CHAPTER XIII.

EFFECTS—MORAL: GENERAL SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONS.

540. Hitherto the effects of hemp drugs have been considered principally with reference to consumers themselves. In turning now to the discussion of their moral effects, we shall practically consider briefly their direct effects on society. Are consumers offensive to their neighbours, and is there any connection between hemp drugs and crime ? These are the questions which it is proposed now to discuss. A considerable mass of evidence has been collected on these questions.

541. As to whether moderate consumers are offensive to their neighbours the evidence can leave little doubt on the mind of any one who peruses it carefully. About seven hundred witnesses have thought it worth while to speak on this point. It may be safely presumed that of the remainder the great majority have no experience of anything offensive in consumers. Of those who have given their opinions, over six hundred say that moderate consumers are not offensive to their neighbours. Of the small minority, some object, not unnaturally, to the bad example they think their ganja smoking neighbour may be to their sons who are growing up. Some merely take offence at the smell of the ganja smoke, and some at the " coughing and expectorating." They are evidently not inclined to be tolerant of the indulgence which they do not care themselves to practise. On the other hand, some of the minority are clearly dealing not with moderate consumption, but with the worst type of excess. They speak vaguely of the consumers as committing the gravest crimes under the influence of these drugs. Altogether it is clear that the moderate consumer is as a rule perfectly inoffensive. There appear to be quite adequate grounds for accepting the statement of those who assert that as a rule he " cannot be distinguished , from the total abstainer." Some witnesses have stated that they had difficulty in finding the moderate consumers, though they did find that the habit of moderate consumption is common. Indeed, there are not wanting those who say that no consumer of bhang or ganja, whether in moderation or in excess, is ever an offensive neighbour. The contrast in this respect between the excessive consumer of hemp drugs and the excessive consumer of alcohol is frequently emphasized. No doubt the excessive consumer of hemp drugs must sometimes be a disagreeable and perhaps even dangerous neighbour ; but even among excessive consumers such cases seem to be very rare indeed.

542. In discussing the connection of hemp drugs with crime, it is necessary to discriminate between any effect which they may be supposed to produce on crime in general and the unpremeditated crimes of violence to which intoxication may give rise. Thus there are those who allege that the habitual use of alcohol, at all events if carried to excess, degrades the mind and character of the consumer and predisposes him to crime in general, or to crimes of a particular character,• especially to offences against property. Drink is thus set down sometimes as one of the most efficient agencies for increasing the criminal classes. On the other hand, there are well known cases in which intoxication from alcohol has led to crimes of an occasional and exceptional character, generally to unpremeditated crimes of violence or other unpremeditated offences against the person. These two classes of cases should be carefully distinguished and treated separately.

543. The first question then is whether any large proportion of bad characters are habitual consumers of hemp drugs, and whether there is any general connection between such consumption and crime. About one-half of the witnesses have dealt with this question. Of these, a majority of two to one hold that no large proportion of bad characters are moderate consumers. A majority, but not quite so large, have the same opinion regarding excessive consumers. In respect to the second part of the question, a majority of eight to one hnld that moderate consumption of these drugs has no connection with crime in general or with crimes of any particular character. A majority of nearly four to one hold the same view in regard to excessive consumption. There is one witness who makes rather a suggestive observation in this connection. He says that consumers " are called badmashes for this reason only, that our children may fear them and avoid their company." This undoubtedly suggests an explanation of some part of the popular condemnation of the drugs. A very large proportion of the natives of this country have a strong aversion to the use of intoxicants, and may reasonably be expected to influence their children against them in precisely this way. This may lead some witnesses to take an exaggerated view of the number of bad characters who are consumers. But there need be no hesitation in accepting the view that this number is indeed larger in proportion than the number of consumers among the general population. Consumers of hemp drugs are found more among the lower orders, among the poor, than among the more wealthy. The former are, of course, the classes to which the badmashes or had characters belong. This is the explanation given by many witnesses of the alleged fact that proportionately more consumers of hemp drugs, and especially ganja smokers, are to be found among bad characters than among the whole population. But the general opinion is that hemp drugs have per se no necessary connection with crime. It is true that some witnesses assert that habitual consumers sometimes spend more than their poverty renders reasonably possible, and are then tempted to commit petty thefts. And there are probably many Magistrates of experience who have in " bad livelihood cases " heard the police enlarge on the amount believed to be spent on hemp drugs and other intoxicants and the apparent impossibility of meeting this expenditure honestly. The same is true, however, of any unwise expenditure beyond what one can afford, and of any extravagance which intensifies poverty.

