6. Evidence of MR. H. LUTTMAN-JOHNSON, Commissioner of Dacca.

Oral evidence.

I came out in December 1867, and have served in Bengal, Behar and Assam. I was only a year in Behar, and have chiefly experience of Assam and Bengal. Sythat and Cachar are much the same as Eastern Bengal, though part of Assam. The Brahmaputra Valley practically constitutes Assam as contrasted with Bengal. I have been Secretary to the Chief Commissioner when he managed excise direct, and have also been Commissioner of the Brahmaputra Valley ; so I have considerable experience of the Assam side of the question.

The problem may be viewed for Eastern Bengal and Sylhet and Cachar together on the one hand, and for the Assam Valley on the other hand.

I have seen the hemp plant wild in Sylbet, Cachar, and Mymensingh, and all the districts of the Assam Valley and the Khasia hills; and I know it grows wild in the Naga Hills and Bhutan, because it is smuggled down. I should say that the wild growth is from seed accidentally sown. I judge this from its situation. I have seen it near villages in bunches and so on, but not actually in the jungles of Cachar or Assam. I have seen it rather in connection with habitations than in jungles; and I judge, therefore, that it grows from seed of imported ganja. I find that this view is stated in the last Excise Report for Assam. I have noticed it most in the waste spaces, especially near villages on the Grand Trunk Road through Assam in the Nowgong district, in tobacco fields in a village near Korabandar Ghat in the Kamrup district, and last cold weather, when out shooting in Mymensingh, I found twenty or thirty acres of it (more or less thick) in Tirana Durgapur. These instances occur to me at present. But I have seen many other instances. In these cases I did not think it had been intentionally sown. I asked about it. The people said it was jungly, grown up of itself, and that they did not use it for anything.

I have known of illicit cultivation in Assam. There were a good many cases discovered in the Golaghat sub-division and also in the Dibrugarh country.

The cultivation was, as a rule, only of a few plants. In the Dibrugaria case there was not ganja by the acre, but there were many plants. All the people of the village seemed to be cultivating. I have not known any systematic cultivation on a large scale; but agricultural cultivation generally is much scattered in Assam; and I have known cases of cultivation of ganja on a small scale being discovered in remote places. I fancy the reason I do not remember many cases in Sylhet and Cachar is because we did not make any great effort to stop it or pay much attention to it. It is since I left that greater efforts have been made to stop unlicensed cultivation.

In my opinion the prohibition of cultivation of ganja is effective loth in Bengal and Assam. I think it has been effective without much harassing of the people. But you have only to stir up the police with a circular and hope of reward to give trouble. The cultivation which exists is trifling; but, on the other hand, a little ganja goes a long way. Cases of illicit growth are not very 001:032011 ; the cases that do occur often turn out not to be cases of cultivation, but merely accidental growth. Complaints by licensed vendors are very rare. The wild plant is not used for ganja, but the leaf is used for bliane.. The ganja from the cultivation of the wild plant would be very inferior. I must have seen ganja produced from this wild growth ; but I cannot recall a case. I know no case of ganja prepared from the wild plant without cultivation. But I have seen it smoked. We experimented with it; it was not anything like excise ganja, but poor stuff. My general conclusion is that it is not feasible—not possible without giving the chance of oppression—nor necessary to prohibit bhang. It is specially difficult in Bengal, where the want of Revenue establishment makes us so dependent on the police in such matters. In Assam it would be possible, thougheven there there would be great difficulty.

My experience in regard to the effects of ganja on the health of the people is too limited to enable me to give any information. The number of people who take it in any quantity must be very small as compared with the people who take a decoction of bhang. I have never had opportunity of observing cases. I think the people, if asked, would say that smoking ganja to any great extent was bad, but that taking bhang was much better. They would regard alcohol as worse. That is generally my view, as I must base my view on what I hear. I cannot, from personal observation, say anything definite. I cannot, I fear, give instances of connection between hemp drugs and insanity ; but I think that if I had the records of the Courts of the Brahmaputra valley before me I should be able to show cases of violence traced to ganja. It has to be borne in mind, however, that ganja is often used as a false plea to get men off capital punishment. I have for the last fifteen months in this Dacca division (which of course I remember better than the more remote Assam experience) had all the special police reports showing all serious crime ; and I do not remember any case of the connection of crime and hemp drugs.

I do not think there is any possibility of total prohibition in the case of bliang. But I think that ganja cultivation might be prohibited so that the people might take to bhang, as I believe they would. I do not think there is a case for prohibiting ganja owing to the limited number of consumers, and bhang does little harm. Ganja is reputed to do so much harm that if it were widely used it should perhaps be prohibited if possible. One is, however, brought so little among the people that I have little chance of any personal knowledge of the subject. But the opinion of the people is against ganja; the tradition has come down against it; I even learned before I came out to this country that hashish was a terrible thing, and I have seen nothing to show me the contrary. Opium corsumers come to see us, and we can talk to them about the drug. It is not so with ganja. Your we may take the drug, but you could not tell about its effect on him. So one has nothing on which to base any judgment of one's own in the matter. I am not in favour of prohibition, because so few use ganja ; and my opinion regarding its effects can only be based on hearsay and reading and not on personal experience.

I cannot say whether ganja or alcohol is more connected with crime. But my experience leads me to say that in the Assam Valley districts it will be found that both these intoxicants are sometimes associated with crime, especially in tea gardens.

There has been considerable increase in the taxation of ganja both here and in Assam. I do not think the limit has been reached. I cannot say precisely how the taxation of ganja corns pares with that of other intoxicants. But I think it could still be increased. I have, however, no definite proposals to make.
I do not think there is much smuggling of excise ganja. Government keeps careful watch over stuff kept in the local golas, of which Government keeps one of the keys.