MADRAS MEMORANDUM.

Introductory Remarks.--In September 1871 the attention of His Excellency the Governor-General in Council was drawn to the deleterious effects alleged to be produced by the abuse of ganja and other preparations of the hemp plant, and the opinions of the authorities were invited as to the expediency of restricting the use of the drugs or of even suppressing the cultivation of the plant if such a course should be found necessary. On consideration of the opinions collected, local Governments were directed to discourage, if possible, the consumption of the drugs prepared from the plant by placing restrictions on its cultivation and on the preparation and retail of the drugs. The Madras Government was of opinion that the best way of meeting the wishes of the Government of India would be to pass a law prohibiting the retail sale without license of the drugs, as the Madras Abkari Acts then in force contained no provisions for regulating the traffic in them.

A Bill was accordingly introduced into the local Legislative Council in 1875, but nothing appears to have been done in the matter until the passing of Act I of 1886, in which the provisions and powers in the case of liquor were also made applicable to intoxicating drugs other than opium which had specially been provided for in India Act I of 1878.

2. Even after Act I of 1886 became law, the provisions therein relative to hemp-drug's were not brought into operation, probably because the use of such drugs was then considered not to be particularly prevalent. With a view, however, to bring the traffic under some sort of control,. the Commissioner of Salt and Abkari Revenue issued in August 1886 a circular to all Collectors calling for information as to the extent and nature of the trade in these drugs. Amongst other matters inquiry was directed to the following points :—

(a) the extent of cultivation of the hemp plant and the purposes' for which it was grown ;

(b) the several descriptions of drugs manufactured therefrom and the processes of such manufacture;

(c) the import, export, and transport of such drugs; and

(d) the extent of the total consumption of the different preparations from the hemp plant.

3: The general result of the investigation went to show that throughout the greater part of the presidency the traffic in hemp drugs was unimportant, except perhaps in the Northern Circars, where alone they appeared to be used somewhat extensively, the chief consumers of the drug in the presidency being fakirs, byragis, and sojourners from Northern India. The plant was reported to be principally grown in backyards for domestic consumption and not for sale. The areas in which the plant was cultivated on any considerable scale were the Kistna district and the Javadi hills of North Arcot. In South Arcot and Tinnevelly the plant was reared solely for its fibre. Export and import of the drug as defined in the Abeari Act was practically nil, the cases met with being only those of transport between districts. As it was deemed necessary to regulate the traffic in a drug which was admittedly baneful to health, the Board, as a preliminary step, made certain proposals calculated to procure accurate information as to the extent of the trade with the least possible interference with it. They were briefly as follows :—

(a) to prohibit cultivation except under. license to be granted free ;

(b) to restrict possession by persons other than licensed wholesale and retail dealers ;

(c) to grant free licenses to wholesale dealers ;

(d) to put up to auction licenses for retail sale; and

(e) to impose a pass duty.

4. In view, however, of the indefinite and uncertain information obtained regarding the extent of the traffic in the drug and the limited nature of the consumption, the Government came to the conclusion that in most parts of the Presidency no restriction was called for, but remarked that it was prepared to extend the provisions of the Abkaxi Act relating to intoxicating drugs to limited areas on adequate cause being shown.

5. In reporting on certain alterations necessary in the pamphlet on hemp by Dr. Watt referred to the Board for remarks, the opportunity was taken to suggest to Government that the licensing of shops for the sale of ganja on fixed annual fees of Rs. 50 in Madras and Rs. 25 elsewhere might greatly facilitate the collection of accurate information as to the consumpfion of, and traffic in, the drugs. The recommendation was approved, the license fees being fixed at Rs. 30 and Rs. 15 in Madras and the mofussil respectively, but the Board's subsequent suggestion to fix 40 toles as the maximum quantity of the drug that might be possessed without license was negatived by Government, aslhe extension of the provisions of the Act, contemplated and sanctioned, referred only to the sale and not to the posse‘sion aud transport of the drug.

6. On a representation from the Collector of North Arcot of the difficulty experienced in choosing among a number of rival applicants, and of the large profits earned by shopkeepers, which, without any risk being incurred of pushing the sale of intoxicating drugs, might be diverted to the public exchequer, the remedial measure of enhancing the license fees from Rs. 30 and 15 to Rs. 45 and 30 in Madrasand the mofussil respectively was proposed by the Board and approved by Government to take effect from ist April 1890.

