Drug Abuse

40. .Evidence of MR. E. McL. Suns, Deputy Magistrate and Deputy Collector, Sonthal Parganas.

1. The following information has been obtained from the persons whose names are given below and who reside in the different parts of this Subdivision :-
Babu Sadananda Pande, Babu Param Chandra Dube, Bholaram Bhagat, Lalji Bhagat, Radhaprashad Bhagat, Bisweswar Bhagat, Sopk-aran Singh, Jangli Pande, Gour Pande, Kanai Singh, Krisna Mandal, Krisna Singh, Etijabali Sekh, and vendors Jhari Sekh, Akbar Sekh, and Nathu Sekh.

2. The definitions given may be accepted, except that, as far as known here, siddhi, bhang or sabji are the dry leaves of the small uncultivated species of the hemp plant, which is also called siddhi to distinguish it from the cultivated variety.

3. Siddhi plants grow wild in the Rajmahal Deara and also on the banks of the Ganges from Fudkipur to Dhulian in the Jangipur Sub-division and also in the riparian villages between the above-mentioned places.

4. By no other name is the plant known, but smokers from a sense of shame speak of it as baratamaku.

5. As far as known, lands subject to Gangetic inundation and sandy soil are best suited, for the growth of wild hemp.

6. Dense.

7. No.

8. Nil.

9. Not able to give particulars. 10, 11, and 12. Not known.

13. No ganja is grown in this sub-division. It would not be impossible to grow large quantities in different parts of this sub-division, such as the portion on the east of the Pakour thana which is subject to Gangetic floods and on the banks of the Banshie river and Tirpatya nadi in Maliespur thane,. It is moreover possible to grow it in small quantities in isolated places, but with much care and labour.

14. These products (ganja, charas and bhang) are not prepared in this sub-division.

15. Not known.

16. Bhang is not prepared in the houses of people, but it can be prepared from the hemp plant wherever grown. Ganja can be prepared from the wild plant. But it is not liked by smokers, as it does not produce much intoxication, but makes the eyes burn and gives a bitter taste in the mouth. Not known about charas.

17. Not known.

18. Ganja and bhang will remain for one year. The former quite loses its effect in time and can not be kept with any care for a longer period. It gets spotted with mildew, turns black and rots This is caused by moisture. Charas, it is said, can be kept even for five years like opium. lt is not known whether bhang and charas lose their effects and can be kept, without their deteriorating, for a longer period.

19. The following will deal only with the questions regarding ganja, as charas and bhang are seldom or never used here ; when charas is used, it is only for smoking. Ganja is used in no other way.

20. Ganja smokers belong to all classes. Even Sonthals, specially Kharwars (Hinduised Sonthals) are addicted to the habit. The aboriginal tribes are getting a taste for it, but of those who smoke, the majority belong to the middle class. Proportion not ascertainable. Not in any particular locality.

21. Flat and chur are preferred by all classes.

22. Cbaras is not smoked here. But people say that the charas of Butwal in Gorakhpur is supposed to be the best.

23. Bhang is never used for smoking.

24. Natives of Behar who have come here for work or trade drink or eat bhang, but seldom do so here. Local people never eat or drink this drug.

25. Charas and bhang are seldom or never used here. The use of ganja is on the increase. The people who are present say the reason is that it is easy to procure it here. The shops in the neighbouring districts on the borders pay low rent and sell it at a cheaper rate than what prevails here; and this is one of the reasons for the increase in the use of the drug.

26. Ganja.—The proportion of the consumers are :—
(a) A.
(b)
(c)
(d) T3W. As regards charas and bhang—Nil.

27. Labourers do not use it much. A large proportion comes from what is known as the bhadralok or middle class, who are comparatively well-to-do. Bad company mainly leads to the habit.

28. The average cost per diem for an habitual moderate consumer is about /1, of a tom a or 6 pies worth per day of ganja. For an habitual excessive smoker it is 3 annas.
One of the habitual excessive smokers narned Gour Pande uses yearly about 3 seers of ganja, daily about tola weight, 2i minas worth. One Jata Babaji of Mahespur spends 5 annas per day for one tola of this drug.

29. Only dry tobacco is mixed with ganja ; no dhatura is mixed. The object of mixing tobacco with ganja is to make it tasteful, to produce flavour and prevent coughing.
No " bhang massala" is sold in this sub-division.

30. Ganja is Mostly used in company. It is mainly confined to the male sex. It is not usual for children to smoke it, though some are known to take to it. Generally the sons of habitual ganja smokers begin the practice early. Otherwise it is not consumed till the age of twenty is passed.

31. It is easily formed if smoked for about two months or so. It is difficult to break off the habit. An old ganja smoker (habitual excessive smoker) says that an habitual smoker may leave it off gradually, but may be liable to be attacked with some sickness There is a tendency for a moderate habit to develop into the excessive.

