CANNABIS 



SATIVA 



Narcotic 



THE INDIAN HEMP PLANT 



Insanity. 



Mental 

 Instability. 



Creates no 

 Craving. 



Trade and 

 Revenue. 



License. 



Stored. 



Duty. 



Criminal 

 Offence. 



" Baluchar," from the name of a village where it is supposed to have been 

 originally procured. The ganja of Upper India, such as that of Gwalior 

 and the Central Provinces, is called " Pathar." The refuse from the 

 manufacture of ganja is often sold as bhang. 



Medicinal and Chemical Properties. The action of the drug in causing 

 insanity has, by the Report of the Hemp Drugs Commission, been viewed 

 as a greatly overstated belief. The moderate use of the drug is at- 

 tended with no evil physical effects. If pure and taken in moderation 

 it has little or no tendency to originate insanity. But when mixed with 

 the poisonous substances sometimes employed it becomes most per- 

 nicious. Excessive use of hemp in any form, however, indicates and 

 intensifies mental instability. It tends to weaken the mind, and may 

 even lead to insanity. But in the year of the Hemp Drugs Commission 

 only 7 '3 per cent, of lunatics admitted to all the Asylums in India were 

 said to be those in which hemp could reasonably be regarded as having 

 been a factor of importance. \Cf. Gibbon, Med. Jurisprudence for Ind. ; 

 Walsh, in Journ. Mental Science, 1894.] Moreover, the insanity produced, 

 as a rule readily gives way to treatment, and since the drug creates no 

 craving its discontinuance is possible, and the restoration of the mental 

 faculties almost instant. So much has, however, been written on these 

 subjects that it is impossible to do more than refer the reader to some 

 of the standard works that may with advantage be consulted. 



[Pereira, Mat. Med., 1850, ii./1237-44 ; Hamilton, PL Homceop., 1852, i., 

 134-42 ; Honigberger, Thirty-five Years in the East, 1852, i., 153-7 ; ii., 248-56 ; 

 Hem Chunder Kerr, Rept. of Cult, and Trade in Ganja, 1877 ; Fluckigerand Han- 

 bury, Pharmacog., 1879, 546 ; Dunstan and Henry, Exam, of Active Principle 

 of Hemp, in Journ. Soc. Chem. Indust., 1898, xvii.. 269 ; Derivatives of Cannabinol, 

 in Yearbook of Pharmacy, 1899, 73; 1900, 133; Dutt, Mat. Med. Hind., 1900, 

 235-41 ; Pharm. Journ., 1902, Ixviii., Holmes, 342 ; Marshall, 362 ; Humphrey, 

 392; Greenish, 492; Ixix., Holmes, 129; Mahen, 131; 1903, Ixxi., 431, 548; 

 Ind. Med. Gaz., Nov. 1904, 401-15, 421.] 



Trade and Fiscal Administration. In India the cultivation of this 

 plant, where intended for the production of ganja, can alone be undertaken 

 under license ; moreover, the cultivation is periodically inspected, and 

 the yield approximately ascertained. While no restrictions are placed 

 on the sales to the trade, the produce when disposed of by the cultivator 

 is stored either in Government warehouses for the purpose, or in approved 

 godowns under double keys, one retained by the owner, the other 

 by a Government official. Removals pay the fixed duty, and are re- 

 corded in such a way as to show the relation to the cultivator's estimated 

 production and deed of sale. Both wholesale and retail traders have 

 to obtain licenses. The traffic in ganja is thus under complete control 

 through every stage. With regard to charas, a minimum duty of Rs. 80 

 per maund is levied on all imports. The drug is stored in approved ware- 

 houses and a further duty paid on removal, while inter-provincial 

 adjustments are conducted on permits to carry from one province to 

 another. Bhang, where found possible, is also taxed, but, the plant 

 being wild in many localities, no interference is made with the 

 domestic supplies of the people, the regulations having effect only on 

 actual gales and regular trade. The sale of the narcotic in any form 

 by persons not licensed to cultivate or sell these drugs, is a criminal 

 offence. 



Separate licenses have to be taken out for the traffic in each of the 

 three kinds of the drug, and the retail vendor is prohibited from supplying 



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