense.

4. Siddhi and bhang, yes.

5. Alluvial land is the best soil for the growth of wild bhang.

6. Generally very dense.

7. Hemp is not cultivated.

13. The cultivation is restricted to one tract on the borders of the Rajshahi and Bogra districts.

14. Bhang is made from the wild plants. The average production is estimated at 200 to 300 maunds a year.

15. When the plants have attained a height of 2 to 3 feet, they are cut and sun-dried. They are then beaten with sticks to separate the leaves from the twigs. The dried leaves constitute bhang, and it is used either as the basis of an infusion or a sweetmeat. It is not smoked.

16. It is made generally by excise vendors at their homes. Yes, it can be prepared from any species of hemp.

17. Bhang is usually made by persons who have excise licenses.

18. Ganja and bhang deteriorate by long keeping. They dry up and lose their power of intoxication. Deterioration arises from damp, the ravages of rats and the length of time during which the drug is stored. If tin-lined air-tight boxes are used, the drug can be kept for years.

19. No charas is consumed in this district. In rare cases it is chewed by ascetics, but it causes vomiting. Oil is extracted from ganja and used in medicine.

20. The labouring classes are the largest consumers of ganja ; but debauchees of all ranks and public women also use it. Hindu fakirs are often greatly addicted to it.

21. Flat ganja is preferred as containing less dust and twigs than round, but there is really very little choice.

22. No charas used in this district.

23. Not known.

24. Kayasthas, Brahmins, Kshetriyas and Marwaris consume bhang as a sweetmeat or infusion, generally the latter.

25. On the decrease-not because people are giving up narcotics, but because they cannot afford to pay for such luxuries.

26. The number of moderate consumers is largest.

27. From the labouring classes who have to undergo hard manual labour and others who are given to nomad habits.

28. Four annas and 4 pice of ganja-half chatak and 3 pice of bhang
One bhari and 2 aunas of ganja-1 chatak and 6 pice of bhang.

29. (a) Khaini or dry tobacco with ganja; and sugar and water, and sometimes milk with bhang.
(b) Perfumes of various sorts, besides dry tobacco with ganja ; and milk, and else spices which are usually used with betel, besides sugar and water with bhano.''. Dhatura is not mixed with either ganja or bhang. The object of the admixture is to make it palatable.
No preparation as " bhang massala."

30. Bhang and ganja are both consumed in company, but consumers of the upper class prefer solitude. The consumption of ganja is principally confined to males, with whom the habit begins at maturity. Young widows smoke ganja as a means of killing the passions.

31. Yes; and when formed it is very difficult to abandon it. There are cases of moderate consumers who have always been such. But moderate consumers have often increased their doses.

32. At the Sivaratri, Phaguah, Dussahra festivals the consumption of bhang is very brisk. On the occasion of fairs (mêlas) the demand for these drugs also increases.

33. At Sivaratri and Dussahra the consumption of bhang and ganja is considered almost obligatory. Those who take them as a mere observance of the custom are temperate; but many take such an opportunity thus afforded to indulge in excess.

34. The consumption of bliang is not regarded as so objectionable as that of ganja. The use of all sorts of narcotics is held in disrepute by decent folk. The worship of the hemp plant is unknown.

35. Hard ganja-smokers think that deprivation of the drug will kill them. Moderate indulgers satisfy their craving with another druo. when the supply of ganja is cut off. It would '''be easy to stop the growth and use of ganja; but it is my duty to protest most strongly against such grandmotherly treatment in the present state of public feeling.

Hard smokers will not be satisfied with anything but ganja. Moderate consumers might take to bhang, the growth of which cannot be interfered with.

36. No.

37. No charas is smoked here.

38. None.

39. No preparation of ganja and bhang is smoked here. Ganja is smoked by itself, but not so bhang.

40. Bhang is used in medicine by native physicians. Oil prepared from ganja is also used as a medicine by kavirajes. Bhang is given to cattle as medicine when suffering from cold.

41. Ganja and bhang in small doses may aid digestion.

Both undoubtedly add to staying power.

None of the intoxicants are otherwise beneficial.

The upper classes, say one-tenth, use ganja for purpose (a).

The lower classes, say nine-tenths, use it for purpose (b).

