Taking into hands an empty plastic bottle of 250 ml, Sugandh (name changed) makes a hole just enough to insert a straw stuffed with ganja. He lights the outside end of the straw with a matchstick. As smoke emanating from the ganja burning inside the straw fill the bottle, he opens the bottle’s cap, puts it into his mouth and deeply inhales it.
Policemen, in front of whom Sugandh was demonstrating how he uses ganja after being detained in a village from northern Telangana, were taken aback at the ‘innovative’ way of his ganja consumption. “Stuffing ganja in a cigarette and smoking is old fashioned ... there are many new ways we enjoy it these days,” he told the police.
This youngster’s style of taking ganja is just a case in point. The banned narcotic’s clandestine but massive use have left police officials shaken. Five to six years ago, instances of seizure or use of ganja were rare. Now, every other week, startling incidents of the banned substance crop up in one or the other part of the State.
