7. Evidence of MR. P. NOLAN, Commissioner, Bajshahi

There can be no doubt that the practice of smoking ganja is regarded with disfavour by the upper classes of this division, while drinking bhang on certain occasions is among them an honoured custom. The distinction thus made does not, however, rest on an impartial judgment formed after a full investigation of the effects of the two practices. The extent to which ganja may be injurious is not at present known, and we must trust to the present inquiry to elicit the real facts. Ganja smoking is despised by the well-to-do, because its consumption is confined to the poor who can afford no other indulgence, just as drink- ing gin in a puhlic house is looed down on by gentlemen who take champagne and liquors in clubs. But the sentiment is stronger here, for in this land of caste, more than any other, the well-to-do feel a repulsion for any food or stimulant used exclusively by those beneath them in the social scale. Opium is certainly more injurious than ganja, and yet its use excites no such aversion, as it is taken by the rich. Apart from this class prejudice, that is among the working classes themselves, there is no more antipathy to ganja, than there is, in England, to strong tobacco. It is regarded as a form of smoking.

It would probably be possible to put a stop to the supply of ganja, as the crop cannot easily be grown without observation. But the use of bhang cannot be prevented, because the plant grows wild everywhere. There are many forms of self-indulgence open to abuse ; and it is a question for investigation whether men irclined to intemperance, when stopped from using a particular drug, will not take to some other evil practice.

Oral evidence.

Question 1.—I have been 26 years in the Service, and have served in Bengal, Behar and Orissa.

Question 33.—My statement that opium is certainly more injurious than ganja is based on observation and what I have heard. I have not studied the returns of lunatic asylums. I could generally tell an opium taker, but I could not tell a ganja taker. I understand that eating opium is much worse than smoking the same drug.

Question 35.—The wild plant grows abundantly, certainly over the whole division of Rajshahi, and there is enough of it all over the province to poison the whole population in twenty-four hours, if taken in the form of bhang in strong decoction. Smoking might injure a man, but could not poison him in so short a time. I believe that the practice of drinking bhang is very limited in extent. I have known a man to become temporarily mad after a dose of bliang, but I have seen no such effect from smoking ganja. I put in a statement* which shows calculations in support of my view that the use of the drug distributed over the population is very small. As regards the comparative effects of bhang and ganja, I am only able to make one deduction from my observation, riz., that a man is much more likely to do himself harm by one debauch of bhang than by a similar indulgence in ganja. I compare the relative effects of drinking bhang and smoking ganja to the relative effects of drinking alcohol and smoking tobacco. The instance I have mentioned is the only one which has come to my notice of the evil effects of bhang. I have never known death to follow from bhang drinking.

* Appendix to Mr. Nolan's evidence.

I have no very decided opinion on the question of prohibiting the drugs. If the consumption is small as I hold it to be, the difficulty of prohibiting would also be small. And though I have never seen any evil effects of ganja, they may exist notwithstanding.

I should like to draw attention to one detail of the present system of levying the duty on ganja. It is a sound fiscal principle that duties should be levied at as late a stage as possible. The duty on ganja exported to the North-Western Provinces is paid at Naogaon. It ought to be levied at bonded ware-houses in the North-Western Provinces, as is done in Bengal.

Further, originally in this province there used to be several centres of production These were all concentrated at Naogaon. This has been found to be an excellent measure, of which the advantages are-

( I) economy of establishment ;

(2) diminution in smuggling : wherever there is cultivation there is smuggling;

(3) improvement in quality of the produce by one cultivator learning from another;

(4) uniformity of taxation.

The question arises, should this system not be extended by having one single centre for all India, as in the case of opium, or at least for all Upper India, including the Central Provinces.

Cost of carriage is a main objection to concentration, but this does not enter very largely into the matter of ganja from its high value in proportion to weight. The duty alone on round ganja is R290 a maund, to which has to be added the intrinsic value of the drug.

The Commission of course would have to select a suitable centre. But there is no doubt that the area for production could easily be supplied. The area under cultivation in Bengal is trifling, viz., 800 acres yielding g,000 inaunds of ganja. Experience shows that this amount could easily be doubled, and I have no doubt that the wants of all India could thus be supplied from Naog,:ion without any great increase in cost of establishment.

I have not studied the question of production or cultivation in other provinces. Nor have I considered the question of prohibiting production elsewhere than at the centre. But the experience of Bengal shows this to be feasible.

I do not express any opinion at present as to total prohibition. That is the question now under trial before the Commission.

I have observed a proposal in the replies to the Commission's questions by the officer in charge of the Rajshahi tract, that Government should purchase the ganja from the cultivator, store it, and distribute it to the distant districts where it is consumed. If this proposal is under the serious consideration of the Commission, I desire to record an opinion against it. It would be impossible for Government to purchase from the cultivators as private dealers do. The experience gained by the State in regard to opium, and by planters in regard to indigo shows that when there is only one purchaser in the field, he must make his arrangements before the crop is grown on a system of contract and advances. I do not think it desirable to undertake such a business in regard to a commodity for which there is so little demand, merely for the object of intercepting the moderate profits now made by the wholesale dealers.

The system by which the right of wholesale vend is put up to auction with the condition that the wholesale dealer shall sell to the retail dealer at a fixed price is new to me, and I am not prepared to give an opinion on it at such short notice.

Appendix to MR. NOLAN'S evidence.

The consumption of ganja is much smaller than is popularly supposed. All Bengal, Assam, and a part of the North-West Provinces, with a population of about 80,000,000, is supplied from an area cf 800 acres, the standard size of a single tea garden. The gross amount grown averages 8,000 maunds a year ; but much of this is wasted before issue, so that duty was paid last year on 5,451 maunds only. Even of this a considerable part consists of twigs, separated before CC/116=p-  don, so that the quantity smoked cannot exceed 4,000 maunds. If every one smoked, the allowance a day for the individual woold be 1/2281 part of a tola, or the twelfth part of a grain. At the rate of a tola a day, which tobacco-smokers would think moderate, 36,000 persons would consume all the ganja produced for 80,000,000. It follows from these figures that the habit must be rare or the doses taken homceopathic, producing no organic effect.