544 Another question which arises in reference to the connection between hemp drugs and crime is whether these drugs are to any considerable extent taken by criminals to fortify themselves to commit premeditated crime of any kind. About one-half of the witnesses speak on this point. Of these a majority of nine to four answer in the negative. The truth seems to be that as hemp drugs help the consumer to endure great fatigue or exposure and stimulate him to unwonted exertion, criminals, like any other consumers of these drugs, go to them for that assistance when they feel that they require it. This is just as any man under similar circumstances might go to the intoxicant he was in the habit of using. Sometimes, no doubt, also a criminal may take his own particular
intoxicant to supply Dutch courage. But it seems just as common with him to desire to keep his head clear, and therefore to avoid all intoxicants. No man, of course, who was not unaccustomed to the use of hemp drugs would turn to them for any of these purposes. There would be too great a risk of the unaccustomed intoxicant disabling rather than nerving the man. There is one class frequently mentioned in some parts of the country by whom the drugs are no doubt used,
" lathials " or professional clubmen, who are employed occasionally as mercenaries in riots and assaults. These men, like many wrestlers, use the drug habitually, and no doubt indulge in it before going out on their work.

545 About the same number of witnesses deal with the question whether criminals use hemp drugs to stupefy their victims, By a majority of about three to two, they answer this their victims ?m question in the affirmative. The question arises whether complete or sufficient stupefaction can be induced by the administration of these drugs. There seems to be considerable doubt on this point. It is a very general opinion that only persons unaccustomed to the drugs could be rendered insensible by them, and such persons would not take the drugs. No doubt ganja might be administered in a chillum with the pretence that there was nothing there but the tobacco with which it was mixed. But this as a rule would involve too much risk. Ganja would be too readily detected by smell and flavour. Many even of those who believe that hemp drugs could produce sufficient stupefaction speak also to the admixture as a general rule of more potent drugs, such as dhatura. As to cases, it is far easier to get many established cases of such stupefaction by dhatura alone than to get one where hemp drugs were clearly the narcotic employed. There are two special instances of this kind of use of hemp drugs mentioned by some witnesses, vis., thefts of ornaments from prostitutes intoxicated with bhang, and thefts of ornaments from children stupefied by majum sweetmeats. These, however, do not appear to be common. It is difficult to get instances of any such use of these drugs. The evidence in support of the view that they are so used is largely hearsay and based on mere rumour. On the whole, it is very improbable that the drugs are much used in this way ; for dhatura, a much more potent drug, is more easily available and more easily administered.
546. There seems, therefore, good reason for believing that the connection between hemp drugs and ordinary crime is very slight indeed. There remains for discussion their alleged connection with unpremeditated crime, especially crimes of violence. In this connection it seemed only necessary to consider the excessive use of the drugs. This, then, was the question put before the witnesses, whether excessive indulgence in any of these drugs incites to unpremeditated crime, and whether they knew cases in which it had led to temporary homicidal frenzy. This question has been discussed by nearly six hundred witnesses, of whom a majority of very nearly three to two answer in the negative. They do not believe in any such connection. Their experience has not brought before them cases in which that connection seemed to exist. Some of them have clear recollection of crime being associated by causation with alcohol, but cannot recall any case in which it was similarly associated with hemp drugs. They will not go beyond their experience, and therefore they answer in the negative.
Some of them go further than this. They go so far as to say that these drugs not only do not incite to crime, but have the very opposite tendency. They are of opinion that the drugs " tend to make men quiet ; " that " the immediate effect is stupefying ; there is none of that tendency to violence which is a characteristic of alcoholic intoxication; " and that the result of continued abuse of the drugs is to make a man " timid and unlikely to commit crime." These last statements cannot be accepted as generally true. No doubt the drugs may sometimes have these sedative effects, though a number of witnesses speak to habitual use producing irritability. Any one who has extensively visited ganja shops or places where consumers congregate must be struck with the perfect quiet which prevails in the great majority, and with the slothful, easy attitude of the consumers. These are not, however, the invariable effects of hemp drugs. Undoubtedly the excessive use does in some cases make the consumer violent. It is probably safe to say in view of all the evidence that the tendency of the drugs often seems to be to develop or bring into play the natural disposition of the consumer, to emphasize his characteristic peculiarities, or to assist him in obtaining what he sets his mind on. If he aims at ease and rest and is let alone, he will be quiet and restful ; but if he is naturally excitable and ill-tempered, or if he is disturbed and crossed, he may be violent. This may be accepted perhaps as generally true if allowance be specially made for the fact that excess in the use of these drugs tends to show and to develop inherent weakness of character. At the same time the fact that so many witnesses testify to the peaceable and orderly character of the excessive consumers goes far to prove that in this country experience shows that as a rule these drugs do not tend to crime and violence.