7. Experience' however, showed that the demand for these drugs was considerably larger than was suspected and that the competition in certain districts fur the privilege of veed was, in spite of the enhanced license fees, very keen, in consequence of which the difficulty of deciding between the claims of rival applicants was seriously felt. The Board thereupon considered that the already increased rate of license fees might be further enhanced or that the auction sale system might be adopted for ascertaining the true value of shops. As the balance of opinion among Collectors was against the continuance of the fixed license fee system as being entirely inadequate and unsuited to the object in view and as sale by ziuction was advo. cated by most of them, the Board recommended the latter proposal and suggested that a minimum retail selling price of 4 pies per tola of ganja might be prescribed as a check agair.st licensees making undue profitS by reduction of prices and stimulation of sales. Both these proposals were sanctioned by Government and effect was given to them from ist April 1891.

8. The sale of intoxicating drugs prepared from the hemp plant having thus been placed on a satisfactory footing, the next question that engaged the Board's attention was whether, having regard to the reported increase in consumption of ganja, it would not be justifiable to impose restrictions also on the transport and possession of the drum. Closely connected with this is the question of controlling the cultivation of the hemp pant. The majority of the Collectors were for prescribing the limit of 10 or 15 toles of ganja for possession without lieense, but the Board, agreeing with small minority that restrictions on the cultivation of the plant should precede those on possession, foresaw that any attempt at controlling hemp cultivation would involve the taking out of a license by every person who had a plant or two in his garden. The large undesirable increase to the existing number of shops which would have had to be sanctioned to meet the legitimate demands of consumers under the altered circumstances, as also the considerable additions which would . have had to be made to . the preventive force were also in the Board's opinion considerations which far outweighed any advantages which the proposed measure was expected to effect. The Board, therefore, came to the conclusion that sueh a regulation was neither desirable nor necessary, and the question of extending the provision of the Abkari Act to the cultivation of the plant and possession and transport of drugs prepared therefrom wa,s accordingly deferred.

' The above is a résumé of the correspondence that has passed between the 'Board of Revenue and the Madras Government on the subject of ganja administratioe in the Presidency.

9. Administration.—The ganja administration of the Presidency is imder the direct control of the Collectors of Land RevEnue, subject to the central controlling authority of the Commissioner of Salt and Abkari Revenue, who is a member of the local Board of &- venue. In addition to Collectors, the Commissioner is assisted in carry iug out the provisions of the law relating to ganja by the officers of the Abkari Department.

The administration is regulated by the Madras Abkari Act and the rules and notifications framed thereunder. The portion of the Act relating to the sale of intoxicating drugs was extended to the whole of the Madras Presidency except the scheduled districts on Ist April 1889 and subsequently to 122 Agency villages in Ganjam, 4 in Vizagapatam, and 24 in Godavari. There are no diverse systems of administration in the several districts of the presidency. In those portions of the Agency tracts to which the provisions of the Madras Abkari Act have not been extended, no revenue is raised on hemp-drugs, and the cultivation of the plant and traffic in the drugs are left uncontrolled.

10. The cultivation of the hemp plant (Cannabis saliva or Indica).—The plant is cultivated in most districts only in back yards of houses and gardens for domestic use. In the following districts it is reported to be more extensively grown. In Ganjám, though the plant is not cultivated extensively in the district proper, the Khonds of the malarious tracts of the Goomsur maliahs cultivate it on a large scale for smoking and for barter in the low country in exchange for other commodities. The estimated outturn of ganja in the district in 1889-90 was about 1,720 maunds. In Kistna it is cultivated chiefly in the Bapatla and Bezwada taluks, the total area under hemp being about 342 acres with a yield of about 8,450 maunds in 1889. In North Arcot district the cultivation of the plant, which was very considerable in 1887-100 acres on the Javadi hills—diminished to about 55 acres with a yield of 1,620 maunds of gauja in 1889. In the Tinnevelly district the Cannabis satire is grown in a few gardens, but apparently to no appreciable extent, the hemp plant largely cultivated in the district beitig Crotalaria juncea, noted for its fibre. In Cuddapah and South Arcot the Cannabis sativa is cultivated only to a slight extent, in the latter principally for fibre, the area uuder cultivation being 5 and 30 acres respectively.

