25. Evidence of Mit. N. K. BOSE, Officiating Magistrate and Collector of Noakhali.

2. These definitions may be accepted.

3. Hemp plant is found occasionally to grow spontaneously in certain localities of the district. It is nowhere abundant.

4. Ganja, siddhi, or bhang.

5. Have no experience.

6. Scattered.

7, No cultivation of hemp plant in this district.

14. No.

15. None prepared in this district.

16. None prepared in this district.

17. None.

18. I have no experience. Vendors say that ganja deteriorates within a year, and quite loses its intoxicating quality in three or four years. Exposure is said to be the cause.

19. Yes ; except such as are used for medicinal purposes, in which case they are mixed up with other ingredients and administered internally or applied externally.

20. Chases is seldom, if ever, used in this district, but ganja is smoked by the following classes of people :- (1) jalias (fishermen), (2) dilobis (washermen), (3) religious mendicants (such as sanyasis or fakirs, bairagis), (4) palki-bearers, (5) idlers and bad characters. The proportion of the people using it is very small, not even one per cent.

21. Round ganja is preferred; but owing to its high duties, the demand for flat ganja is greater.

22. Charas is not procurable here.

23. No.

24. Bhang is drunk by up-countrymen whose number is very small in this district. The natives of the district do not use bhang in any form.

25. For the last two years there has been a decrease owing (1) to higher duty, (2) to the high price of food grains.

26. (a) The majority are habitual moderate consumers.
(b) Very few.
(c) About one-third of the ganja-smoking population is estimated under this class. The number is estimated at 1,000.
(d) Very few.

27. The Bairagis as a class are all excessive smokers. They are professional beggars, and form the bulk of ganja-smoking population. Next comes the class of dly-labourers. In this class the number is almost equally divided among Hindus and Muhammadans. Among the Baishnabs, they say, the practice is sanctioned by their religion. The day-labourers take up this practice under the impression that it enables them to undergo fatigue and exposure without their health being impaired.

28. Habitual moderate consumers of ganja seldom take more than one or two annas' worth daily, and habitual exce=sive consumers have been known to take a rupee worth a day. Flat ganja is sold at 3 toles per rupee and round at 2f tolas.

29. Mature seeds are not known to be mixed with ganja by any smoker in this district. Powdered tobacco leaves (dry) and ganja mixed together are used by some. No bhang massala is known here.

30. As a rule neither ganja nor bhang is consumed in company, nor is solitude particularly sought for. It is mainly confined to the male sex and to ages ranging from 25 to 60 years. Children are never known to use any of these drugs.

31. (a) Yes.
(b) They say it is difficult to break off the practice.
(c) Yes.

32. Bhang is drunk in small quantities by Hindus on the last day (Dasami) of the Durga Puja. It is indulged in very small quantities and only once a year, and does not lead to the formation of habit.

33. Ganja-smoking is not regarded as respectable. It is rather regarded as degrading. Not so bhang drinking. The sentiment mentioned above is attributable to the injurious effect which the excessive use of the drug is known ta produce upon the moral nature of the consumers. In this district a god named Trinath (Trinity) is worshiped by lower classes of people, who is, par excellence, the god of ganja. Smoking of ganja is a aine gud non of the worship. Many begin smoking in this way, and eventually become inveterate smokers.

34. It would certainly be a privation to the small class of people who have made themselves slaves of the habit of ganja-smoking, but hardly a serious privation.

35. Prohibition cannot be enforced without total extinction of the plant, which grows wild everywhere. Prohibition will certainly produce discontent; but as the consumption of ganja is restricted to a small number of lower classes of people, there will hardly be any political danger. The stoppage of ganja-smokino- will most probably be followed by recourse to alcoholic stimulants.

36. No.

37. I have no experience.

38. In degree.

39. Ganja is always smoked. Bhang is both eaten and drunk.

40. Yes ; bhang is an invaluable medicine for all kinds of bowel complaints, specially dysentery ; ganja for asthma, tetanus, etc. Kabirajes use it extensively. Both bhang and ganja are used in the treatment of cattle diseases.

41. Moderate use of bhang is said to be beneficial as a digestive. Ganja is known to give a certain amount of staying power under severe exertion and to alleviate fatigue. By far the best effect of it is considered to be its power of protection against all kinds of exposure, damp, and cold ; and as such it has a decided effect against malaria.
I refer to moderate habitual use of the drugs. I have no experience of charas.

42. Is beneficial when taken in moderation.

43. Yes.

44. It is refreshing after exertion. To be refreshing it must produce intoxication : short of intoxication it is not refreshing. It allays, rather dulls, hunger. The effect rarely lasts more than three hours. No after-effects are left. Want of subsequent gratification produces a longing, which is, however, easily controllable.