32. There is no such custom with regard to ganja. Sometimes siddhi is offered to the Hindu goddess Durga on the last day of the Pujs. It is also poured on the head of the deity Siva. Sometimes the offer is made with certain signs, after which the drug is taken away as " prosad" and distributed amongst the worshippers. This is not compulsory and is not much conformed to here.

33. Ganja smokers are called in contempt "ganjeras or "ganjeri." They are looked down upon and are never believed or trusted. lt is considered disreputable to be a smoker. A man who is addicted to it is called a "nisakhor," the habit being regarded as a vice. Even moderate smokers suffer in reputation.
Gour Pande, one of the excessive smokers of Pakour, says that even when be speaks the truth no one believes him, and if a son of his took to ganja smoking, he would thrash him severely. It affects the brain and destroys the body and the consumer is never trusted. lianja or the hemp plant is never worshipped.

34. It would be a privation to the excessive smokers only.
Thirty-four would be the probable number of the excessive smokers in my sub-division. There are no charas or bliang consumers here, and these drugs are not sold in this sub-division.

35. It would be feasible to prohibit the use of these drugs in this sub-division. It would be consumed illicitly if the prohibition did not extend to the whole province. It would occasion discontent among consumers who are in the minority, but not among other persons. It would not amount to a political danger.
It is said that if ganja is stopped, consumers would smoke dry tobacco and would not have recourse to alcoholic stimulants to any large extent, and would not take to other drugs.

36. There is no reason to believe that alcohol is to any extent being substituted for these drugs.

37. The effects of charas smoking are said to be worse than those resulting from ganja smoking. Charas is stronger than ganja.

38. The effects are the same.

39. Ganja smoking is said to be worse than eating or drinking bhaug. The latter does not injure the body and brain as much as charas and ganja, as it is not used excessively or regularly.

40. [The answers from No. 40 refer to ganja and not to bhang or charas, which are not used here.]
Ganja is not used here for medicine for human beings or cattle.

41. (a) Ganja is not used as food for digestion, nor does it help digestion.
(b) To the habitual smoker ganja may give power of endurance for a time, but when the effects wear off the reaction causes distress.
(c) Ganja smokers as a rule say they use it as a preventive of disease, though when they commenced the habit, it was not with this object. After acquiring the habit they continued it, believing themselves more liable to be attacked by sickness if they gave it up.
(d) In no way as regards ganja.
No class really uses it for any of the purposes mentioned in this question.
Not known about charas and bhang.

42. Ganja is not beneficial. Moderate use is not harmless. Long use of the drug, though commenced in small quantities, is harmful to the constitution.

43. Moderate smokers are inoffensive to their neighbours, but excessive smokers are not.

44. Moderate use of ganja stimulates, excites and refreshes persons addicted to it. Does not allay hunger. Produces appetite and intoxication for about an hour. The want of it does not produce much longing or uneasiness. Habitual excessive smokers are always in a state of intoxication. They always crave for it and feel uneasy until it is obtained. The after-effects in such smokers are pain in the limbs and lassitude; no such feelings are experienced by moderate smokers.

45. If the moderate consumer does not take ghee and milk in abundance, ganja will make him thin and impair his constitution. lt does not injure digestion or cause loss of appetite. It does not cause dysentery, but produces bronchitis and asthma. It impairs the moral sense so far that he becomes untruthful and shameless, knowing that he is not credited, being addicted to vice. lt induces laziness, but not habits of immorality and debauchery. Regular and long use of the drug deadens and weakens the intellect and it is said sometimes causes even temporary insanity, particularly if the regular quantum is increased on special occasions. The symptoms may be reinduced by use of the drug after liberation from restraint. There is no typical symptom. Insanes confess to the use of ganja. There is no evidence to indicate that insanity often tends to indulgence in the use of the hemp drugs, or that the drug was used for the purpose of obtaining relief from mental anxiety or brain disease.

46. It impairs the constitution of the habitual excessive smokers. Does not cause indigestion, but causes loss of appetite. Does not cause dysentery, but asthma and bronchitis. The habit induces laziness and impairs the moral sense, as be becomes untruthful, shameless and utterly unreliable. It deadens the intellect and often produces temporary insanity. The symptoms may be reinduced by subsequent use of the drug. One Gour Pande himself confesses that he is ruined by indulgence in this drug. Another high caste native (Mohanando Chakravarti) suffered both physically and mentally. Other cases could also be cited, but it would lengthen this report.
The effects are physically, mentally and moral. ly bad.

47. The habitual moderate use of this drug is not hereditary, and generally does not affect the children of the consumer.