I allude to the moderate use.

42. Its use works no serious mischief in the average human system.

43. Yes.

44. (a) Used moderately, they refresh and create an appetite.
(1) An hour or so.
(g) None.
(h) The want of ganja produces malaise.

45. Bhang fails to stimulate the appetite and ganja unnerves the system if taken habitually. Ganja impairs the constitution if indulged in excess or the consumer does not get sufficient food.
Ganja, is used as an aphrodisiac, and it certainly stimulates the sexual power if used in small doses. But then comes the inevitable reaction, and impotence with its attendant miseries follows.
All these questions are for specialists in mental diseases. But my experience convinces me that consumers of gaup, and bhang who are deficient in self-control develop into insanes. Such human weeds would, however, ruin themselves in other ways if the drug supply were stopped.

46. See above..

47. No.

48. The tendency to excessive use is not hereditary.

49. Not by prostitutes ; but see above.

50. No. The excessive use of ganja bas the tendency to check sexual passion.

51 and 52. No. Those addicted to ganja smoking sometimes steal to pay for their darling drug.

It is not taken as an inducement to commit heinous crimes. They are used by habitual criminals, but I do not think as a stimulus to crime.

53. No.

54. Bhang or ganja taken in any quantity rarely makes a man violent.

55. Sometimes complete stupefication may be effected by the use of ganja in persons unaccustomed to it. Opium is also sometimes mixed with it for this purpose.

56. Not known.

57. See above.

58. It works well on the whole; but, like all institutions, it is capable of improvement.

59. If the use of ganja is to be tolerated, I should prefer it issued from governmental warehouses to retailers, the price being periodically raised or lowered with the demand. The present system of levying duty and transit expenses is cumbrous and open to fraud.

60. Not produced.

61. No charas produced.

62. The cultivation of bhang cannot be controlled.

63. See above, answer 59.

64. Exports to other provinces should be certainly allowed.

65. I do not see any substantial difference between taxation on ganja and taxation on spirits and tobacco. Civilised governments have all agreed that intoxicants are proper subjects for taxation ; and prohibition is opposed to the modern spirit as well as to racial progress. It is only the human weeds whose decay is a gain to the race who succumb. I am at one with Bishop Magee, who said that he would rather see his countrymen drunk and free ; and I abhor the principles and tactics of the so-called temperance fanatics.

66. No.

67. See answer 59,

68. Yes ; consumption on the premises should not be allowed. Men smoking there are nuisances.

69. Neighbours are generally consulted, and I think this is sufficient.

70. Yes; Nepal ganja is smuggled into this district, and affects the sale of the drug here. This practice should be stopped. The border shops suffer much from smuggling.

Oral evidence.

Question 1.-1 entered the service 23 years ago, and I have served principally in East and North-East Bengal. I acted as Collector and Magistrate of Bhagalpur for 4 or 5 months in 1883, and have now been here since the end of October last.

Question 3.—My former experience led me to believe that the hemp plant grew more commonly in Bhagalour than in other districts, but I have now little doubt the circumstances of the district are much the same as those of other riparian districts. In 1883 I made a report to the Board of Revenue describing the prevalence of the wild growth of the hemp plant in Bhagalpur, and suggesting measures for its extirpation or cultivation under license. I have noticed the plant growing principally on " diyara" lands, i.e., alluvial lands of new formation. Such lands are generally private property. I have been touring in the district duirng the cold season, and my views as to the prevalence of the wild growth are considerably modified. There is now less growth on account of the extension of cultivation on the " diyara" lands, which are eagerly taken up for the cultivation of the cold-weather crops. I have not recently seen more than an acre or two of the wild growth in any one plot. The aggregate area on which the plant is found would still be considerable. On the " diyara " lands the plant is found growing with tamarisk and tiger grass and other jungle plants. I noticed much the same sort of growth in the Rajshahi district, though not to the same extent, because the area of riparian lands is not so great. The same description applies to the Murshidabad and Nadia and Rungpnr districts. All these districts lie along the Ganges. I have not observed the same conditions in any other districts.

