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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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India: Concern over Manali becoming hub of hashish trade
Jagdish Bhatt The Timesof India
Wednesday 03 Mar 2004 SHIMLA: The efforts of the government not withstanding to contain the hashish menace that has over the years burgeoned in Himachal, concern is being expressed in international circles over Manali in Kullu district becoming the hub of the clandestine hashish trade worldwide, and kingpins in the network moving in and out freely in the garb of tourists while pursuing the trade. A recent report of the USA foreign department while lauding Indian efforts to contain the menace of drugs and psychotropic substances ha also mentioned of the alleged involvement of the police officers and their taking bribes, which could be reducing the impact of the efforts the government is making. Though it mentions that south east Asia and south west Asia are the two main sources for illegal opium, but fears have also been expressed that India is slowly but surely emerging as the biggest centre in the world for manufacturing heroin for the international underground market. It says that India is about the only country which has given permission for the legal cultivation of poppy for making opium which is sold to the government and used in the manufacture of medicines. "Though the Govt of India monitors this cultivation strictly and efforts are continuing to put more riders, yet a lot of the opium finds its way to the clandestine markets", the report fears. To give credence to the fact that the country may be emerging as the biggest centre for procuring heroin, the report says that the chemical industry in the country manufactures acetic anahydride and siodofedrin, which are the two chemicals used in making heroin from opium. While it claims that the Govt of India is also monitoring the manufacture of these chemicals strictly to ensure that it is not passed on to the clandestine manufacturers of heroin in the country, fears have been expressed that large quantities may be smuggled out quietly to the heroin manufacturers to make an extra buck. Ironically, just last year, personnel of the Narcotics Control Bureau destroyed opium being clandestinely cultivated in thousands of big has of land in the Chuhar Valley of Mandi district of the state. What was an eye opener was the fact that the illegal cultivation had been going on for quite a few years and the villagers in the valley had given up growing their normal crops and taken to opium as a cash crop. Officers of the Bureau conducting the raids revealed that large tracts of forest land had also been cleared by the locals which had been cultivated and opium grown. They had also expressed surprise that various revenue officials who were supposed to go and check the cultivation on the land in the Valley, had either not done so, or failed to report the clandestine cultivation. Fears were also expressed that the opium which was extracted from the poppy plants growing in thousands of bighas of land in the Chuhar valley, must be finding its way to either the opium addicts in the adjoining states of Punjab and Haryana or to the clandestine manufacturers of opium. Incidentally, leaders of both the Congress and the BJP in the state have been clamouring that permission be given for cultivation of poppy in various parts of the state where the climate and enviornment is conducive for its growth, to serve as a cash crop for the locals. In fact, in the recently concluded session of the Himachal Vidhan Sabha, parliamentary affairs minister Kaul Singh was to move a government resolution, recommending to the centre, that immediate sanction be given for the cultivation of poppy and cannabis under government control, to strengthen the economy of the farmers in areas conducive to their growth. However, because of lack of time, Kaul Singh withdrew the government resolution. With Manali already having become the nuclear of the clandestine hashish trade world wide, as the produce from here is not only considered about the best in the world, but fetches a price of its weight in gold, but also because it has almost become a cottage industry in the Kullu Valley , and now opium taking roots in the Chuhar Valley of Mandi district, international fears of India became a hub of the clandestine trade are not unfounded.
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