48. It is not hereditary, but affects the children of the habitual excessive smoker. They are often of weak intellect and are moreover thin and sickly.

49. Not known.

50. It tends to produce impotence in the excessive smoker.

51. A small proportion of bad characters are moderate smokers (the exact proportion is not known). It has no connection with crime in general, but it is believed that the agitation among the Kharwars, which latterly had turned more into a political movement than religious excitement, emanated from ganja smokers, who imagined they could take the Government of the country into their own hands, pay no rent to landlords and drive the English out. The sudden ebullitions of feelings which from time to time rise among them spring from the same source.

52. The remarks given in paragraph 51 apply to this also.

53. Excessive indulgence in ganja incites to unpremeditated violence.
I know the following persons who became violent and dangerous lunatics through ganja smoking :—Dharma Manjhi Saoria, Ramdar Pande, Kartic Chhutar, Chunka Sonthal, Baijal Rai, and others.

54. Not known.

55. Complete stupefaction can be induced without admixture.

56. Ganja is not mixed here with any substance except tobacco. It is not mixed with dhatura in this sub-division either for personal consumption or for administration to others.

57. Ganja and charas are not eaten or drunk in this sub-division.

58. It is not capable of improvement in this sub-division.

59. No.

60 and 81. Not produced here.

62. Yes, if feasible.

63. If the cultivation and sale of the drugs are not to be discontinued, I have no objection to the present system of vend, except that shops at low rent should on no account be opened, and no shops on the borders of a sub-division or district should be opened.

64. No.

65 and 66. Yes.

67. No.

68. Four shops exist in this sub-division for the sale of ganja, but the drug cannot be consumed on the premises. On no account should shops where these drugs can be consumed be opened, as people would assemble there, at first for gossip, but eventually for smoking the drug. They would give greater facilities to vendors to encourage poople to smoke.

69. The wishes of the local people are considered before a shop is opened. Local opinion should be considered.

70. There are no facts regarding importation or smuggling of hemp drugs from Native States.

Duty is paid in respect to ganja used. There is no reason to believe that untaxed drug is used.

Oral evidence.

Question 1.-4 have been twenty-one years in Government service. I was first in the Opium Department and then joined the Civil Department. For a time I was Assistant Settlement Officer, and am now Sub-divisional Officer. I have been nearly twenty years in the Sonthal Parganas, and my replies refer exclusively to that part of the country.

Question 16.-1 have not seen ganja prepared from the wild plant, nor have I seen a specimen. I am told it can be prepared, but I have no reason to suppose that it is prepared to any extent worth notice.

Question 34.—I was informed, when making enquiries, that thirty-four was the number of excessive smokers in my sub-division, but I have reason to believe that the true number is about double that figure. The population of the sub-division is 230,000, of whom 128,000 are Sonthals.

Question 51.—The political disturbance I refer to began in 1879, and it again appeared at the Census of 1881. The leaders of the disturbance were Kharwars, who are Hinduised Sonthals. These people have abjured liquor and taken to ganja. The agitation was originally religious in favour of Hinduism as against the old Sonthal worship, but it developed into an agrarian movement against the payment of rent. I do not attribute the movement to ganja, but the movement having begun, the ganja-smokers went further than the others, and were the people who indulged in the wild talk about taking the government of the country and paying no rent. That is to say, an attempt was made to turn the religious movement into a political and agrarian one by leaders who were ganja-smokers, and who, up to this day, raise the same grievances whenever a new officer comes into the district.

Question 63.—Of the five persons named in this answer, Ramdar Pande, Kartik Chhutar, Baijal Rai were, as far as I recollect, sent to the lunatic asylum. The other two recovered. None of these men committed any violent crime for which he was tried. I give them as instances of persons who were violent and dangerous from ganja-smoking. All of these persons were sent by me for the Civil Surgeon's observation.

Question 63.-By shops at "low rents" I mean shops held at low license fees. Shops are sold by auction, and the amount bid at auction is the license fee. I see no reason for changing this system, if prohibition is not to be carried out. Shops go at low rates, because they are too close tcgether or are not required. I think no shop should be opened unless it pays a license fee of Rs. 50 a month, and that there should be not less than six miles between any two shops. I recommend that no shops should be opened on the borders of a sub- division or district, so that there should not be competition between shops on both sides of the border. I think also that the limit of legal posses- sion should be reduced from twenty to-las to ten tolas. My object in these recommendations is to restrict consumption. Out of four shops in my subdivision, three pay more than Rs. 50 a month and one pays less, because it is exposed to competition by one of the shops on the border.

The Sontlials are not consumers of the hemp drugs. They take rice-beer for the most part, called in Bengali " pachwai." I consider that hemp drugs are doing more harm than rice-beer. Rice-beer is somewhat stronger than toddy.