547. This impression is intensified by the consideration of the statements made by some of the witnesses who constitute the minority. Mr. D. R. Lyall (Bengal witness No. i), who has had thirty-two years' varied experience as a Revenue Officer and Magistrate, says : " I have known cases of temporary homicidal frenzy ;" but in his oral examination he says : " I can give no examples to illustrate my answer." This is precisely the position occupied by many of the most experienced witnesses. They have a more or less vague impression that hemp drugs and violent crime have been occasionally associated, but they cannot recall cases. A few testify to having searched the criminal records or police reports for years back in vain. As Mr. Westmacott (Bengal witness No. 2) says in his written paper : " I do not at this moment remember a case, but I have an impression that there are such cases." This is a witness typical of a class.

There are other witnesses who speak less cautiously of " many cases," but cannot give information about any. Thus Mr. Williams (Bengal witness No. i8) speaks of "innumerable cases of homicidal frenzy." But his remark "is merely based on newspapers ; " and he knows only one case which occurred at Calcutta while he was at Darhhanga, and of which his knowledge is " entirely hearsay." Similarly, Mr. W. C. Taylor (Bengal witness No. 36), an uncovenanted officer of forty-seven years' experience, speaks of " numerous cases," but can only recall one—surely a doubtful case—in which an attack was made on a party, of which he was a member, by a Sonthal in the Sonthal rebellion of 1856. Similarly, the Inspector-General of Police in the Central Provinces states that " running amok is always the result of excessive indulgence " in hemp drugs ; but under cross-examination he says : " I have never had experience of such a case. I only state what I have heard." These witnesses also are typical of a considerable class, who refer to hearsay, to rumour, and to newspapers as the basis of their opinion.

Many others, like Mr. Cooke, Commissioner of Orissa (Bengal witness No. 8), base their opinion on what they have heard of the history of criminal lunatics in asylums, and really speak only of acts of violence due to mania. One witness exposes this fallacy very simply : " I have never seen any instance of unpremeditated crime committed by a consumer, except that mad men sometimes grow violent." Such cases are clearly irrelevant to the question immediately under discussion. But there are a good number of witnesses who thus confound cases of violence occurring in the course of established insanity with unpremeditated crime incited by drugs. Instances are thus given of acts of violence committed in the asylum where the lunatic is confined. Some witnesses are even content to quote the fact of mania characterized by violence without any particular offence being committed as establishing this alleged connection between hemp drugs and violent crime.

