Smugglers take to more lucrative liquid ganja

Vishakhapatanam: Hashish oil (liquid ganja) seems to have become the fresh choice of drug smugglers and peddlers after the AP State Special Enforcement Bureau (APSEB) tightened its drive to contain smuggling of dry ganja and ganja cultivation in Visakhapatnam.

Unlike dry ganja, hashish oil is easy to conceal and transport, and it is more lucrative. A small sachet costs a minimum of Rs 50,000 and goes up to Rs 1 lakh depending on the demand of the consumers, who are mostly students and employees of corporate companies.

APSEB joint director for the Visakhapatnam region Satish Kumar said that the smugglers have been focussing on liquid ganja even as their team was destroying ganja crops in Vizag agency.

“The liquid ganja is easy to smuggle and its value is also high. We are focussed on liquid ganja as part of our enforcement drive, Parivartana,” Satish Kumar told Deccan Chronicle.

In the latest case, the SEB sleuths seized 18 kgs of liquid ganja worth Rs 50 lakh at Chintapalli in Visakhapatnam. The smuggler escaped from the scene, said SEB Chintapalli circle inspector Jagannadha Raju, whose team kept a watch at Annavaram panchayat near Lothugedda Bridge in the agency.

According to SEB sources, a team of professionals, including from Tamil Nadu and Kerala, is engaged in the production of liquid ganja at Vizag agency’s Maoist affected areas like G.Madugula, which is located in the Andhra Odisha Border.
Since the smugglers are trying a variety of methods to evade the police dragnet, SEB sleuths are leaving no stone unturned to nab the gang behind the ganja cultivation and smuggling in the agency.

A neurosurgeon from Andhra Medical College, here, said that liquid ganja is more powerful than dry ganja and its THC (tetra-hydro-cannabinol) value is also higher. Its side effects include loss of memory. It works more on the brain. Consumers use the hashish oil either for smoking or sniffing as it can be rubbed onto the skin to sniff.