Nothing is known of the extent to which wild hemp is found in the presidency, nor of its use for preparation of bhang or other narcotics.

The average yield of ganja from the best description of plant is 4i visses or 221 seers of V. tolas. The ordinary plant is not, however, so prolific as this, and the average yield may be let down at Z visses or 10 seers of 24 tolas.

As remarked in paragraph 88upra, the cultivation of the hemp plant is unrestricted throughout the presidency.

11. Intoxicating drugs prepared from the hemp pant..--.The drugs usually manufactured in this presidency from the plant are of three main descriptions—

(1) Ganja.

(2) Bhang.

(3) Majum.

Other preparations from the hemp plant, such as poornadhi laghium, ramarasam bhoja, sal*, mathai, sakkarai, billai, and alwah are more or less local synonyms of one or other of the.above 3 preparations.

Ganja, bhang, and majum are prepared in various ways, the chief only of which will be ;noticed below :—

Ganja is a preparation of the dried flowers of the female hemp plant, usually reduced to powder in the palm of the hand by being rubbed with the thumb of the other hand. It is generally mixed with tobacco and smoked in a " chilam" or " hooka."

Bhang is prepared from the dried leaves of the male hemp plant and is usually taken as a beverage after being ground into a paste and then dissolved in some liquid, milk or water, with spices, pepper, ginger, &c.

Majum is a confection made of ganja, boiled in milk and. then mixed with ghee and sugar.

Charas, the resinous exudation from the stems, leaves, and flowers, is used but very rarely in this presidency.

12. Other preparations of intoxicating drugs.—In Ganjam and Bellary, a drink called stathath is prepared by mixing hemp flowers with opium. Mathana-klmaswaram and poonath are medicinal preparations made from the leaves of the plant rendered palatable by the admixture of sugar, spices, ghee, milk, Ste. The former is reported to be in use in Ganjam and the latter in Tinnevelly.

The manufacture of intoxicating drugs is not forbidden in any part of the presidency, nor is it subject to any rules or restrictions.

13. Import, export, and transport,—Enquiries made since 1586 tend to show that there is very little or no export or import as defined in the Madras Abkari Act, but merely transport between districts. The only provinces or States from which intoxicating drugs are imported are Hyderabad, Bastar, and Banganapalle ; exports are made to Ceylon, Mysore, Hydera'had, and Cochin territory. Transport between districts within the presidency is not uncommon. The above information cannot, in the absence of trustworthy statistics, be regarded as reliable. No pass duty is levied on import, export, or transport of these drums, and without some such check there is no means of obtaining reliable information about the traffic in the drugs. There is no recognized class of importers.

14. Vague complaints of smuggling from the Ganjam district to the adjoining district of Pooree, as also from the feudatory States of the Madras Presidency into the Central Provinces, were received from the Commissioner of Excise, Orissa, and the Chief Commissioner, Central Provinces, respectively. But on inquiry it was found that the smuggling complained of by the Orissa authorities was not from this presidency. As regards the alleged smuggling from the feudatory States its very existence was not seriously asserted in the complaint and special action was not considered necessary, as the smuggling, if any such existed, was considered of too trifling a nature to render any preventive measures with the consequent expense justifiable.

15. Sale.—The sale of intoxicating drums is, as already pointed out in the introductory remarks, subject to restrictions and placed under control, only those who are licensed vendors being allowed to carry on sales. An exception is, however, made in case of cultivators who are allowed to sell their produce wholesale to persons to whom the privilege of vend has been granted (section 15 of Act I of 1886). Prior to Ist April 1891 and subsequent to 1889 licenses for sale were issued on payment of fixed fees, but this system hittring been found to entail considerable difficulty and loss of time on Collectors in the choice of applicants and to be unduly advantageous to licensees, it was superseded by the present system of auction sales with the former license fees* as upset prices. In Madras town shopkeepers have also to take out a license on payment of Re. 1 from the Commissioner of Police under Act III of 1888 merely with a view to ensuring good conduct and orderly behaviour in the shops.