Some witnesses again base their opinion on a purely casual connection between the use of the drugs and the commission of crime. Thus Mr. Hugh Fraser (North-Western Provinces witness No. 8) spoke in his written paper of many crimes " committed under the influence of ganja." In his oral examination he asked that the word "while" should be inserted ; and added : " I do not attribute the crime to the consumption of the drug. I cannot recall the details of any of these cases." This is certainly very different from the impression which his written answer conveyed. A Bengal witness goes even further in this direction. He says : " I know of two cases in which two ganja smokers committed murders, one for gain, and the other in heat of provocation."
There is another class of witnesses who do not profess at all to require any basis of fact for their opinion. They speculate on the probabilities. They are content to reply that hemp drugs " weaken the brain and may lead to crime," or " I can imagine their doing so in the same way as excess of alcohol in an individual of a naturally violent temperament, but not in a peaceful subject."

548. All this tends greatly to lessen the weight of the evidence in support of the affirmative answer to this question, and to strengthen the impression that it is but rarely that excessive indulgence in hemp drugs can be credited with inciting to crime or leading to homicidal frenzy. All witnesses have been asked whether they know of cases of homicidal frenzy. The cases quoted are, however, very few. They have all been carefully considered by the Commission. As already stated, a few witnesses have mentioned cases which are admittedly mere outbreaks of established insanity. These cases are excluded. Two Punjab cases mentioned by Colonel Tucker (witness No. 28) and Mr. C. Brown (witness No. 29), in which Ghazis and Kukas are stated merely to have fortified themselves by bhang for a fanatical attack on their enemies, have also been-excluded. Finally, four cases which occurred beyond British territory in feudatory states have also been excluded. With these exceptions, all the cases mentioned by witnesses answering question 53 have been abstracted and compiled in a tabular form in Vol. III Appendices.

They are divided into two classes—viz., (i) those cases of which the records have not been called for ; and (ii) those cases of which the records have been examined by the Commission. In every case in which the records have been examined, a note containing the result of that examination has been appended to the evidence of the witness who referred to the case. The number of the witness entered in the statement contained in the appendix will facilitate reference to the particular note dealing with the case.

549. There are 58 cases belonging to the first class and 23 cases of the second. This gives a total of 81 cases mentioned for the whole of India. Taking first the fifty-eight cases constituting class (i), it is interesting to notice that out of such of these cases as have dates assigned, no fewer than eleven are over twenty years old. One European witness has to go back to i856 before he can find in his long experience any case of violence attributable to hemp drugs, and two native witnesses recall instances over forty years old. This serves to show that these cases are drawn from a long period of years as well as from the whole of India. It is also interesting to notice that seventeen of these cases are attributed to sepoys and armed police, to whom great temptation to violence presents itself when they are suddenly or seriously provoked. Ten other cases are attributed to persons of the fakir or religious mendicant class. The following sentences from Mr. Maconachie's judgment in the case shown as No. 71 on the list are of interest in this connection : " Accused was at the time excited with bhang ; and even now at his trial he has a daring and violent manner, which shows plainly his disposition. He is one of those roaming fakirs who, when they get excited by their favourite potations of bhang or charas, are utterly lawless, and are fit to be treated as enemies of society."
Deducting these twenty-seven cases, there remain only thirty-one of this class adduced as evidence of the effect which hemp drugs have on the people generally in leading to violent and unpremeditated crime. These cases cannot be very fully examined, as the Commission have not had the records before them. But the statements of the cases by the witnesses themselves show that several are merely cases of the rowdyism of intoxication ; that there are several where the motive for the crime is quite adequate without looking to hemp drugs ; and that there are not a few that have been put downy to hemp drugs for no other reason than that the offender was a consumer. In one case the witness has held it sufficient to say that the man was under the influence of some drug.

