Approaching Tranquility

The director of Alliance Francaise was arrested in Kulu-Manali with 250 grams of charas. The French embassy quietly whisked her out of the country. No news about the quarter-kilo of hash: Who finally got to smoke it? Good question, what?

Manali charas is one of the world’s finest. In Europe, some years ago, I found Morocco brown selling at 3 euros a gram, while pure Manali was 13 euros a gram.

Hash should be The Crop in Kulu-Manali. The farmers there should uproot all the apple trees and plant hash.

Himachal Pradesh can then import great apples from China, while selling them a much better smoke than the tobacco they are hugely addicted to. Deng Xiao Ping smoked 90 cigarettes a day!

In the meantime, there is a loophole in the legislation that farmers, dealers and smokers can exploit. The legislation stipulates what is a “small quantity” – and those who possess this small quantity do not face punishment.

In the case of charas the small quantity is 100 grams, while the commercial quantity is one kilogram. For ganja the small and commercial quantities are 1 and 20 kilograms respectively.

Farmers, dealers and smokers should thus package the stuff accordingly. Ganja should be passed on in bags of 999 grams, and charas in packets of 99 grams. This will keep the customer secure – and happy. The tyranny of the police will end.

As far as the dealers are concerned, they should openly stock 10 packets of charas, of 99 grams each, or 20 bags of ganja, of 999 grams each. The dealers will then not fall foul of the legislation on “commercial quantities.”

Win-Win.

In India today, hash and ganja are sold in miniscule quantities. The typical quantity is a "tola" - about 10 grams. A homeopathic dose.

I was told that in Jamaica, dealers offer tourists ganja in HUGE BAGS. We need HUGE BAGS in India too.

So that is my Antidote of the Day: bags of 99 grams of charas and 999 grams of ganja, sold openly, smoked openly, carried openly – and no police.

Tranquility…