16. Exception of medicated articles.—Under section 71 of the Madras Abkari Act, the provisions of the Act do not apply to the sale inter alia of bond fide medicated articles, for medicinal purposes by medical practitioners, in which term are included native hakims. abuse of the privilege has as yet been brought to notice.

17. Shops.—Information regarding the number of shops licensed each year from 1889-90 is embodied in the accompanying statement. In fixing the number of shops the Board is chiefly guided by the demand for the drug in the presidency, no more shops being licensed than are abselutely necessary. The question of area and population is considered. only as bearing on the probable consumption. No considerations of pushing sales or raising revenue are allowed to operate in fixing the number. Tile number of shops is first determined by Collectors subject to the Board's approval slid no increase to the prescribed number can be sanctioned by them without the special orders of the Board obtained in each case.

18. The sites of shops are as far as possible kept at a distance from market places, bathing ghats, schools, hospitals, places of worship and public resort, and factories. It has also been directed that in cases of alterations in the number or sites of shops in the municipalities a list of the proposed shops with their sites should be forwarded to the Council in sufficient time to admit of its remarks being received and considered ; and though in the rural tracts the location of shops is at the discretion of Revenue officers, representations from District or Taluk. Boards or Taluk Unions would invariably be received with attention.

19. In licensing shops care is taken to see that the traffic does not drift into the hands of opium contractors and that the grant does not lead to a monopoly in favour of particular individuals. Persons belongino." to the same family were also precluded from holding interests ill intoxicating drugs within the same district. But when the fixed license-fee system was replaced by the system of auction sales, the restrictions on the grant of licenses to the members of the same family, or such as would have the effect of creating a monopoly in favour of particular individuals, were done away, free competition rendering them no longer necessary. Arrack and toddy renters are, like opium contractors, disqualified from biddinz. at auction sales.

It may here be observed that in this presidency there is no distinction between wholesale and retail shops, no limit being placed on the quantity that can be sold by licensed vendors of drugs.

20. Consumption.—In July 1889 an attempt was made to ascertain the quantity of each kind of intoxicating drug prepared from the hemp plant sold during a period of four months from Ist April 1889, but as the information called for related to a period when the rules regarding the sale of ga,nja and other intoxicating drugs were but imperfectly known to the people in general, and as it was doubted whether in the majority of shops anything like intelbgible accounts were maintained, it, was considered by the Board that no definite conclusions could be drawn from the statistics collected as to the extent of consumption in the presidency.

21. The enclosed statement shows the consumption of ganja, bhang, and other intoxicating drugs prepared from the hemp plant during 1892-93. In the existing state Of the law, which restricts sale, but not the manufacture, possession, or transport of these drugs, it is unsafe to draw definite conclusions as to consumption. Moreover, the figures given in the statement are entirely based on information furnished by shopkeepers, which is far from reliable in the absence of a definite form of account prescribed for their use. Steps have accordingly been taken in the current year for the supply of the necessary account books to licensed vendors, and Collectors have also been requested to furnish separate figures for sales under the different descriptions of drugs during 1892-93.

22. Prices—Accurate information regarding the prevalent retail prices of the different preparations from the hemp plant is not available at present, but has been called for. A minimum retail selling price of 4 pies per tola has, however, been in force since April 1891.

23. Revenue.—No direct duty is imposed on the drug. The only source of revenue is the disposal of the privilege of vend. In 1889-90 and 1890-91 it was collected in the shape of fixed fees from licensed shopkeepers, and from Ist April 1891, when the auction system was introduced, it has been realized by the auction sales of shops.

24. The accompanying statement shows the revenue derived from ganja for the last four years. The increase in 1890-91 was due to the enhancement of license fees in the year, Rs. 30 in the mofussil and Rs. 45 in Madras, against Its. 15 and Rs. 30 respectively in 1889-90. In 1891-92, the first year of the auction sale system, there was an enormous increase, brought about by reckless bids at the sales owing to ignorance of the true value of shops under the former system. The decrease in 1892-93 is but the natural reaction after the unduly high bids of the previous year.