550. The Commission called for the records in twenty-three cases in which the records were clearly traceable and easily obtainable.These cases were selected at haphazard simply on this ground. An abstract of what the records contain in each case will be found appended to the evidence of the witness quoting it. The examination of these cases tends greatly to weaken the force of the impression, even such as it is, created by the perusal of the cases of the first class. They may now be briefly discussed in detail. In case No. 59 a police officer informed the Commission that a ganja smoker suddenly murdered a vendor because he would not give him more of the drug. The facts were that the man had his knife in his hand as he was eating fruit ; that in an altercation with the vendor the latter first dealt him a blow with a split bamboo; and that the other then turned on him with his knife. The principal circumstances of the case and the real provocation are lost sight of by the witness. This case cannot be regarded as due to hemp drugs. This witness, second case (No. 6o), is defective in a somewhat similar manner, inasmuch as he fails to point out that the man sought to murder his wife because she had given evidence against him. This is unfortunately too often found to be an adequate explanation of such a crime as this. Though the man was a ganja smoker, there is no proof that he was under the influence of the drug at the time. There is no mention of ganja in the record.

The next witness is Dr. Crombie, who is a member of the Committee for advising Government about criminal lunatics. He stated that he was unable, however, to give specific cases, but had one case clearly in his mind. This case he had also quoted before the Opium Commission as a case of running amok from ganja. He stated the case thus : "A Bengali babu, as the result of a single debauch, in an attack of ganja mania slew seven of his nearest relatives in bed during the night." A perusal of the records indicates that this statement of the case is wholly inaccurate. There is indeed mention of the man having used both ganja and opium. But there is no mention of a debauch, and there is mention of habit. So that the conception of " a single debauch " is quite opposed to the history contained in'the records. The judicial record shows that the man had been for years peculiar in his behaviour ; that about six years before he had become quite mad for a time on his wife's death ; that on the present occasion a similar outbreak of madness had occurred on his mother's death ; that he " did not take ganja during this time ;" that the murders were committed on the night of his mother's Shradh, about which there had been " a commotion " during the day ; and that the motive seemed to be mere insane despair as to how these members of the family could be cared for in the future. The asylum papers indeed mention " his mother's death as well as addiction to ganja and opium " as the cause of insanity. But the papers afford no, clue as to the origin of Dr. Crombie's view of the case.

The next five cases are three mentioned by Mr. Marindin (Collector, Bengal) and two by Mr. Dalrymple Clark (District Superintendent of Police, Assam). These witnesses did not profess a detailed knowledge of these cases, but merely suggested that the records should be consulted as the cases seemed to be such as the Commission desired to see. But the records show that no satisfactory connection between hemp drugs and crime was established in any of these cases.

Dr. Mullane, a Civil Surgeon in Assam, mentions two cases in which he thinks the crime was associated with ganja. The first (No. 67) is a case in which a religious mendicant murdered a guest in the middle of the night. Under these circumstances it is impossible to say with anything like confidence what really occurred. But the evidence does point to the crime having been committed under the influence of ganja. In his second case (No. 68), however, Dr. Mullane is incorrect in his facts. The man did wound some people ; he apparently did not kill any one. He never took ganja, though he took liquor and opium. The Judge found that he was not under the influence of any intoxicant at the time of the offence.

Mr. Moran, an Assam Tea Planter, gives the next case (No. 69). It is instructive to note that though the case occurred on his own estate, and he was a witness at the trial, Mr. Moran's memory does not serve him well in regard to the facts. His present account of it differs most materially from that given at the time. The record is clearly against any connection between the crime and ganja, which Mr. Moran did not then mention at all. The only remaining Assam case (No. 7o) seems from the papers to have been clearly a liquor case, and in no way connected with hemp drugs.

