Drug menace

Shimla, Sept. 26: Militants’ AK-47s maybe giving sleepless nights to security forces in Kashmir, but they are no less a headache for Himachal Pradesh police.

To compound their problems, these AK-47s virtually grow on trees and can be hidden inside fountain pens or tablets. The silver lining is: they are all smoke and no fire.

Himachal’s version of “AK-47” is a variety of cannabis grown across Kullu valley along with several other strains, such as the Russian Mist, Space Balls and Malana Cream. Boasting a very high content of tetra hydra cannaboline ? an intoxicant chemical ? these “brands” are among the most popular in the international charas market.

The trade has actually boosted tourism in the Himalayan state.

“More than 35,000 foreigners visit the valley every year; and half of them are not really tourists. They are cannabis-lovers who stay at the cheaper guesthouses in remote villages for months together, enjoying these premium brands with impunity,” a top police officer said.

“A network of Indian and foreign drug traffickers is active in the valley and cannabis is being grown in about 15,000 hectares,” Anand Pratap Singh, Kullu superintendent of police, said.

The gangs come up with ever newer ways of smuggling charas. Earlier, the stuff used to be hidden in fountain pens and medicine bottles. Now it is put into small capsules with hard coatings that the smugglers swallow and later vomit out.

The business pays well: 1 kg of Malana Cream or AK-47 charas can be worth Rs 12.50 lakh.

“More than three dozen varieties of charas are produced in the valley today. Smugglers recently exhibited 39 varieties of Kullu charas in Holland, with Malana Cream fetching the highest price,” the source said.

Growing hemp has always been popular in Kullu, for its fibre is used to make ropes and weave the traditional shoes. The seeds are used as medicine. The charas trade picked up in the early ’80s when the far-flung villages of Kullu and other districts were opened to foreign tourists.

The charas is not only smoked but also eaten as a cake. A Malana Cream cake is readily available in Kasol, Vashisth, Tirthan and Banjar around Manali, some 265 km from here. They come in many flavours and cost $2 each.

Every July and September, the police and the Narcotics Control Bureau launch an operation against the trade.

“The cannabis crop on 2,420 bighas, which could have produced around 7,260 kg of charas, was destroyed last year. This year we’ve fixed a target to destroy 15,000 bighas of the plant,” superintendent Singh said.

“We’ve imported six advanced ‘brush cutters’ from Japan. We’re also considering the use of chemicals and remote-sensing.”

In the past two years, 273 people have been booked in Kullu and 545 kg of charas seized from them.