45. Habitual moderate use of ganja or hhang is not known to produce any noxious effects, physical, mental or moral.

46. The Assistant Surgeon, Doctor Nobin Chandra Dutta, writes as follows :-

' Habitual excessive use of ganja produces decidedly injurious effects upon the physical, mental and moral nature of man. It impairs the constitution. Excessive ganja-smokers are, as a rule, thin and emaciated. Their appetite and digestion fails. I have knowledge of more than one case of asthma which could be attributed to no other cause. Instances of dysentery from excessive use of ganja have also come under my notice. Impairment of moral sense is not marked. It does not induce laziness or habits of immorality or debauchery. Excessive ganja-smokers are known to be sexually weak and incompetent. It certainly dulls the intellect and weakens the mind. I have no doubt of insanity being produced by excessive smoking of ganja. Though insanity is marked by violence and excitement and is of a distinctly maniacal type, it may be temporary or permanent. I have experience of one case of temporary insanity re-induced by use of the drug after liberation from an asylum. I have no knowledge of any symptoms of ganja insanity which may be called typical. I have known cases where no desire for obtaining relief from mental anxiety or brain disease was found ; but pure love of amusement in bad company has induced the ganja habit, which has ultimately ended in insanity. I have no knowledge of insanity tending to indulgence in ganja by a person deficient in self-control through weakened intellect.

"I have at this moment in my mind's eye a man whose whole course of life as a ganja-smoker, from the 18th to 33rd year of his age, I have had opportunities of watching. I consider this man a typical case for illustrating the effects of ganja-smoking on the physical, mental, and moral nature of mau. As a boy, this unfortunate man possessed a singularly amiable disposition, and more than average intelligence. Physically he was not well-built; but his constitution was by no means worse than that of the average native of Lower Bengal. When he was about 18 he fell into bad company, and contracted the habit of smoking ganja, which he quickly indulged in for about two years. Gradually he rose to excess ; then certain very remarkable changes came over him. He ate little; sometimes he omitted one or two meals. There was a tremor in his limbs and voice, and occasionally his eyes were bloodshot. A sort of dogged, determined look appeared on his face, and he grew irritable and quarrelsome. At times he would get into a sudden passion for a trivial cause, and become extremely noisy and violent. He had certain absurd ideas of his own about things, and no argument or reasoning could convince him of their absurdity or incorrectness. According to these ideas, he insisted upon doing certain things to the great annoyance of his friends and relatives. He was so determint d that he could never be dissuaded unless by actual force. He was at this time absolutely truthful in what he said or did, and honest in pecuniary matters. He carried bis truthfulness sometimes to a most ridiculous length. At one time he was living With a friend who used to find fault with him for his ganja habits, and reproved him for being incorrigible. This made him very angry, and he left the house swearing that be would never pass its threshold again. He kept his word by passing in and out through the windows.

" In the growing excess in smoking he wasted away in physique and looked quite thin and emaciated ; but his habits were active and could bear cold, damp, and exposure to an extraordinary extent. In the last eight years it has been his practice to get up at about 3 o'clock in the morning in all seasons, and from that hour till 8 or 9 o'clock he is found standing often up to his waist, and sometimes up to his neck, in water in the river or tanks performing his ablutions or puja, without being any the worse for it. He is seldom found to use any warm clothing in the winter. In the last two years be has developed signs of insanity. He sleeps badly, goes without food for days, lies and cheats, travels distances for no apparent purpose, talks incoherently, and is angry at the slightest provocation, and sometimes on no provocation at all, when he is very violent, bursting into fits of incontrollable frenzy."

47 and 48. Have no experience.

49 and 50. Ganja is smoked as an aphrodisiac by men. The aphrodisiac action of the drug lasts during the period of intoxication produced by it. Prostitutes are not known to use it as such. Excessive use of ganja tends to produce impotence.

51. Moderate use of ganja or bbang has no connection with crime.

53. The effect of excessive indulgence in ganja is either stupefying or exhilarating, according to the constitution of the man using it.
The Assistant Surgeon, Doctor Nubia Chandra Dutta, writes to mea s follows :—

"I have known a case of a ganja-smoker who had to be kept tied down for more than twenty-four hours to prevent his causing violence to his neighbours and to members of his family. I should think this was a case of temporary homicidal frenzy."

54. Criminals habituated to ganja-smoking are known to fortify themselves to commit premeditated acts of violence by repeatedly smoking it. '1 hose who are unaccustomed to it sometimes drink bhang for the purpose.

55. Bhang is used, often mixed with dhatura seeds.

56. Admixture of dhatura with ganja enhances the intoxicant effect of the latter. Dhatura seeds are mixed with bhang for administration to others with criminal intent.

57. No experience.

58. Is capable of improvement.

59. The shops are now settled by competition, and owing to a paucity of bidders some shops are settled at a very low fee. The result is the retail selling prices of ganja are different in different shops. If the system of issuing ganja to licensees only in proportion to the amount of license fees paid by them be introduced, not only would it reduce the quantity of ganja sold, but would also bring the retail selling prices to one and the same level, prevent unhealthy competition, and check illicit sales.

60 and 61. Nil.

62. No control is necessary or practicable.

63 and 64. No.

65. Seems unreasonable.

66. Yes ; on the principle of their different intoxicating power.

67. No.

68. There are none in the district.

69. Yes ; as far as practicable.

70. I have made enquiries into the question of bill ganja. I have questioned several people of the locality, and also some " Tipperahs who had come down to Amlighata from the hills. There is a consensus of opinion that no hill ganja is grown within a day's journey from the British frontier. I find that in 1870 a specimen of hill ganja was procured for examination, and the Civil Medical Officer reported that hill ganja is much inferior to the Rajshahi ganja in respect of its power of intoxication. The Minister of the Maharaja of Tipperah also stated that ganja was not grown in the M chorale's territory, except in a very small quantity, which is far from sufficient to meet the local demand.