The two Punjab cases seem both to illustrate the connection between hemp drugs and crime. The first (No. 71) has been already quoted as indicating the character of the fakirs to whom so many of these cases of violent crime are attributed. The second (No. 72) is a very interesting case. The records showing the efforts which have been made by the Punjab Government to make the Khosa tribe give up the excessive use of intoxicants well repay perusal. If these tribesmen can be persuaded to see the evil effects which have resulted from this excess and to abjure the drugs they use without turning to others, the Government will deserve congratulations on the results of a somewhat exceptional line of action.

The next case (No. 73) is given by Colonel Chrystie, a Deputy Inspector-General of Police in Madras, and is referred to by several other witnesses. A peon having been fined is said in his irritation to have taken a considerable amount of ganja, and to have then rushed out with a club. He struck a boy, and then ran along the public road until he met an old man whom he beat to death, alleging afterwards that he had killed a black pig. The connection between the crime and ganja was accepted by the courts at the time ; but doubt is cast on this case by the fact that this man was afterwards found to be subject to recurrent insanity, several violent outbreaks of which were manifestly independent of any drug. This is one of the accepted cases for 1892 in the Madras Asylum.

The next three cases (Nos. 74 to 76) were referred to by Mr. Stokes, a Madras Collector, as having been mentioned to him by a Police Inspector as ganja cases. But a perusal of the recirds shows that there is no adequate reason for connecting these murders with hemp drugs. The last Madras case (No. 77) is a strange one. A father first cruelly burned his child ; and, when the child cried, it occurred to the father as it was a feast day to offer the child to the god. He did so, killing the child and lapping up the blood. There was evidence that the man was under the influence of ganja (bhang) which he had smoked. The High Court adopted this view and sentenced him to transportation for life.

The next case (No. 78) is one in which certain Talavias organized a riot in the town of Broach, in the course of which Mr. Prescott, District Superintendent of Police, was killed. Mr. Cappel, the Collector, gives a full account of the details of this disturbance, and shows that it cannot be reasonably connected with hemp drugs.

The next two cases were mentioned by Mr. Sinclair, Collector of 'Thana. The first (No. 79) is the case of a servant who is alleged to have attempted to throttle his master's wife as she was sleeping by her husband at night. He is said to have been under the influence of ganja, and the records bear out this view. In the second case (No. So), Mr. Sinclair seems to be doubly mistaken. In the first place, the Magistrate acquitted the accused because it was not proved that he had committed the acts constituting the alleged offence, and, in the second place, the man's insanity was attributed to other causes than ganja.

The last case (No. 8i) was given by Colonel Humfrey, Inspector-General of Police, Bombay. Colonel Humfrey was engaged in the arrest of the sepoy in this case ; yet his recollection of the facts was not quite accurate, and led him to make the connection between the crime and bhang closer than it really was. He did not, however, actually attribute the crime to the drug. The judgment of the High Court is very clear, and shows that the murderous use of his rifle by this sepoy was deliberately planned, was due to revengeful feelings against the policeman, and was not due to the influence of bhang.

551. Of these twenty-three cases then, the records in not less than eighteen show that the crimes cannot be connected with hemp drugs. There is one case on which doubt is thrown by subsequent discoveries. The connection between hemp drugs and crime is only established in the remaining four. It is astonishing to find how defective and misleading are the recollections which many witnesses retain even of cases with which they have had special opportunities of being well acquainted. It is instructive to see how preconceived notions based on rumour and tradition tend to preserve the impression of certain particulars, while the impressions of far more important features of the case are completely forgotten. In some cases these preconceived notions seem to prevail to distort the incident altogether and to create a picture in the mind of the witness quite different from the recorded facts. Some of the witnesses whose memories have thus failed them are man who might have been expected to be careful and accurate. Their failure must tend to increase the distrust with which similar evidence, which there has been no opportunity of testing, must be received.