In answer to my report of 1883 the Board, as well as I remember, wrote that the growth was so considerable that they did not consider it practicable to limit it. With reference to my remarks under 35 and 62, I would say that it may be physically possible to control the growth, but it would involve an inquisitorial system which would be very distasteful to the people. I do not think any class of the people would be glad to see the large patches of growth exterminated. Bhang is used almost universally as an exhilarating or cooling drink by the people as we use tea and coffee, also as a basis for many kinds of sweetmeats, and as a medicine for horses and cattle. It also enters into the religious practices of large classes of Hindus, comprising sadhus and sanyasis, vaishtavs, or followers of Chaitanya and the worshippers of Kali. These are reasons which would render the attempt to exterminate the plants wholesale unpopular.

Still more urgent reasons for the unpopularity of such a measure would be the facts that the plant grows in the immediate neighbourhood of villages and habitations throughout Bengal', in the shade of ruined buildings which are found in all homesteads, and the attempt to exterminate would necessitate a system of domiciliary visits, which would cause great annoyance. I do not think any argument can be drawn for extermination from the fact that the poppy has been successfully controlled, nor from the fact that the hemp plant is in evidence where it grows, because the growth of the hemp plant is very rank and exuberant and it prefers dark shady places. Nor can any strong argument be derived from successful prohibition, if such has been the case in the Central Provinces and Assam, because in the Central Provinces villages are more or less of an urban character, whereas in Bengal the homesteads are isolated and surrounded by fruit trees and jungle. As regards Assam, it is a thinly peopled province and the population is backward, and it is conceivable that under such conditions an excise officer should be able to deal successfully with the matter. On the whole, then, I am strongly opposed, unless the necessity is clearly established, to any attempt being made to regulate the spontaneous growth of hemp, though I do not go so far as to say it would be impossible. I do not think the people would have any difficulty in exterminating the plant themselves in the neighbourhood of their homesteads if the prohibition were issued. It would have to be done perseveringly, and might take two or three years to complete the work.

Question 14.—In this answer I was speaking of Shahabad with reference to the estimate of production of bhang. I have seen the wild hemp plant in flower. It seems to me to resemble that of the cultivated plant, but in miniature. The wild plant is much smaller than the cultivated plant.

Question 17.—In this answer I am referring to the manufacture of the dry leaf from the plants in the Bhagalpur district. As a rule, in other parts of Bengal the people are in the habit of gathering the plants for themselves and drying the leaves for home use. This is not to my knowledge illegal, subject to the limit of possession. Regarding Bhagalpur my information is derived from the Excise Deputy Collector, but I am doubtful if it is correct for non-urban areas. In those tracts I believe the practice is much the same as in other districts.

Question 25.—The decrease of consumption of the hemp drugs is true of Bengal generally, and is due to agricultural depression and high prices. There is now a reaction owing to a favourable harvest last year, and I am confident the demand for the drugs is now on the increase.

Excised tari and pachwai (rice beer) are much cheaper than the hemp drugs, i.e., they involve less cost to the moderate consumer. The lowest grade of excised spirit also is probably cheaper in the same sense ; but not eo the higher grade of liquor and opium. Pachwai is not excised everywhere, and then of course it is cheaper still.

Question 59.-1 should prefer that Government should keep the storage of ganja in its own hands. There would then be less difficulty in enhancing the duties. I advocate the abolition of the middleman and the substitution of a system by which Government should purchase and store the whole crop of ganja in its own warehouses, thus reaping the profits of the middleman, regulating the price to the retail vendor, and ensuring proper custody of the drug. Government will of course suffer all the losses from damage to the stored drugs by rats, damp, and dryage, but the loss will be much more than recouped. There would be no sentimental objection in this country to Government undertaking directly the wholesale disposal of the drug, and as regards English objections we should be able to meet them by showing that the system enabled us effectually to control the consumption. There would be no need for passes under this system, because the drug would be carried to the headquarters of districts by Government under escort, and the fraud which results from the system of passes would be obviated. It was this species of fraud that I had in mind in the last sentence of my answer. This is the system which I should prefer, but there is a good deal to be said for the system which I understand prevails in the Central Provinces, which fixes the price at which the wholesale vendor must sell to the retail vendor, and renders the wholesale licenses subject to sale by auction. I wish to lay stress on the desirability of reducing the loss to Government which now results from wastage, dryage, and damage.