552. The Commission have now examined all the evidence before them regarding the effects attributed to hemp drags. It will be well to summarize briefly the conclusions to which they come. It has been clearly established that the occasional use of hemp in moderate doses may be beneficial ; but this use may be regarded as medicinal in character. It is rather to the popular and common use of the drugs that the Commission will now confine their attention. It is convenient to consider the effects separately as affecting the physical, mental, or moral nature. In regara to the physical effects, the Commission have come to the conclusion that the moderate use of hemp drugs is practically attended by no evil results at all. There may be exceptional cases in which, owing to idiosyncracies of constitution, the drugs in even moderate use may be injurious. There is probably nothing the use of which may not possibly be injurious in cases of exceptional intolerance. There are also many cases where in tracts with a specially malarious climate, or in circumstances of hard work and exposure, the people attribute beneficial effects to the habitual moderate use of these drugs ; and there is evidence to show that the popular impression may have some basis in fact. Speaking generally, the Commission are of opinion that the moderate use of hemp drugs appears to cause no appreciable physical injury of any kind. The excessive use does cause injury. As in the case of other intoxicants, excessive use tends to weaken the constitution and to render the consumer more susceptible to disease. In respect to t0 particular diseases which according to a • considerable number of witnesses should be associated directly with hemp drugs, it appears to be reasonably established that the excessive use of these drugs does not cause asthma ; that it may indirectly cause dysentery by weakening the constitution as above indicated ; and that it may cause bronchitis mainly through the action of the inhaled smoke on the bronchial tubes.

In respect to the alleged mental effects of the drugs, the Commission have come to the conclusion that the moderate use of hemp drugs produces no injurious effects on the mind. It may indeed be accepted that in the case of specially marked neurotic diathesis, even the moderate use may produce mental injury. For the slightest mental stimulation or excitement may have that effect in such cases. But putting aside these quite exceptional cases, the moderate use of these drugs produces no mental injury. It is otherwise with the excessive use. Excessive use indicates and intensifies mental instability. It tends to weaken the mind. It may even lead to insanity. It has been said by Dr. Blanford that " two factors only are necessary for the causation of insanity, which are complementary, heredity, and stress. Both enter into every case : the stronger the influence of one factor, the less of the other factor is requisite to produce the result. Insanity, therefore, needs for its production a certain instability of nerve tissue and the incidence of a certain disturbance." It appears that the excessive use of hemp drugs may, especially in cases where there is any weakness or hereditary predisposition, induce insanity. It has been shown that the effect of hemp drugs in this respect has hitherto been greatly exaggerated, but that they do sometimes produce insanity seems beyond question.

In regard to the moral effects of the drugs, the Commission are of opinion that their moderate use produces no moral injury whatever. There is no adequate ground for believing that it injuriously affects the character of the consumer. Excessive consumption, on the other hand, both indicates and intensifies moral weakness or depravity. Manifest excess leads directly to loss of self-respect, and thus to moral degradation. In respect to his relations with society, however, even the excessive consumer of hemp drugs is ordinarily inoffensive. His excesses may indeed bring him to degraded poverty which may lead him to dishonest practices ; and occasionally, but apparently very rarely indeed, excessive indulgence in hemp drugs may lead to vi3lent crime. But for all practical purposes it may be laid down that there is little or no connection between the use of hemp drugs and crime.

Viewing the subject generally, it may be added that the moderate use of these drugs is the rule, and that the excessive use is comparatively exceptional. The moderate use practically produces no ill effects. In all but the most exceptional cases, the injury from habitual moderate use is not appreciable. The excessive use may certainly be accepted as very injurious, though it must be admitted that in many excessive consumers the injury is not clearly marked. The injury done by the excessive use is, however, confined almost exclusively to the consumer himself ; the effect on society is rarely appreciable. It has been the most striking feature in this inquiry to find how little the effects of hemp drugs have obtruded themselves on observation. The large number of witnesses of all classes who professed never to have' seen these effects, the vague statements made by many who professed to have observed them, the very few witnesses who could so recall a case as to give any definite account of it, and the manner in which a large proportion of these cases broke down on the first attempt to examine them, are facts which combine to show most clearly how little injury society has hitherto sustained from hemp drugs.